Italian Trains (Trenitalia) & Bicycles

Check for a date within this week. Most regional trains won't show solutions beyond that as you can't book the online more than a week in advance.

Donna

Very frustrating!
As mentioned below, regional train tickets can only be purchased less than seven days from departure. The trains you want are a combination of reserved and unreserved.
I did see a train departing at 12:05 with a change in Venice Mestre arriving in Trieste Central at 16:46.

If you go to the Trenitalia site, select a date less than seven days from today, enter Milano and Trieste, once the schedule loads, go to the bottom of the page and select "all solutions", the slower trains will also appear. If you click on the "i" button to the right of the train type, it lists the services on that train. For the Eurocity and regional trains you will see " Treno con servizio di trasporto biciclette al seguito del viaggiatore." which means you can transport your bike.

I couldn't find anything about an extra fee to transport your bike.

Your options for purchasing in advance are:
Buy the Milan to Venice Mestre portion on-line in order to get one of the discounted fares and then buy the Venice Mestre to Trieste at the train station. But not sure how to add the bike fare.

Buy in Italy, either at a train station or a travel agency that displays the Trenitalia logo.

good luck!

David, I bet you did not click on the UK flag and you're trying to use the Italian version of trenitalia.
If you switch to English, the site will always show both high speed and regional trains.

How to Look Up Train Schedules Online gives you the DB train schedule link and tips for using it. When you check the box for "carriage of bicycles required" it will show you some regional trains with one connection, or a daily direct EuroCity at noon from Milano to Venice, which do have space for un-boxed bicycles.

Thanks to everyone who chimed in on this! I was indeed on the site's English version since I don't speak Italian. My mistake was checking the box on the initial search page that indicated a search for cheap fares. Doing that showed only trains that do not allow bikes! Quite bizarre that it would not show all trains and all schedules. Anyway, problem solved by not checking that box.

I've since found the outbound and return schedules I need - avec les bicyclettes - which will get me to and fro the same day with short change times. I was told by that very helpful B&B owner in Milan (Roberto at the Belcanto B&B if you're looking) that the September schedules will be findable come June. Buying the outbound ticket in advance on-line makes sense, since the fares likely are lower.

Grazi to all!

Do NOT buy a Regionale train ticket on line. They are not cheaper since there is only one price but the on line ticket comes with restrictions. They are pre validated with a four hour window. You can buy a Regionale train ticket any time and it is good for sixty days until you validate it (time stamp) in the little yellow or blue boxes.

Frank, thanks for the heads-up. The Trenitalia website is sorely lacking in that kind of detail, so cavaet emptor it looks like! I'll have to check in again with my helpful B&B source in Milan to make sure I'm hitting all the right notes - so to speak. He's told me that Italians like to make things difficult, so perhaps this is but one example.

How about the leg on the Eurocity line (Milan to Venice)? Should I also purchase that ticket at the station in Milan?

The Eurocity if purchased far enough in advance will have discounts available. In Italy all trains except the Regionale require a seat reservation so those ticket are sold ahead of time on line. The Regionale trains are open seating.