Italy train tickets business class - buy early or buy when at the station?

If you know exactly when you're traveling then pre-buying your train ticket is fine. If you're flying into Florence and then somehow immediately taking a train to Rome, then that's a little harder but I don't think that's what you're asking.

Mostly I am confused by your question. Looking around on both Captain Train and Trenitalia, I don't see a way I think I could spend 64 Euros for a ticket. The prices vary, but they're mostly a lot lower than that.

Can you be specific about your travel day and your train time? Also, I don't really think you need business class on that route. It's only slightly longer than an hour. You can buy coach tickets for about 20 dollars, for a total of 200 for your group. If all 10 of you buy those 64 Euro tickets you're talking about then you've just spent $700 when you only needed to spend $200.

If you do that math like that for the whole trip, it's just going to be so expensive. You definitely can go coach:)

I checked for a random in dateJune and the Super Economy tickets for business class were available at EUR 29.
Why do you want to travel business class for this short - 1 1/2 hour - trip? Regular second class is comfortable

Frecciarossa trains on this route have 6 different "classes" (price categories) of seating. And they have three fare levels with limited seats at each price. 64 euros per person is the Economy (mid-price) in the Business Salotino; Super Economy in this seating is 54 and full/base fare is 84. This is the second-most-expensive of the 6 seating areas, so I would not choose it. OR 64 euros is also the full fare (available right up to departure) for the regular Business section.

Standard seating is fine with me (full fare is 44), or you can pay just 10 euros more for Premium (full fare is 54). Trenitalia lays out all the price options quite clearly on a chart when you are booking. See more description of the trains at http://www.trenitalia.com/tcom-en/Frecce/Frecciarossa. If you book on short notice, you might not all 10 sit together, but could probably be seated in two-three different train cars. I don't like booking ahead for a train to meet up with your flight arrival, in case of delays.

Hi, thanks for the input. To clarify - I am looking for information for taking the high speed train from Florence to Rome. We are checking out of our villa in Siena the morning of June 25 and returning our rental car in Florence and taking the train to Rome. Im not 100% sure what time we will be leaving as there are many variables to that day. I was looking into Business class as we will be traveling with lots of luggage and I read there is more space for luggage there. And it includes a drink and snack. I read somewhere that the prices of the in board cafe are expensive, therefore - negating the extra cost and room of business class. I could be incorrect. That's the beauty of this forum - I get all of your expertise to help me out and keep me from making poor travel choices :) Thank you.

There are other people in our group that are taking the train up to Florence from Rome at the beginning of our trip on the 18th. I will be helping them acquire their tickets as well.

Any help is much appreciated.

The cheapest I found in Business class was 54 Euro, but did find the 19 Euro fare for the standard class.

The Business Super Economy fares sell out very fast. Checking a few frecciarossa trains on June 25, that seems to be the situation. We often take Business Class for the extra room and the "detached window" seats we like, but with so many people and such a short trip, you can easily take Standard and get 2 sets of 4 seats together then 2 more close by for numbers 9 & 10. The snack is usually a cookie or something similar (packaged goods) and the drink is a lukewarm caffè or water or maybe room temp white wine or juice. Not worth the upgrade. Get the cheaper seats and have a nice lunch in Roma.

For Florence to Rome, you won't have any customs issues. I would schedule a noon-ish departure and then figure out when you have to leave your villa to give you time for the drive and rental car return. Are you returning it to the location by the train station? It's not much of a problem there. But then we travel with very little baggage.

For the group coming in by air and continuing to Florence, there are direct trains from FCO to Firenze SMN at 11:08 and 15:08. Otherwise, they need to go to Termini Station and transfer trains. Here is what I would do for them.

If they arrive before 9:00AM, have them get tickets on the 11:08, but make them refundable, i.e., base price. Two hours is usually enough time to get through passport control and bag claim. If they miss the train, they get most of the money back (small fee deducted). Make sure they have an alternate plan & schedule in the event of a delay. As it is a long wait for the 15:08 train, in this case they'd have to go to Termini (cabs make sense for two-or-more people) and then they would have to get their refund and buy tickets Roma Termini to Firenze.

I see now, from your earlier posts, that there are several children in the party, aged 3 - 15. All those under 15 can travel free when adults pay the Base fare; see the Bimbi Gratis program. This option does display online when you enter a number of adults and children. A 3 year old is always free on your lap and doesn't need a ticket.

The Frecciarossa trains (serving this line) have similarly generous luggage space in all classes. Some departures of these trains only have one car for regular Business class, while others might have three cars. Although a few of your younger passengers may not carry their own luggage, I hope others will limit themselves to one bag that they can easily handle.

Thank you everyone for your help! I am so glad I asked :)