Our Trenitalia tickets are printed for our long runs on frecce trains but we'll need many other tickets for day trips on regional trains. I want to buy these online after we arrive but will have no way to print them. Can we even use a digital ticket on our phones or must we always have a printed ticket? If digital is OK, how do we validate these? I was hoping to streamline the purchases to avoid ticket lines at the various stations and/or having to go to the station a day early to buy tickets to ensure we get the departure & return times we want. If this has been answered before, sorry, but I couldn't find anything via the search bar.
Susan,
Tickets purchased online do not need to be validated (they are already validated & thus come with restrictions), and yes, you
can show your ticket using your smartphone or other digital media.
Here is more information regarding Regionale train tickets: http://www.trenitalia.com/tcom-en/Purchase/Regional-online-ticket-and-passes
Enjoy your trip!
You can just show the ticket on your phone to the conductor, who will probably scan it. If your device isn't working, it will be a problem.
It's a good idea to have a hard copy on you, just in case your phone decides to die.
And also - the obvious, here - if you decide to use the phone option, be sure to take a photo "screen shot" of your on-line tickets, so that you can pull them up from your "photos" link on your phone, and will not be at the mercy of whatever wifi or data service does or doesn't exist when you are on the train and want to show them to the conductor.
Simple concept -- Any ticket purchased on-line is restricted to a certain, date, time, train and seat. This is also true for Regionale tickets that are restricted to a three hour window (no seat reservation) when they are valid. ONLY Regionale tickets purchased at a ticket machine, ticket window, travel agency have to be validated.
Thanks all so very much!! Extremely helpful!!