Train tickets ahead

The website you want to visit is www.trenitalia.com. This is the official website for the primary train system in Italy. There is a ion in the upper right for English. However, you will need to enter the names of the train stations using their Italian names. You will want Milano Centrale to Venezia Santa Lucia and Venezia Santa Lucia to Firenze SMN (for Santa Maria Novella). You can easily buy tickets 1-2 days in advance for these runs. But you will pay full fare. If you are able to lock down firm travel dates and travel times, you can register with the website, enter and purchase tickets at lower fares. These tickets are non-refundable. The Super Economy fares are non-exchangable as well. If you book 90 days out, you might get lucky and nab some the very limited 9Euro fares. These special fares are for the high-speed trains only. No discounts on the Regionale class trains which are the locals. If this is no interest to you, you can wait until you get to Italy to buy your tickets. The train journey from Venice to Florence on the high-speed takes just over two hours. At Florence, you have two choices. You can change to a Regionale train that goes to Siena or walk about 800' to the south to the SITA bus station to buy a ticket on the SITA bus. The Corse Rapide bus is the express. The train station is about 2km slightly downhill from the city of Siena. The bus takes you to the city wall. Your choice.

http://www.raileurope.com This is an English site, booking my train ticket earlier as well b/c I have been told by several people that it's cheaper in advance but it's your call

Rail Europe is not the best site to use. It is a travel agency that sells tickets at an inflated price. The Italian site is in English. Use it.

Karen, I normally buy tickets after arriving in Italy, usually via the automated ticket Kiosks. While this doesn't provide any discounts, I prefer having some flexibility in case my plans change. While purchasing tickets in advance can provide good discounts, these have to be purchased WELL ahead of the trips, and more importantly the tickets will "lock" you into a specific train and departure time. If your plans change or if you miss that train, the tickets may be worthless. One other aspect of buying tickets online is that the Trenitalia website can be a bit "quirky", and some users here have reported problems with it. There's an excellent description of the procedure to purchase tickets on the Ron In Rome website. If this is your first time travelling by train in Italy, note that the "fast" trains always require compulsory reservations. Those caught without reservations may be fined on the spot, and it's not cheap! Fines may also apply for un-validated tickets on Regionale trains (which don't require reservations). Happy travels

As a for instance, you can get tickets on the fast FrecciaBianca for 9 Euro far in advance, from Milano Centrale to Venezia S. Lucia, a 2.5 hr journey covering 250 KM. The "Base" fare is 36 Euro. The train from MXP to Milano Centrale is 10 Euro to cover 45 KM in 52 min.

Thank you all for this very useful information. I feel I have a direction now, choices too. Thanks again.
Karen

I had booked 6 of my 8 train tickets for our family vacation in advance, and had obtained some great discount fares - sometimes even in First Class for the same price or a little more. But twice, we had changes. Once, because doing laundry took much longer than expected, (didn't want to pack wet laundry!) and another time because we decided to stay an extra day in the Cinque Terre and skip Milan. But rebooking both of those was expensive - probably doubling the cost of my entire train itinerary! So plan carefully, and don't try to cut anything too close. Even in July, we had no trouble rebooking - but it was expensive. Dave

I can see that waiting might be wise for us. My husband asks me, where are the kiosks? Train stations or all around? I ask, are the kiosks user friendly to the unaccustomed? we have been to Rome and Capri but not traveled by train or bus on our own. Also, how does one make certain one has a guaranteed seat, this seems to be an issue, a ticket but no seat.
Karen

Karen, kiosks are inside the train stations. Large stations have many kiosks, a small station might have only one or two (you don't mention any small stations). You can choose a language for the transaction (English is one of the choices). A reassuring voice will prompt you through the process. Some kiosks only take credit cards, and sometimes people have problems with American credit cards (apparently European cards contain a chip that American ones don't), but if the kiosk takes cash, it will make change for you up to 20 euro. If you buy a first-class ticket, or a first or second class ticket on a fast train, you will have a seat reservation (the carriage number and seat number will print out on the ticket). If you are taking a regionale train (and there's no reason for you to do that for the cities you list unless you decide to take a train to Siena instead of a bus), there may only be second class available, and there is no seat assignment. Important: If you do not have a seat assignment on your ticket, you must validate the ticket at a little box (sometimes yellow but the newer ones are green/blue and gray) near the train platform.