train reservations

You can buy all of these tickets at the station if you wish to. The reason most people buy in advance is to take advantage of the discounted fares that are available for pre-purchase. The Naples/Salerno, Salerno/Taormina and Taormina/Catania legs will be on regional trains so you won't want to book them ahead of time. IF your travel dates are set you can certainly buy the other tickets online and get good discounts but if your dates are flexible I would suggest waiting until at the station before buying. Donna

That's a big help. Yes, our travel dates are set so I think we'll book the ones you suggest to take advantage of the discounts. Thanks Donna.

What is the policy on changes? If we have a train booked for 1 pm and we miss it or just wish to change it to a different time, could we? Is there a fee for changes?

It depends on the tickets you buy. If you buy the super economy tickets you cannot change them. If you miss the train the tickets are worthless. Here are the rules for the economy tickets: Booking/ticket changes are possible only once, after the date of issue up to the booked train's departure and only at the ticket office or travel agency where the ticket was purchased (excluding website agencies), during normal opening hours (or on this website solely for online tickets) except for night trains or international trains. You can change a date or time of departure with the same train category or service level by paying a fee (equal to the difference of the reference standard price). The new ticket (called "Economy cambio biglietto") has the same specifications as the economy ticket. For the base tickets, you can change them up to an hour after departure. These are the most expensive tickets and are the ones you would buy at the station. Donna

on changes, it depends on the type of ticket you have and the conditions attached to it. Generally the more you pay - the closer to list price you pay - much like flying - the more flexible changes are. The flip side is if you buy the cheapest tickets more expensive changes are, and many are simply not refundable.

On the Regionale trains only, your ticket is an open ticket good for 60 days. Your Regionale ticket will show the origination location, the destination, the class (1st or 2nd) and the dates for the 60-day window. It will not show a train number, departure date, departure time or seat reservations. No seat reservations permitted on the Regionale trains only. If you miss the Regionale train you want, just get on the next one or the next one after that. With a Regionale ticket, you validate it in the little yellow box in the train station before boarding. The conductor will look for the date and time stamp on the ticket. Once you validate the ticket, it's good for 6 hours (4 hours if you buy online with a high-speed ticket). For discounts on the tickets, there is never a discount or special fare on the Regionale trains. You can't even buy them online unless 1) it's within 7 days of the travel date or, 2) the train run will involve a change of trains and one of the trains is a high-speed. All of this is different on the high-speed and intercity trains. You must have seat reservations for these trains. Seat reservations come with the purchase of the tickets. For discounts, you can go online and purchase Economy and Super Economy special fares (or base fares if the special fares are gone). For all high-speed and intercity tickets you purchase online, you are locked into a specific travel date, time and train number. Seat reservations are provided. Base fares are the same as the base fares you will find in Italy. No differences. Super Economy fares are non-exchangable and non-refundable. Economy fares are non-refundable but do permit some level of exchange before the train departs. After the train departs, it's toast.

Thanks so much. That's really helpful.

"Economy fares are non-refundable but do permit some level of exchange before the train departs. After the train departs, it's toast." So if you miss your train, you've lost your money and have to buy a new ticket for the next train? How common is it to miss a train? Are Italian train stations confusing?

"So if you miss your train, you've lost your money and have to buy a new ticket for the next train?" If it's a non-refundable ticket, yes - just like with anything non-refundable. This is part of why it's cheaper; it's less flexible. "How common is it to miss a train? Are Italian train stations confusing?" It's not that they're confusing, it's that people get delayed getting to the station in the first place, or their plans change. Many times I've intended to make, say, an 8:30 AM train for a day trip, but then didn't get going in time to do so. These have been regional trains, so I just got on the next one, but if they had been all-reserved trains that I had purchased in advance on the cheapest ticket, I'd have had to buy a new ticket. Of course, some of the very big stations can be a bit confusing, but that only causes about 5 minutes' delay, at most (once you learn to read the train departure boards and monitors, the directions to the tracks are usually well signed). For the big stations, particularly if it's one I'm not familiar with, I do try to allow a bit of extra time to find my way. But I've never missed a train looking for the platform; as I said, I have certainly missed them because I just didn't get an early enough start. Of course, there's some circularity to this. When I know I can just get on the next train with no penalty, I'm not highly motivated to rush; when I know I have to get a specific train, I hustle.

If you save money by booking early, how do I know how much of a savings it is, and when the cut off date is? The train sites show various pricing options but it doesn't say how much it'll cost after a certain date.

Carol: it's not usually about a cut off date so much as ticket inventory. They have so many seats for sale at each low price; when those are sold out, the next lowest price is then the lowest available. I can't keep track with Trenitalia, since it keeps changing, but at one time the lowest fares had to bought at least 24 hours before travel; after that, even if the train was empty, it was full fare only. As I said, though, Trenitalia keeps changing their fare structure. Here's Ron in Rome's take on the latest information for Trenitalia. You can see that the website includes "base" fare; that's the highest price. If you're using another website and the highest price is not easily discernible, just look at a ticket for later today or early tomorrow on your desired route.