I tried their website but their payment system will not accept payment from a credit card issued in US. This was confirmed by their customer service earlier today. Does anybody know of another way to pay for this train tickets? (at least for the initial leg of my trip after arriving in Rome) I already have a user ID at the TrenItalia.com website and able to select the train I want to take but my payment with the credit card gets rejected everytime. Thanks for whatever help you can provide.
Posted by
Knoxville, TN, USA
7209 posts
A few people can get it to work, but most cannot. If you're staying at a B&B ask them if they would purchase the ticket for you? Mine did.
Posted by
Tresana, Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
23534 posts
This is little to no advantage for advance purchases in Italy. If you cannot get it to work, you will still be fine.
Posted by
Knoxville, TN, USA
7209 posts
Other than a 20% discounted fare, getting the exact train you want and being fully guaranteed of having a seat even on crowded holidays...there is absolutely NO advantage to booking ahead ;-)
Posted by
Leominster, MA, USA
14 posts
If you really want your tickets before you go you can use this website:
http://www.italiarail.com/
They are a middleman for the Italian Train System in the US.
What I have read on this Helpline is that you need to be registered with teh Italian Train website and need a Visa card verfied by Visa, which has a seperate password.
Jim
Posted by
OP
Sacramento, CA, USA
33 posts
Thanks for all the replies posted. I will get our tickets when we get to Rome as recommended. 'Will post an update upon return. Good travels!!
Posted by
Atlanta, GA, USA
87 posts
This probably falls into the category of painfully obvious, but I'm going to ask it anyhow--you have called your credit card company about it, right? The only reason I even bring it up is that I had the same problems when I tried to use trenitalia recently using a U.S.-based Visa and the problem wasn't the fact that it was a US card--the problem is that MY credit card wasn't letting it through due to fraud issues. I called my credit card company, cleared any charges made in the next hour, booked the tickets (and a lot of tickets as I was booking for a group) and was done--no problem. You can absolutely get them once you get there, but using the amica fares ahead of time saved us a lot of money so I wanted to mention it just in case!
Posted by
OP
Sacramento, CA, USA
33 posts
I did talk to them while I was having problems with the TrenItalia website but the transactions I was attempting weren't even registering on their records, no sign that VISA here in US were rejecting them. Anyway, maybe your solution will benefit other users of this forum. Thanks.
Posted by
Elk Grove, CA, USA
6898 posts
Ramon next door in Sacramento. Please don't worry about having to have tickets in advance. I know its hard to do but the Italian train system is so much different than here. More trains depart Rome termini than any other station in Italy. Believe it or not, 480,000 travelers a day go through Rome Termini. It's not like our AMTRAK system here in Sacramento. Headed to Florence? 53 trains a day depart Rome for Florence. You won't miss a train. You'll just be early for the next one. You'll be just fine. Use the electronic ticket machines. They are so easy to use. CLICK HERE for a great visual on how to use the ticket machine from our message board friend Ron who lives in Rome.
Posted by
New York
24 posts
Ramon - I posted a message yesterday about my successful purchase of Trenitalia tickets using Citibank. You can retrieve my message under the Transportation thread below :-