Train Florence to Rome

Check the train websites for prices (trenitalia.com and Italo).

I can see the prices if I buy now; what I'm not clear on is whether these prices be much higher if I wait until that day to buy my ticket.

Tracy, you will likely pay the base price if you purchase the day of your journey. If you are using the Trenitalia website, you can see what the base prices are by clicking on the "Starting from" price for a particular time: it will open a drop-down with all the prices for all of the different tiers.

So say Firenze SM Novella> Roma Termini at 16:38 shows an economy ticket price today of 39,90€ for the standard tier. The base price shown is 47.00€. That's the price you'll pay for that ticket if all economy tickets are gone by the 22nd (the even cheaper super-economy tickets are already sold out for that time).

Make sense?

Yea, thank you!

I don't buy online so I can't compare cost that way. I always buy at the machines or ticket counter, and cost from Florence to Rome is a reasonable amount for the 1 and 1/2 hour trip. I travel first or second class reserved.

I can say this much, one time at SMN train station there was an odd strike on ALL Regionale, so there was a rush at the ticket counter to exchange coach tickets for first or second class reserved, causing any available seats to fill up fast. Those who couldn't make the exchange had to wait for the strike to lift.

This incident didn't affect me because I had bought my ticket ahead of time. If I'm sure of my departure date, I buy my ticket upon my arrival at the train station, otherwise I wait a few days before my departure and stop by the train station to buy my ticket.

That's just how I do it, works for me.

You're welcome!
And I made a small edit to my text above... All the super-ecomomy tickets are sold out for that departure TIME, not necessarily that date. I didn't check ALL the late-afternoon times for the 22nd. I did see that even the economy tickets were sold out for some of the departure times, though.

tracy,

The information provided by Kathy is spot on. Basically, if you can commit to a specific train, date and departure time you can save money with Super Economy or Economy tickets. If you'd rather maintain flexibility and buy tickets on the day of travel, you'll most likely be paying Base Fare which is the highest price tier. Your choice.....

Thank you for your helpful responses, everyone!

As a general rule of thumb (and this doesn't apply to all European nations...but most), buying tickets online in advance can give you the benefit of getting an advanced purchase discount. The ticket from Rome to Florence usually costs about US$50-$55 per person. If you were able to commit to times and dates before you go, you might be able to get it for half that. Trenitalia is the national train network, but not the only company that does this route. You might try Italo as well. There are so many trains running between these two cities that if you decided to buy your tickets when you get there, that would be fine but you'd be paying standard ticket prices.

I hope this helps some.

After considering everyone's responses further, I decided to look at the Trenitalia website again and found a deal. Since we are traveling on a Saturday I was able to take advantage of the 2 for 1 offer and got 2 premium tickets for €57 total, so I am pretty happy with that. That was for advance purchase only, and isn't flexible, but it will work for us.

Good work!