Train Reservations Rome to Florence?

Shelley,
Yes, of course you can buy your tickets in advance, right now at considerable savings, but keep in mind that these discounted tickets are nonrefundable & unchangeable. Super Economy tickets are as low as €19pp for 2nd class.

Having said this, if your flight is arriving the day you plan to take the train to Florence, then it's generally not recommended to buy your tickets in advance due to unforeseen delays (flight delays, airport delays, etc.)

You may check train schedules & book your tickets here: http://www.trenitalia.com

You will need to choose the Italian names of the stations as follows:

• Rome = Roma Termini
• Florence = Firenze S. M. Novella

The risk of a train being sold out is virtually zero, even if you show up at the station 10 minutes prior to departure. The worst that can happen is the Standard class (the cheapest) is sold out on the very next train, in which case you either buy a higher class ticket (premium or business), which never sell out, or buy the cheaper standard class on the later train about half an hour later. I never had to wait longer than 30 min to have a train with the standard seats available.

The adbpvantage of buying early is the ability to buy tickets in any class at the discounted Super Economy or Economy fare, which is deeply discounted compared to the full fare ( called "base").
However if you purchase a ticket at a discounted fare, it comes with restrictions. Basically if you can't make the specific train you book, you can't be refunded and you can't change it to a different train, so you lose your money. But if you are sure about your plans, then the savings are substantial.

shelley,

"I don't want to get stuck waiting for hours just because my inclination is to be unhurried."

There are frequent trains all day on that route, so it's highly unlikely you'll be waiting too long. In some cases, there are departures every 15 minutes. What time of day were you planning on travelling? One other point to note is that you can also travel on Italo Treno, the competing high speed rail service (although in some cases their trains may depart from Roma Tiburtina or Ostiense station).

To answer your question, you don't "need" to buy tickets in advance but you can save money if you're willing to commit to a specific train, date and departure time. The tickets will come with the compulsory seat reservations. Buying tickets a day or so prior to travel will provide the most flexibility, however the discounted tickets will likely be sold out by then so you'll be paying Base fare. You'll have to decide whether flexibility or savings is the most important.

Please note Priscilla's advice about buying a restricted super-economy ticket on the day you arrive by air.

FYI There is one train per day direct from the airport to Florence at 11:08 am. So if you land before 9 am, you have a good chance of making it. Otherwise there are trains about every 30 minutes connecting to Florence through Rome. Also note that there are 2 for 1 Saturday specials, but they come with the same restrictions as SuperEconomy tickets. Miss your train and toss your ticket in waste basket. Full price tickets are about 104 euro for 2, still pretty inexpensive. The only way I would buy discounted tickets is if I planned to spend the afternoon in Rome and then proceed to Florence late afternoon. Even if your plane lands on time, immigration can eat up some time so you can't really plan exactly when you get through the process.

Risk of trains being sold is is definitely small - but the risk is there nevertheless. And how do I know?? Because I waited to purchase my tix upon my arrival in Italy. THe only high speed train available from Naples to Rome was a horribly horribly early AM train. We had to leave SOrrento on the very first Circumvesuviana train which was around 5:00 am or so. We missed our entire last morning in Sorrento because of trains being sold out.

I personally would NOT ever do that again. If you know you want to go then by all means purchase those tickets now.

The has to be more to Tim's story. Between the hours of 6 and 8 am there are 7 high speed trains, 2 Intercity, and 1 Regionale. Between 6am and noon, 17 high speed, 4 IC, and 2 Regionale. I am sure there is a similar number of afternoon trains so there is no reason for leaving at 5am. There is no way that all of the fast trains were sold out. Something is not making sense.

Someone earlier counted the trains between Rome and Florence. There is something like 50+ trains a day between the two.

The only reason to buy tickets in advance is to take advantage of discounts that may be available.

If you're trying to save money and don't see any risk of having to change your plans I would say booking your trains now is worth it. We did it that way and had no problems.