Cannot book a train from Venice to Cinque Terre

You could try using the Trenitalia app or just wait a few days and try later
Plenty of time

Thanks, Christine. The app also would not let me get to the payment screen. I'll wait a week or two and then try again.

Have you tried booking to La Spezia instead? I just tried October 9th on the web and the app and I got a bunch of options and got as far as the "Pay Now" last step before actually having to pay. Going as far as La Spezia on the train and time you want and then switching to local train to get to Riomaggiore may be the best plan anyway. If the train you book does go onto Riomaggiore you can always add that ticket from the app as well anytime before the scheduled station time.

It does seem to be offering me the option of Riomaggiore as well so the point may be moot now. Be advised that this trip will take 7=8+ hours door to door.

Have a great trip,
=Tod

If you run into the same problem on 3 different sites maybe it's your credit card? Try to call your bank and tell them you're going to make some purchases on foreign sites.

Our recent trip on that route was slightly under 6 hours. You should be able to find a schedule that is less than the 7-8 hours previously mentioned.

The Original question is time stamped 03:25 in Italy, which is the sort of time an Italian company might do system maintenance. So what time was the failed booking attempt....?

If you do manage to buy tickets for an Italain regional train online make sure you understand the new rules for using them,

I seem to remember that you should try to pay on Trenitalia during Italy's daylight hours. I could be wrong but try at a different time.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. Maybe I will try booking the route in individual segments (buying 3 separate tickets), instead of just entering Venice to Riomaggiore into the search. Trenitalia did give me the journey from beginning to end, switching trains in Florence and then again in LaSpezia to get to my final destination of Riomaggiore, so it does seem possible to book the entire route in one transaction/purchase for the 3 leg journey. I have tried to make this booking several times over the past 2- 3 weeks, so I don't believe that it's an issue of the site being down at a particular time of day. I've also encountered the issue on Omio and Italo, not only on Trenitalia's site and app. It's also not a credit card issue, as I can never get that far into the process. Before I can get to the payment screen, I get a message saying "sorry, there's a problem", and to please try again later. I've even been able to select seats on the Frecciarossa train (1st leg) from Venice to Florence. (there is no seat selection option for the regional trains from Florence to La Spezia nor from La Spezia to Riomaggiore). I went to my local library yesterday to use their computers, thinking that it was my Mac computer at home, but got the same result. I have the Trenitalia app on my phone & it also won't allow me to finish the purchase and enter my cc info. I get to the final part of the process after selecting the class and the fare and the seats, and when I click to proceed with payment, that's when I get the "sorry, try again later", message. I've even tried switching servers from Safari to Chrome, but same result. I wonder if it's simply too far in advance to buy this ticket routing, but if it is, it would be nice if the website stated that this is the problem. And if it is the reason, why does their online calendar show availability far beyond my October dates?

October is ages away. It is possible that there is a technical issue, that so far nobody has reported because you are the very first to try to book this route for October.

Just wait till August, and try then.

Only the fast or InterCity train prices will rise over time and really only the fast train tickets are discounted enough to worry about. All the regionale trains are the same price all the time so there's no reason to book them ahead of time.

For example on October 9th for Venice to La Spezia on the fast train and then InterCity the Venice to Florence side can be booked for 28.90e but base (full) fare is 72.00e but for the InterCity the "discount" fare is 24.90e while the base is 30.00e. So the savings on the fast train can be significant while the InterCity is only worth booking ahead because it has assigned seats and can sell out while the regionale can not.

When you look at the prices on the Trenitalia site you can see the schedule of classes and prices that will slowly reduce to the base or full fare as the date draws closer. If there is only a single listing for 2nd class that is a ticket price that will never change. My wife and I refer to this as "Get your butt on the train" class.

If it works for you there is an incredibly fast 4:54 time with one chance leaving Venice with one change in Florence. It seems to be running every hour at :26 past the hour. Leaving at 9:26 out of Venice will get you into La Spezia at 2:20. This is real improvement in service along this line.

If these are the reflection of the work Trenitalia has been doing I will need to revise my usual advice to expect 7-8 hours door to door because the logistics on both end of Venice and CT can be difficult. Of course, if you assume 8:30 to the vaporetto to get to the train station by 9:15 and 2:45 or so to your hotel that's still 6-6.5 hours door to door, but at least you'll get some time in CT before dark.

Good luck, if you can commit to a time out of Venice I'd book the fast part of the train while it's cheapest and deal with the regionale parts later.

=Tod

I put October 9 on trenitalia.com and I could get one ticket from Venice to Florence and one from La Spezia to Riomaggiore. But not from Florence to La Spezia, I got the same "sorry, try again later" message.

There are no works planned on that line in October, either it's a glitch or Trenitalia is preparing a bad surprise.

I've even been able to select seats on the Frecciarossa train (1st leg) from Venice to Florence.

Try not to select a seat, maybe the glitch is there. You are travelling under a single PNR, so it's a waste of money anyway.

there is no seat selection option for the regional trains

You can't select seats on Regionale trains because there is no reserved seating on such trains. Therefore they can't sell out and you could get those tickets while on the Venice-Florence train, connecting to the complimentary wifi

Another route would go from Venice to Milan ,than from Milan to Monterosso and finally from Monterosso to Riomaggiore. It takes more than the route via Florence, so no site should show it. You have to make 2 separate purchases: from Venice to Milan and then from Milan to Riomaggiore. The advantage of this option is that you'd take only one Regionale train, from Monterosso to Riomaggiore.

Only the fast or InterCity train prices will rise over time

Just to clarify this- the prices do not rise over time. The Base Rate you see now will be same Base Rate on day of travel.
The discounted ticket offerings can and do sell out.

If you are sure of your travel date/time you can save some money by purchasing the fast train ticket in advance but all discounted tickets come with some restrictions- be sure to read the fine print.

One cannot book a train ticket now for train travel in October in Italy. PERIOD.

One cannot book a train ticket now for train travel in October in
Italy. PERIOD.

Could you explain what you mean by this?
Are you saying that one can never book a train ticket in Italy just 2 months or so in advance? That is simply not true.
It appears there is some sort of glitch going on right now but normally you most certainly would be able to book train tix for October at this time.

I did a search a few minutes ago on the Trenitallia website for departures from Venezia S. Lucia to Riomaggiore for 9 Oct. and many solutions were listed. One of the shortest and easiest trips was a departure at 09:26, arriving Riomaggiore at 14:56 (time 5H:30M, 2 changes at Firenze SMN and La Spezia Migliarina, first train is Frecciarossa 9411, other two are Regionale). Price listed was €54.20 but there were a range of other prices listed in a drip down menu.

I hope you're able to get the same result with the website.

The website does show results, but when you try to book you get an error message.

I think it is just a technical glitch, and it will be sorted out. But then, October is far away. I am going to Italy too in October, and I am not in a hurry to buy tickets.

One cannot book a train ticket now for train travel in October in Italy. PERIOD.

This sentence is totally wrong and I don't get why would moderators leave a misleading message.

I've recently bought a Milan-Rome-Milan no-stop train ticket for travel in late October, like thousands who are forced take that specific morning train every week because of business meetings.

Thanks Ken from Vernon, I did get the same results on Trenitalia's site (lots of options actually), for a 5 1/2 hour journey from Venice S. Lucia to Riomaggiore (3 train legs), and was able to find convenient times for us to depart Venice in the am and arrive in Riomaggiore around 4pm, however, still (last night) when trying to "check-out" and pay for the tickets, I get a "there is a problem, please try again later," message, so am unable to complete the booking. I'm going to take the advice that someone else (?) put forward and just try to book the high speed train (Frecciarossa) from Venice to Florence for now, and wait to book the regional trains from Florence to LaSpezia and then from there to Riomaggiore at a later time. It may be too early to book the regional trains for October.

It is NOT too early to book any tickets-fast or regional
Typically tickets can be booked at least 6 months in advance

The post above is wrong (I have reported it for removal)

Apparently this is just a glitch that will soon be resolved

I can't explain the trouble you're having on that particular route, but it definitely is not too early to book tickets for train travel in October. I bought our train tickets last week for our travel in November.

I know it's frowned upon on this site, but I use Trainline to book tickets. Yes, there is a small fee. But I find their app very easy to use and it automatically adds the tickets to my Apple wallet. Unlike the Italian sites, you can search using either the Italian or English place names (Venice vs Venezia) and it aggregates the Frecia high speed trains, Italo, and local trains all in one place.

Maybe give Trainline a try to see if it works there?

The only other thing I can think of is whether you have had to set up an account to book the tickets? On our last trip, I was trying to buy tickets for an event and I kept getting error messages. Turned out that venue needed to text me to validate the account I set up, but was unable to send a text to a US phone number.

I think this topic has probably already grown beyond helpful with the number of posts (including mine) but I just wanted to say I remember having the same issue last December booking in trains in March of this year. After posting here and getting much of the same advice I simply purchased the fast train portions to lock in the early discount pricing and made a note on the timing of the regionale trains that completed each leg of the trip when needed. I never figured out why I couldn't buy the fast+regionale ticket combos but it didn't really matter to me after I bought the cheaper reserved seat tickets.

While I was in Italy I checked for the regionale trains suggested by the site from the app and they all seemed to match the original itineraries so it all worked out as planned. Never figured out the issue but I got my discount pricing and all my local connections worked exactly as planned.

My last contribution to this thread, have a great trip,
=Tod

it aggregates the Frecia high speed trains, Italo, and local trains all in one place.

Nice, but keep in mind that when you purchase on a reseller's site a connection between competing companies that connection is not-protected.