Should train tickets be purchased before we leave the US for our Northern Italy trip?

You can check Trenitalia.com for prices for various ticket options. You can buy the tickets when you get to Italy at full price, or perhaps save some money buying online up to 120 days in advance. The super-saver fares are restricted to a specific train, time, and seat, no changes permitted. If you decide to buy tickets at the station, allow time to wait in line at Venezia Santa Lucia. There are automated kiosks that sell tickets, but some require chip-and-pin cards.

regina,

It's very easy to purchase tickets in Italy either at the staffed ticket offices or from the automated Kiosks. The ticket offices at many of the larger stations such as Roma Termini often have LONG queues, so the Kiosks are a better method.

One point to note is that buying tickets in advance for the premium trains such as the Freccia high speed trains can save some money, but that will lock you into a specific train and departure time as those require compulsory reservations. DO NOT be caught without valid reservations on a train where those are required or you may be fined on the spot! For travel on the slower Regionale trains, it's not as easy to buy tickets in advance, nor is there any price break for doing so. It's just as easy to buy those locally. When riding Regionale trains, you MUST validate your tickets prior to boarding the train on the day of travel, or again hefty fines on the spot!

You can determine which type of trains you'll be using by having a look at the Trenitalia website. You may find it helpful to have a look at the excellent Ron In Rome website and the tips there for riding trains in Italy.

Happy travels!

The only reason to purchase a ticket in advance on line is to take advantage of available discounts which can be substantial. But the super discount cannot be exchanged for any reason so you are locked into that schedule. The economy ticket can be exchanged for credit towards another ticket. All trains in Italy except for the Regionale train required a reservation. Even a full price ticket is dead if you miss the train. Must be changed prior to departure. While a Regionale train ticket can be purchased on line within seven days of departure, it is NOT a good idea to do so because that ticket comes with restrictions. Best practice is to buy Regionale tickets just prior to travel or a day or two earlier AND absolutely validate (time stamp) the ticket in the little blue or yellow boxes near the platforms prior to boarding the train.

One of your listed journeys is to Varenna-Esino. That trip can only be taken on a Regionale train. Generally, this is a 1hr train ride from Milan to Varenna. You cannot buy Regionale train tickets from Trenitalia online more that 7 days out from the time of travel. Also, there is never a discount on Regionale train tickets. Also, no seat reservations possible on a Regionale train and they can never be sold out. Like your local bus system, if there are no seats, you can stand. Just buy your tickets from the ticket machine in any Trenitalia train station with a ticket machine or at any ticket window. The Regionale tickets are good for 60 days for any Regionale train making the run shown on the ticket so don't worry about being tied to any specific train. All of this is different from the nicer high-speed trains as described above. Just buy your Regionale train tickets when you get to Italy.

As for Venezia Santa Lucia to Verona Porta Nuova and Verona Porta Nuova to Milano-Centrale (note the Italian names of the train stations as you will need them on www.trenitalia.com), you have a couple of different choices. Verona is not that far from Venice. You can either take a Regionale train for 7.60Euro or the Freccibianca fast train for 43Euro. The Regionale train takes 2hrs17min and the fast train takes 1hr10min. Your choice here. If you can learn the different types of Regionale trains and see them on the train schedules, the Regionale Veloce train takes 1hr27min. You can see all of this on www.trenitalia.com. Again, you can buy these tickets in Venice 1-2 days before departing. As for the Regionale trains out of Venice, never worry about no seats as the train originates there. It's empty. Just get there a bit early and you have your seats.

Now for the advance purchase of tickets online. As mentioned above, you can look out ahead and buy tickets 119 days out from the time of travel. However, I'm betting that you won't see July 119 days out because Trenitalia refreshes their train schedules about June 14 and they are notoriously tardy about getting their schedules up on time. When you do see the schedules, you can get the Venice/Verona run for 9Euro and the Verona/Milan run also for 9Euro. Normal fares are 23E and 21.50Euro. The nicely discounted tickets are both non-refundable and cannot be exchanged. Also, you are married to a specific train departing on a specific day at a specific time. Not a problem if you plan well. However, if you are planning to hop off at Verona, visit for awhile and then hop back on with your second ticket, plan your visit time and ticket purchases carefully.

Thanks all...LOTS of great information. Looks like I'll be spending some time on the trenitalia.com web site!

to buy train tickets at the machines, do you have to use a chip and PIN card or will standard US credit card work? Do they take Euros? Will chip and signature like a Sapphire card work?