So many places to book Italian trains (confused)

trainline.eu
is good no difference in prices;

or

http://www.italotreno.it/en

If you are having a problem with Trenitalia, use the above sites for the longer routes like Rome to Florence or Florence to Venice etc. The short distance trains known as Regionale (Florence to Pisa for example) the prices don't change so you can just buy those when you get there.

I've never had problem with Trenitalia either and that is all I ever use when booking tickets; you just have use the Italian spelling for names for train stations. But I use Trainline.eu all the time for French rail and couldn't be happier.

I used the Trenitalia site - worked great for me, but some people report trouble with US credit cards.

I also used the Trenit app (from Trenitalia) - could use Paypal in addition to US credit cards to buy train tickets and show them on my phone instead of needing to print them out.

People have said good things about Trainline, but I prefer to stick to the native websites and not a 3rd party website, if possible. If the Trentalia site or Trenit did not work for me, I'd have no hesitation about using Trainline, though, based on positive reports I've read about it.

Avoid Rail Europe.

Curious, what problems have you encountered with trenitalia? I find it easy to use a verified visa card but others have reported some payment problems.

Trenitalia is the main State associated rail company in Italy. For any general travel, start there, they service every place with a rail station. Aside from that, there are now some private lines, mostly operating on high traffic lines, the only one of note is Italotreno.it which offers competitive but limited services on high volume routes. The other two you mentioned are mainly re-selling tickets and catering to the buyer less able to navigate the official sites, charging them a premium. That is great if you need help, less if you want a bargain and are willing to figure it out.

Except for Trainline doesn't charge a premium: the prices are exactly what you get from the official sites -- and it's handy because you can buy tickets both from Trenitalia (the govt-run train company) and Italo, a new private firm. This gives you more choices. And the interface makes it easy easy easy.

Terri,

I also prefer to use www.trainline.eu as much as possible, as it's a "one stop shopping" site for both Trenitalia and Italo, and I believe they also sell tickets for TreNord and others. Once you register on the site and get a credit card set-up, it's very user friendly. They also have an App which makes it even more useful. They sell tickets for rail networks in other countries as well (ie: Germany, France, Spain) so that's also very convenient.

Another vote for Trainline.eu. Used them for France two years ago when it was Captain Train. Super easy and has a good mobile app to keep your tickets on your phone.

Trainline.eu is the best and easiest to use all prices should be the same as if you booked through trenitalia

I had great luck following the advice found here Seat 61:Italy Booked with no problem, then emailed as described to get processing fee refund. Didn't take long and worked like a charm.

Never had any issue with TrenItalia. Not sure how you find it complicated though. Enter your cities say Roma and Milano. Select the train you want to buy and enter your credit card. Nothing complicated on their english version of the site.

Here's another vote for trainline. That's where bought our train tickets for upcoming trip starting on Saturday. Very easy to use. I love the app.

I appreciate reading this good advice. I'm commenting so I can find this thread, again, in the future. :-)

Thanks, everyone. Trainline.eu looks like a good option.

I live near Rick Steves' offices in Edmonds, WA and have an appointment soon to discuss the entire trip itinerary, including trains, with an ETBD travel planner. Should learn a lot there!