Having trouble booking train tickets on Trenitalia - HELP!

Update: in Google searching, I found that Trenitalia has just decided as of late 2013 to not allow international booking of regional trains online. What are the chances of our regional train selling out if we only buy our big city-to-city train tickets online?

The regional train we need is from Florence to La Spezia, by the way. I imagine this could be a popular route in May, when we are going.

Any thoughts? Should we just try to book by phone?

Thanks!

Susan

I do know that if you have the American Express Platinum Card that you can make all train reservations through them. They have a social department that assist you and mails you the tickets. I am not sure the specifics on the trouble you are having. I would recommend calling them directly. Also note, when traveling business class you must also purchase a seat for the specific train you want to take on location. Therefore, I found Business/First class is not really the way to go on the high speed trains. All high speed trains are updated and new. Wish you luck!

I am definitely not the best train person on this website but you sound (read?) very stressed and I wanted to alleviate your fears. This is a common question on the website and the general consensus is that you can buy tickets the same day at the train station. In this situation. There are so many trains every day. If you arrive at the station and find the train leaving in a half hour is sold out, you can be certain there will be one leaving within an hour or so, especially between the major cities. If you purchase beforehand, you are locked into leaving at a certain time. If you really want to get tickets before you leave, people have used the Rail Italia website. And pay attention to travel time- some trains make a lot more stops and take more time. Good luck!

Kristen

Doh! Italia Rail. Not rail italia.

Haha, Kristen, you are right, I am a bit stressed. Sorry about that.

The thing that has me concerned is that, for the city-to-city train ticket (Venice to Florence) that we actually CAN buy online, Trenitalia says that economy and super-economy tickets are already sold out, even though we are not traveling for more than two months from now! So that makes me think that demand is high for the time when we are going.

And we very much want to make a specific regional connection, as the trip from Venice to CT is a very long one as it is, and we don't want to be whiling away the hours at the Florence train station.

Thanks again, everyone, for all the help/insights. And apologies for my mania! :)

Susan

Don't apologize! I get myself worked up when I plan trips too. Yes, the economy and supereconomy tickets sell out first- price is the big advantage of booking early I forgot to mention. But there will still be normal fare tickets for most trains the day of. You really should be able to book through the Italia Rail website. Have you checked there yet? And for more savings, I don't think it is worth it to spend more for a first class ticket.

Susan,
Go ahead and book your high speed tickets at whatever discount you can get. The Regionale trains never sell out. You might not get a seat, but you will get on the train. Just buy those segments in Italy.

Cool, thanks so much, Kristen. I went ahead and booked all our "big city" trains via Trenitalia, and will just have to wait on the regional trains. I'm now hearing word (via Google) that online reservations for these trains may still be possible, but only within 7 days of your travel date. So I'll be waiting a while to find out if this is true. If not, I'll cross my fingers and hope the regional train we want from Florence to CT is available day of. :)

Ah, Laurel, we must have been typing at the same time. OK, great, that is so good to hear! Looks like we should be OK then.

Thanks so much!

Ciao,
Susan

I just purchased tickets on trenitalia for fast trains. The first time it was stressful and go timed out. The second it was easier and when you make your selections of departure times you scroll down a little and click on seat selection or automatic selection if you prefer (for fast trains needing reservation). then it will take you to next page where you have to fill out your name and contact info below that you have to choose where you are registered or non registered (second selection) It's in italian I chose "non" and then new box opens up where you fill in your name, email and contact#
then fill credit card info and continue and it will go through without needing to register. Hope this helps