How far in advance can you validate train tickets?

I am not quite following you schedule. You can buy all your tickets at the airport when you buy your tickets to Centrale. A validated ticket is good for six hours. You must complete your trip within that window of time.

You can validate your regionale ticket to Vernazza at Milano Centrale. I do that when I have a very tight connection.

Theresa,

As Frank mentioned, you can buy your tickets both to Milano Centrale and from there to Vernazza at the airport rail station. One important point to note is that you MUST validate your ticket on the Malpensa Express or risk hefty fines, as well as tickets on any Regionale trains you'll be using. Tickets for InterCity trains don't have to be validated.

The trip from Milan to Vernazza may involve one or more changes (and not necessarily at Sestri Levante), depending on which departure you use. On a short trip like that, you should be fine to validate your Regionale tickets at Milano Centrale. According to the rules, "a passenger who is already in transit at the expiry time of their ticket can continue to destination without any additional intermediate stops, except to change to a train which will take them to the booked destination". On that trip, you should be well within the six hour limit.

Theresa,

Here are photos of validating machines for train tickets:http://tinyurl.com/validating-machines

Most train stations have the new green & white ones but a few of the smaller
train stations may still have the yellow ones.

Direct trains from Milano Centrale to Varenna run almost hourly without a connection at Sestri Levante, so I would prefer one of those departures.

Some very short regional train tickets, under 40 km, such as between towns in the Cinque Terre, are only good for 75 minutes from validation, instead of 6 hours.

Quick question -- having purchased Trenitalia rail tickets online for our July travels between Rome and Monterosso, they contain a PNR Code. The tickets note to "show your PNR Code to the on-board staff or be liable to a penalty fare as being without a valid ticket". So does this mean the PNR Code (similar to a QR scan image) serves as the equivalent of validating station-bought tickets? Or do these (printed at home) tickets still need to be run thru the kiosk for validation? Thanks.

Matt, print-at-home tickets are already validated (and usually reserved) for specific dates and times and your 8.5 x 11" copy paper won't fit into the slot in the validation machine. If just showing the "ticketless" PNR, you also have nothing to validate. Just be prepared to provide the PNR to the conductor when he comes through the train. Yes, it is equivalent to any other form of valid ticket.

What you can't do is be sitting on the train with no valid/validated ticket at all, or else be suspected of trying to ride for free. Anyone traveling with a rail pass would similarly have to have their travel dates properly filled in and a specific seat reservation, if required for that train.

Thanks, Laura. That was my assumption (that they were pre-validated), just didn't want to find out the hard way halfway between Termini and La Spezia. : ) And you're correct, our tickets are for a specific date and time, and reflect our seat numbers.

Appreciate your confirming, one less variable for our trip!

The new validation boxes are actually green/white/red (colors of the Italian flag), but the red is hard to see, and the white looks a little gray.

Theresa,

You can see a photo of the newer ticket validation machines on this website (scroll down about half way - it's on the right side).....

http://seat61.com/Italy-trains.htm#Travel%20tips

I validate all tickets needing validation at the same time at the start of my trip. I learned the hard way when late/delayed trains interfered with my ability to validate tickets, leaving me stuck between taking time to validate and missing the connection or boarding the train with an unvalidated ticket. At times there are only seconds to spare.