How far in advance to book high-speed train tickets, museums, and restaurant reservations?

Look at The Fork for booking restaurant reservations in Europe.. They have an App too.

No high speed trains from Pompei. You'll have to take a local Circumvesuviana train to Naples first.

Prices will only go up from here. It does not sound like you have your plans finalized yet. When they get finalized, then you can buy nonrefundable Super Economy Tickets if there are any left. Be sure to check Italotreno prices as well.

Once itinerary is finalized I book all high speed trains to take advantage of discounts. 6-8 weeks maybe? The longer you wait the fewer discounted trains.

Major sites- Colosseum, Uffizi, Vatican etc all need to be booked in advance. Once your plans are set- book them.

Amalfi Coast - high speed train to Rome from either Salerno or Pompeii

This will be regional to Pompeii- then Circ then high speed from Naples. There are fast trains from Salerno to Rome but you need to stop at Pompeii so that won't work for you.

We don't really ever book restaurants in advance- wait til we get there and see what looks good- I usually have a short list but we are not super particular about where we eat. Can usually just book day of as we pass if it's not an "in high demand" place.

You get high speed trains ticket in advance to save a lot of money, not because they sell out.

Go on the English versions of trenitalia.com or italotreno.it and put tomorrow as day of travel: you'll see that no high speed train is sold out, but all the cheapest tickets are gone.

The cost of train tickets purchased on the day of travel is displayed on both sites for any train running before June 11. You can't pay more than the BASE price on trenitalia.com and the Flexi price on italotreno.it

Jay,
I would highly recommend. seat61.com there is a lot on the web site to explore. And help you get from point A to B all over Europe.
You will also be able to connect with any web sites for tickets, when they are available etc. it’s all there.
Suzanne

if you're using a pass, seat reservations are required on high speed trains and they are limited in number, yes?

Thank you for all of the helpful insight and resources, everyone!

Sorry to intrude, but i think i ride on the same questions.

For high speed train, what if you did not book with seat reservation?

How do you know which seat youre allocated to if youre the first to board the train?

For high speed train, what if you did not book with seat reservation?

Seat reservations are mandatory. I don't know how you could book without.

How do you know which seat you're allocated to if you're the first to board the train?

It's written on your ticket together with the car number and the train code that's also displayed on the "Departures" monitors.

Same if you are the last to board the train (?). Sorry, but first compared to who?

On high speed and long distance trains the seat reservation is mandatory and always comes with the ticket. Pass holders must get one before boarding.

back to a portion of the OP's questions . . .

how far in advance should you book attractions? That depends on what attraction. Some places really don't sell out so they don't require advanced purchases. But a lot of places definitely do.

IF you have your travel dates set, and
IF you can lock in to specific dates and times for the more popular attractions

If both of those are true, I encourage you to buy your tickets as soon as you can. There really is no benefit to waiting to buy tickets other than maintaining the flexibility to change plans. But if you keep waiting to maintain flexibility, you risk not getting tickets in advance at all. I'll lock my schedule in early, knowing I have all my tickets, rather than risk seeing sometihng important because I delayed.

So how early am I? We travel in early-mid May and I have all tours, tickets and trains scheduled other than things I plan to buy at the door. Most of my things were booked by December.

I don't really have an opinion on restaurant reservations, other than that I will try to book a couple of those (the special meals) once I get within a month of our trip.

Which means if i didnt buy a seat reservation which cost Euro2, they will asign any seat randomly?

Movexz, you are not paying 2 € more to buy a seat reservation, but for the pleasure of choosing your place(s) on a seating chart. As explained, on high speed and long distance trains the seat reservation is mandatory and it always comes with the ticket.

If you are not interested in a specific seat let the system choose for you. It will always put travel companions in the same car and as close as possible. Otherwise conductors couldn't check tickets.

Thank you for answering, i understand it now.

Others have thoroughly covered the train question, so I'll chime in on restaurant reservations.

For our trips, we do a mix of dining in proper restaurants, cooking meals in our rental apartment, and casual grab-and-go meals. If there's a restaurant that I KNOW I want to eat at, I always reserve as soon as possible. You never know when a restaurant may be full, change their hours, be closed for holiday, etc. If you're traveling with a group of more than 2-4 people, I'd recommend reservations for restaurants, because places tend to be small and not have tons of tables available. I also tend to make reservations because we travel with our kiddo (now 6), and I'd rather sacrifice flexibility for the peace of mind of knowing we have a guaranteed table. (Walking around at dinnertime with a hangry toddler is not ideal...)

As far as how to make reservations, for places that have a website, I've had great success with emailing them or using the "contact us" section of their website. Since we have a kiddo, I specify that we plan to arrive as soon as they open (usually 7:30 or 8 in Italy), so they know they can accommodate a party after us if they need to. If you'll be in a city for more than one day, and you walk by a place that looks good, you can also just walk in and see if they have openings for the next night.

Have a great trip!