Questions about train travel in Italy

May schedules and fares have already been published.

On the day you will pay the Base fare on trenitalia.com and the Flex fare on italotreno.it
Base and Flex are the walk-up fares of the 2 companies, you can't pay more.

As you can see entering your day of travel on both sites, you can pay a lot less. Some Trenitalia discounted fares are reserved to Cartafreccia holders; other discounted fares can be purchased by everyone but the tickets are capacity controlled.

If you buy ahead of time there is the possibility of getting tickets at the Economy or Super Economy fare. Those fares offer discounts as high as 40% on high speed trains. The caveat is that once you purchase those tickets, you are locked into those dates and time, as you cannot be refunded if you change your mind and want to change the date or time of departure.

Regional trains do not offer discounts, as they are like commuter trains. Certain locations in your itinerary, like Pisa (from Florence) or Monterosso (from Florence) are largely served by Regional trains.

Ortisei is not served by rail (there is a bus from Bolzano). Pienza also is not served by rail. There are buses from Siena.

Have you already accumulated CartaFreccia points? I find them difficult to use as the awards go quickly.

You can save a lot on the tickets from Bolzano to Munich by buying in advance.

Right now the German train company has Super Sparpreis Europa tickets for May at €19,90 per person in 2d class, which is a huge discount from the regular walk-up fare of €67-€80. These tickets are non-refundable and cannot be changed. Seat reservations are €4,50 extra per person. The train is a direct Eurocity train to Munich with no changes on the way.

You can buy from bahn.de and choose a digital ticket on your phone or get a pdf you can print at home for a paper ticket.

You can also buy the ticket on Trenitalia, for the same €19,90, but it appears they will only let you purchase as far as Innsbruck. And you cannot get a digital ticket or PDF to print; you get a confirmation code that you use to retrieve the actual tickets from a machine in an Italian train station. We did this last September on our train to and from Bolzano on those same Eurocity trains (EC 84, 85, and/or 86). But we were just traveling in Italy, between Bolzano and Verona or Bologna. Since you want to go all the way to Munich, you would be better off buying from bahn.de to get paper tickets all the way to Munich.

There are also significant savings on First Class tix if you prefer that.

If you want to use the same EC trains to get TO Bolzano from someplace in Italy (EC 83 from Verona or EC85 from Bologna) you must buy on Trenitalia and will get a confirmation code to retrieve the tickets as I explained above. You will be offered the same good discounts.

Thanks for your responses! I am going to do some more research, and I may have more questions or comments later.

Everyone says the lower-cost advance tickets are not refundable but there is an option when purchasing through the Trenitalia website to add a refundable option for $1-2 per ticket. This is a no-brainer to me...

From the site:
With the “tiRimborso” (Ticket Refund) option, Economy and Super Economy tickets, Young and Senior offers, and Me&You and Insieme offers are now refundable!
The “tiRimborso” option costs €2 for Super Economy, Me&You and Insieme offers and €1 for Economy, Young and Senior offers on all sales channels.
The option is valid for Frecciarossa, Frecciargento, Frecciabianca, Intercity, Intercity Notte and Eurocity tickets on national routes. It cannot be purchased for tickets with a total cost less than or equal to €10. The amount paid for the “tiRimborso” option is non-refundable and does not contribute to the calculation of the refundable or compensable amount.
For the Me&You and Insieme offers, the “tiRimborso” option must be purchased by all members of the group and refunds will only be granted on condition that the request is made at the same time and for all passengers. A partial refund of the offer for only some members of the group is not permitted.

Celeste, thank you for that information!