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Buying train tickets on Italo

Hello,

We would like to buy tickets on Italo train from Rome to Florence in September

  1. How far in advance should we purchase the Club Executive or Prima sections?

  2. When on the website, it shows two different prices for club executive, club executive and salatto. Clarification would be great. I have heard the salatto is the closed section where there are four seats and you have to purchase four seats. When I clicked on the salatto seats for two it only added the two seats to the cart that I would pay for. I noticed every other seat in that club executive section is unavailable.
    Would we have the entire four seats to ourselves? Do those seats recline?
    Are they doing social distancing for now and possibly change the seating as it gets closer?

It would be very helpful for any information. This is our time using Italo.
thank you

Posted by
32876 posts

Do those seats recline?

Even the second class seats (leather throughout) recline.

Posted by
3812 posts

How far in advance should we purchase the Club Executive or Prima sections?

It depends on your pockets. Neither train company sells discounted tickets on the day of travel, so if you got tickets at the last minute you'd have to pay the extortionate walk-up fare; it's called Flex on italotreno.it and Base on trenitalia.com

Those "sections" are universally seen as a waste of money, especially on such short trips, so they never sell out; more info here: https://www.italotreno.it/en/the-train/travel-ambiences

Clarification would be great.

Click the small " i " next to the price. If two passengers book a Salotto (note spelling) in a single purchase, the site calculates the price per passenger: € 67 on September 30. If you travelled alone on the same day, the whole Salotto would cost you € 115. It's a 4 seats compartment: Make a search for 5 passengers and the Salotto option won't be displayed.

Posted by
10 posts

I really appreciate all the information. It helps.

If our trip gets cancelled due to lockdown again, is it easy to get a refund on the flex option? I understand they keep 20%. Is the 80% amount easy to get back?

Thank you again for all the replies.

Posted by
3812 posts

Why would you pay for the Flex fare in advance? Get it at the counter/on the app before getting on like anyone else. It's called walk-up fare for a reason.

Posted by
15843 posts

travelbuff89, a fast train from Rome to Florence only takes 90 minutes. There is, IMHO, no need to pay the premium price for a Prima or Club Exec. Italo seat when an Economy or Low-cost seat in their "Smart" price tier would be perfectly comfortable and safe. While we've not yet traveled Italo, we have traveled similar 2nd class seats on Trenitalia and been MUCH more comfortable than on a coach seat in the planes going over!

IMHO, don't overthink it!