My wife and I will be traveling by train from Innsbrook to Bolzano ( Dolomites ), then from Bolzano to Venice, and finally Venice to Perugia all by train. Do I need to by train tickets on-line before we leave on the trip? Is it less expensive to do so? Do I need to make seat reservations and can that be done on- line? Or, do we wait and get tickets in Italy? HELP!
pat
This answer only pertains to train tickets for travel within Italy.
You can certainly buy your train tickets online ( up to 120 days in advance) to take advantage of discounted ticket prices.
You can check train schedules, and book your tickets, on trenitalia.com for your travel within Italy.
All high- speed trains (Freccias and Intercity) tickets come with seat reservations.
Please note: Some of your routes involve taking Regionale trains which do not come with seat reservations; which means that there's open seating and one can sit in any available seat.
You can buy these tickets when you get to Italy, as there's no price advantage when bought in advance.
Enjoy your trip!
Edit to add...
One more thing I forgot to mention. You'll need to validate (date/time stamp) your Regionale train tickets prior to boarding the train to avoid expensive fines.
Just wondering.... Do you plan to visit Florence? Your journey from Venice to Perugia will be long and will most likely involve a train change in Florence.
For all Italian trains -- except Regionale trains -- there are three levels of fares --- Super Econ. Economy, and Base. The first two are discount tickets with several restrictions mainly no change, no refund. These tickets are limited in the number that are available for each train. They tend, especially the SE tickets, to sell out quickly and once sold there are no more. Those tickets need to be purchase quickly on-line at trenitalia.com. The Base ticket is the standard price, is always available, and can be refunded or changed until an hour after the train has left the station. Those tickets come with a seat reservation and are only good for that exact train, day, and time. The Regional trains have no reservations -- no seat available?? Then you stand till one becomes available. They are an "open" ticket that can be used on any Regional train at any time headed in the correct direction. The ticket must be validated (time stamped) is a little blue/yellow/green box near the platform. Once stamped the ticket is good for four hours so don't validate it the day before to save time. Do not buy Regional train tickets on line as they come with more restrictions. Buy as need in the station. Trains never sell out.
It has been many many years since I traveled in Italy by train, but i have found this site to have comprehensive info on all things train:
https://www.seat61.com/Italy-trains.htm
If you purchase train tickets at a kiosk you will be required to put in a PIN number. Unfortunately. here in the US, our "new" chip and signature cards do not have a PIN attached to it. I found that you can go online with some major credit cards and assign a PIN to your card. When I notify my banks that I will going to Europe, I check to ensure that a PIN is attached to my card.
Gregory, over the last 18 months, I have purchased tickets for Italian trains at kiosks in: Florence, Lucca, Venice, Palermo, Assisi, FCO (the Rome airport) and a small town outside of Lucca whose name I am forgetting. I never needed a PIN for my credit card to make any of those purchases. Just used my trusty Chase United Visa card with embedded chip, and all was well.
