Help with Trenitalia site

"in Venice it will list MESTRE and VE S.L. (Venezia Santa Lucia)" These are 2 different stations, Santa Lucia is the main Venice station and Mestre is actually across the lagoon on the mainland, not really in Venice. Many of the larger places have more than one train station.

About 99% of people with US credit cards are not able to purchase tickets online at Trenitalia, it rejects their US credit cards. Been this way for several years now. Frustrating, but thought I'd give you the heads up now in case you, too, are one of the 99% who are unable to buy tickets online.

Frank, I don't have the answers to all your questions, but a few comments.... Kent provided excellent information on the Mestre and Santa Lucia questions. First of all, there's really no need to pre-purchase tickets at print them out at home. As Kent mentioned, you likely won't be able to do that anyway, as the Trenitalia site rejects virtually all U.S.-based credit cards. It's VERY easy to buy tickets in Italy either from staffed ticket windows or automated machines, so pre-purchase is not necessary. Buying tickets at the time makes it easier to adjust the departure times for the circumstances (ie: take an earlier or later train, as you mentioned). Regarding your last question, you SHOULD be able to buy a ticket for one train, but take an earlier train. Using the example that you gave for a trip from Varenna-Esino to Milano, if you buy tickets at a ticket machine these typically provide a DATE RANGE, rather than a specific time. I know that as I'm looking at the tickets I bought for the same route on a trip last year. The ticket states "Utilizzabile dal 17/06/09 al 16/08/09" but doesn't list any times. It's REALLY UNFORTUNATE that this web site doesn't have any provision for photos or scans, as I could show you exactly what it looks like. I've been thinking of adding a "European Travel Information" section to my Blog, and I may do that in the near future, as that would allow me to provide more detailed information. One unusual point regarding the fares was that I paid €5.10 from Milan to Varenna and €7.65 from Varenna to Milan for a trip on the same day. Both tickets indicated a travel distance of 72 kM - go figure? Happy travels!

When the origination location is listed in red, it means that the train stops there. The black listing is where the train run orginates. I don't know why they do this. But the runs out of Venice have a lot of them. Many runs out of Genoa do as well. As Kent says above, the main station on the main islands is Venezia Santa Lucia. The front of the station is actually on the Grand Canal. Venezia Mestre is on the mainland. It's an 11-minute train ride between them. Also explained above is the fact that Trenitalia rejects U.S. credit cards so you can't buy online. Even if you could, you wouldn't be able to buy Regionale tickets unless you were within 2-3 days of the travel date. Not to worry. Regionale tickets are open tickets. No date of travel, no train number and no seat reservation. What is on the ticket is the purchase date, the origination location, the destination and the train class (1st or 2nd). The open ticket is good for 60 days on any Regionale train making the run shown on the ticket. Once you validate the ticket (which you MUST), it's good for 6 hours. Yes you can jump on an earlier or later Regionale train. Travelers often buy the tickets from Florence to the CT and hop off at Pisa for a quick look at the leaning tower. They get back on to the next Regionale going to their destination. Don't try this with the high-speeds however. Completely different rules.

Thanks everyone for the replies. I was aware of the differrent stations at each of the cities, including the two in Venice. I just wasn't sure why sometimes two were listed, one in red and the other in black for one route. Also, I was not planning to buy the reginal tickets, just the intercity. However I have read that the ticket machine in Varenna is usually broken so I wanted to pre-purchase the return ticket while in Milan. I was also planning to pre-purchase the intercity tickets because they are currently having a 30% sale off intercity tickets if purchased at least 15 days in advanced. This is a significant savings for us. Hopefully one of my credit cards will be in the 1%. Any idea how the ticket delivery system will be if I am successful? Also any idea if calling into the call center would yield any success with ticket purchases?

Frank, I was interested to read your comment about the ticket machines being "broken" in Varenna. On my return to Milan, I found both validating machines "out of service", so I wouldn't be surprised if the ticket machines were also non-functional. Fortunately, I bought my return ticket from one of the ticket machines at Milano Centrale. I found that it wasn't possible to get a "return" ticket for Varenna, and had to buy separate tickets for each journey. I've heard that if the Validating machines are not available, it's a good idea to write the time and date on the ticket (always keep a Pen handy). As it turned out, no one checked my tickets on that particular trip. The train was almost empty. Cheers!