Italo Train from Rome to Florence

There is almost no way to guarantee which way you will face. Pre-booking is not that desperate - trains run frequently. Besides Italo, Trenitalia also runs trains.

Since I don't mind, my wife and I always reserve seats facing each other. That way, no matter which way the trains is going, she can face forward. Sometimes the train even changes direction during the trip. If you were going to Venice, the train would pull into Santa Maria Novella station in Florence, which is a terminal station. Then it would continue to Venice in the other direction as it "backed" out of the station.

All train cars are designed to run in either direction. All seats face the middle of the car so half the seats are going forward and half backwards. It is a dice roll as the direction of your seat. However, although seat reservations are require it is possible that there will be empty seats in your car facing the correct directions. Once the train is rolling you could change seat until someone comes along with a reservation for that seat. The conductor does not check seat assignments.

PS - Sam makes a good point. Forget that trains sometimes change directions. Getting facing seat is not always possible unless it is the very center of the car. Some of the older cars had pairs of seats facing each other. Our experience with the new cars is that they all face the middle. Only the very middle seats will face each other and other across a small table.

Just select seats that face each other across a small table. Hopefully your traveling companion won't mind riding backward and will switch with you.