Train travel and reservations for May in Italy

If you can commit to a day and time, by all means pre-book your high speed Freccia trips. You can save a lot €€€ by reserving as far in advance as possible. I just scored first class to Salerno from Rome for €19 each way. regionals are usually not reserved. We've had to stand sometimes when they are full. All part of the adventure! You can go high speed Rome to Florence then transfer to a train or bus to Siena.

Schedules for December through May should be out sometime in the next 30 days or so, sometimes it takes Trenitalia a little longer to get it together. Prices for super-economy tickets are posted four months out, but I've gotten the super-economy price as late as 30 days out. If the schedule appears on December 1, you still won't be able to find end-of-May tickets at the super-economy fare until the end of January. You will receive an e-ticket within minutes that you can print out and take with you. It has a seat and carriage assignment, so you don't need to validate it prior to boarding, but you can only use it on the train, date and time specified.

I recently returned from Italy earlier this month. For all your regional trains like Florence to Vernazza buy those tickets when you get to italy. There is no savings to buying them now. The kiosks in the stations were easy to use and in english, just remember to validate. The ticket is good for 60 days, so you can purchase your ticket on a thursday and use it on sunday after you validate it. It's not tied down to a specific time (even though when you purchase it you a time on the kiosk). The train ticket just prints From Orvieto, To Roma Termini on the ticket. So you can use it for the 11:15 train or the 2:40 train if you want to leave later. For Siena to Florence take the bus. That is what we did from Rick's book. It was a simple 1 hour ride while the train took longer and had a connection to make. The only tickets you want to buy now are the high speed train tickets if you can get the savings. These tickets come with seat reservations and you are tied to that train time. I forgot if it's 60 or 90 days out the train tickets go onsale on Trenitalia website. the high speed trains cover the big cities of Milan-Florence, Florence-Rome, Rome-Venice etc. They can be anywhere from 50-70 euro, however if you purchase in advance you get them dicounted down to 19,24,30 euro etc. I had a 2nd class ticket from Venice to Florence for 19 euro as I booked it early. You can purchase these online, they will email you your ticket. Just print those out and take them with you on the trip. FYI your Monterosso to Venice train trip will be a regional train to Genoa, then a regional train or IC train to Milan, then the High Speed train to venice. or it will be a local train to la spezia, local train to florence and then high speed train to Venice. I did this in reverse and the 2nd option is what we had.

The winter schedule is not out yet so you won't be able to book those tickets yet. The schedule should start to show up by the beginning of December. Regional tickets should be bought the day of travel. High speed train tickets can be bought in advance for big savings but they have very strict change rules. Don't buy them unless you are sure you can make the train Donna

The super economy tickets become available on Trenitalia.com 4 months in advance of the travel date. (If you want tickets for travel on May 15, the super economy tickets will become available January 16. Every now and then someone says the time period is 120 days, but it isn't. With February in that date range, it makes a difference.) The more popular routes and times get snatched up very quickly. No additional discount tickets will be offered, so don't think you can wait and get a better deal if they release more tickets. They won't and you can't. Super Economy is definitely where you'll get the best deals (sometimes as low as 9 euros), if you can commit to a specific time.

Can't thank you all enough for the great information. This is what I gather....if I want high speed train reservations for June I need to make them 4 months prior as they will not have the schedules out till then? We will be going from Rome to Siena not Florence to Siena. Better to take bus or train? I had read that in order to go from Cinque Terre to Venice the best route might be from Monterroso to Pisa then Bologna then Venice. I think the Bologna to Venice was high speed so maybe better not make that res till later to make sure the prior connections work? Take bus from Siena to Florence, CHECK, hadn't even considered that thank you. I'm assuming you can buy the bus tickets right before like the trains?

Some have reported problems booking on Trenitalia -- card not accepted, reservation didn't go through, website locked up at payment, etc. Two things you can do to avoid problems. First, sign up on the Trenitalia website and get a user name and password. Now you are a favored customer! Secondly, make sure you tell your bank or credit card company that you will be purchasing Italian train tickets long before you actually travel to Italy. Get on the site and practice buying tickets and selecting your seats using dates within four months of the date you are practicing. When the time comes to get your tickets, you'll be a real pro. We always go first class since the super economy tickets are dirt cheap if bought at four months out.

George, if you're traveling with super economy tickets, you're in 2nd Class, not 1st.

I had read that in order to go from Cinque Terre to Venice the best route might be from Monterroso to Pisa then Bologna then Venice. I think the Bologna to Venice was high speed so maybe better not make that res till later to make sure the prior connections work?

You'll have to play around with Trenitalia on routing Monterosso to Venice. Just use current dates to get an idea of schedules for planning. I used Wed Nov 7 at 0900 for departure and saw choices thru Florence with 3 or 4 trains (1 Freccia) and thru Milano with 2 trains (1 Freccia, 1 Intercity), and a variety of fares. Make a note of what might work for you in the current schedules. When the real schedules for your time period are released, they won;t be much different than current, so you'll be ready to jump on the Freccia that is best for you and book that segment only. You can buy the connecting regionale or intercity when you are in Italy.

Tammy,

A few comments.....

My preference for Rome to Siena would be via train. There are two routes for that particular trip:

• Freccia to Florence and then Regionale to Siena
• Regionale Veloce and Regionale to Siena (one change at Chiusi). Of the two, the Regionale trains will be cheaper and may be quicker, depending on which train you use.

For the trip from Monterosso to Venice, there are two main routes - via Milano Centrale OR via Pisa and Florence. You'll be using several trains on that route, both Regionale and Freccia, and you can check the details on the Trenitalia website.

One of the quickest and easiest trips will be a departure from Monterosso at 08:59, arriving Venezia Santa Lucia at 14:20 (time 5H:51M, two changes at Pisa and Florence).

You'll likely only be able to pre-purchase tickets for the "premium" trains in advance. You can buy the Regionale tickets in Italy a few days before you'll be travelling, either from a staffed ticket office or a Kiosk. There's no price break for buying those in advance. DON'T forget to validate Regionale tickets prior to boarding the train on the day of travel (that also applies to Bus or Metro tickets)!

One very important point to note is the tickets purchased for Freccia and other premium trains have compulsory reservations which are specific to a particular train, date and departure time. You can ONLY use the train specified on your ticket! If you board any other train, you'll be subject to hefty fines which will be collected on the spot!

Venice to Milan is very easy by Freccia high speed train. Be sure to choose one of the direct trains, rather than one with a change.

You might find it helpful to have a look at the excellent www.roninrome.com website concerning rail travel in Italy.

Happy travels!

Zoe said: "You will receive an e-ticket within minutes that you can print out and take with you. It has a seat and carriage assignment, so you don't need to validate it prior to boarding, but you can only use it on the train, date and time specified." How would you validate an e-ticket if you had to? Also, am I correct in assuming that this e-ticket could be saved to an email folder or to Evernote or Dropbox, etc., for retrieval when it is needed? Thanks!

I had a eticket for my trip last month. I saved the email and printed it off before I left. There is no need to validate the ticket with a seat on it. Your eticket is already validated. Also my journey from Vencie to Vernazza had 2 other tickets for Florence to La Spezia and La Spezia to Vernazza. When I printed them off, right the ticket if said this ticket is validated for 4 hours starting at xxxxx. No need to validate that one you print. Trenitalia sends you a PDF file so you can save it anywhere until needed. I'm not 100% sure but I don't think you even need to print your ticket, you can just give the conductor your PNR code that is on the email you save. Ron in Rome has a good article on this but it says it's currently down. I jsut printed my tickets at home. http://www.roninrome.com/transportation/ticketless-and-pnr-codes-on-trenitalia

So I have the high speed reservations figured out but I'm wondering....we will be catching quite a few regional trains...Rome-tivoli..Rome-Siena....florence-Vernazza ...hopefully Monterroso-santa margherita leguire...and then the routes from CT-Venice, so. My question. Would it be better to get some kind of pass that would allow us to hop on and off these regional trains, if there is such a thing,easier? or just buy each ticket for each route at the station when we are ready to travel?

A regional ticket is a hop on/off ticket. If going from A to E with a regional ticket, you can get off and on anywhere all the line as long as the trip is completed within five hours. If you want to take longer then buy a ticket from A to C and than from C to E.

I guess what I was wondering is if we should get like a eurail pass but for trenitalia so that we didn't have to buy tickets each time or day we are taking the train somewhere. Maybe there is no such option? I just liked the idea of having one ticket or pass that was good for so many rides instead of having to buy so many individual tickets. Guess I need to do more research

On the regional train tickets.....can we buy our tickets at the station say like 1/2 hour before we want to leave or do we need to buy them a day ahead? I'm just wondering if we look at the schedules the night before and decide on an 8:15 train from Rome to Siena can we arrive at the station 1/2 hr before, purchase tickets, and get on the train? I understand that if we are wanting a high speed train we need reservations, but what about the regional trains between rome and Siena,...florence to Vernazza etc. ? Those are the ones in foggy on.

Tammy, the last three messages from you ask the question regarding the convenience of a pass vs buying a bunch of Regionale tickets as you go along. Yes you can buy a Eurail pass and jump on any Regionale train at any time. The issue is cost vs. convenience. Many of the journeys you are describing cost under 10Euro. Siena/Florence is 8.60Euro. Train rides in the CT between towns are about 2.10Euro. Rome/Siena is 43Euro but you can take the bus from the Roma-Tiburtina train station for 24Euro. The train from Monterosso to Milan is not a high-speed. At best, it's an intercity train. For any Regionale trains, its free. For the intercity train, you need to pay 3Euro for a seat reservation. It's not free. Regular fare is 26Euro for the Intercity train. For Milan to Venice, you will again need seat reservations. 10Euro for the seat reservations on the high-speed Freccia train. The regular fare from Monterosso to Venice is 63.50Euro plus the 13Euro for seat reservations.

I'm betting that the cost for all of these train tickets do not come close to the cost of your Eurail pass for Italy. But, if you want to pay extra for the convenience, it's your choice. You can walk onto any Regionale train but you can't on the Intercity or Freccia trains.

I prefer to buy tickets ahead of time (buy ticket out of Rome on the day I arrive in Rome, for example) in order to avoid any lines at the ticket window, or in case the automated kiosks only take chip-and-pin cards and not cash. At major stations, lines can be long at any time of day. Or you can buy your ticket online if you can either print it out or show the emailed ticket to the conductor.

Just to make sure it is clear for you. How you use a regional ticket is very different than all of the other tickets for Italian trains. Except for the Regional trains all other trains require a reservation. And those ticket are worthless the minute the train leaves the station. There is no refund, exchange, etc., for any ticket with a reservation once the train pulls out. Except for the Super Economy ticket the other two classes of ticket can be exchange prior to the train leaving. So if you buy a ticket on one of the faster trains with a reservation make absolute certain you do not miss the train.

However, a regional ticket is good for sixty days and can be used anytime within that sixty day period. When you are ready to use the ticket, you validate (time stamp) the ticket in the yellow (sometimes blue) validation box and get on the train. For most tickets you have five hours to get to your destination. Sometimes longer if you going a greater distance. You can get on and off any time during that five hour period as long as your journey is completed within the time limit.

You can easily purchase all of your regional tickets at one time (via machine or in person) and then use them when you want to go. When you purchase the other tickets you have to know the exact train, day, and time. A rail pass for Regional trains gain almost nothing in convenience but at a much higher price.

Frank.....THANK YOU SO MUCH! That's the answer I was looking for. I will plan on buying all my regional tickets when we arrive at the airport in Rome and validating them on the days we plan on using them. Meanwhile, I will make the high speed train reservations as soon as the schedules are up. Am I right in understanding that we won't need reservations for the regionals just the high speed trains?

Ok. I'm checking trenitalia website on prices from Rome termini to Siena and I'm finding prices of 37 euro for a 4hr trip or I see this message

The regional travel solution is not purchasable if the travel solution departure date is after 7 days from current date Tariffa 14RM not sealable on this channel

First if the regional trips are going to be that much wouldn't a rail pass be cheaper second what in the world does that message mean??

Try to keep this simple. First, I would not buy all my tickets at the ticket office at the airport. It is a small, one person ticket office and you would suck up a lot of time when most of the ticket buyers want to buy a quick ticket on the Leonard Express. There is one or two machines you could use but again the same problem. And, if you are holding up the line, the ticket seller may not be all that helpful. I do recommend buying an addition ticket if you are immediately moving on after you arrive at Termini but if buying a bunch of ticket wait till you get to Termini or your end destination that day. Termini has 50 to a hundred ticket machines and several ticket windows.

Second, you can only buy or see Regional train tickets/schedules/prices on line seven days before departure. You are not seeing prices for the Regional trains if you plugged in dates greater than seven days out. However, do not ever buy Regional train tickets on line. Those tickets come with restrictions and there is no savings if purchased early. That is what that statement is telling you.

If you want to see the schedule and price for a Regional train just pick a day this week. Prices do not change over time.

When you see No Solution on the Trenitalia web site, it simply means that a ticket is not available for what you have requested. Generally the reason is that the schedule has not been loaded into the web site. On extremely rare occasion it may mean that the train is sold out but that is so unlikely I assume the schedule is not posted.

The one item that is critical when buying tickets at machines in Italy is to know the Italian spelling of the city. Use Google to get correct spelling prior to leaving.

Third, you need a reservation on all trains in Italy except Regional trains. When you buy the ticket the reservation automatically comes with the ticket, if required. You have no choice. You cannot buy a reservation on a Regional train even if you wanted to do so. Think of Regional trains as big buses on rails. Just get on and go. No seat ?? You stand until one becomes available.

Tammy, a few more add-ons to Frank's information. 1) you cannot buy Regionale train tickets online more than 7 days out from the time of travel. Thus, if you are attempting to buy Regionale tickets beyond 11/12, you will get the "No Solution Found" message. 2) you can buy all of the Regionale train tickets you wish when you arrive in Italy. They are good for 60 days on any Regionale train run shown on the ticket. Just be careful WHEN you validate. Validate just before boarding as once you validate, the ticket is only good for 6 hours from the time stamped on the ticket. 3) You can buy a Regionale ticket online in advance if it is coupled with a fast-train ticket. For example, Florence to Lake Como. You would have a fast train ticket from Florence to Milan and a Regionale ticket from Milan to Lake Como. One big difference here is that the Regionale ticket will be pre-validated and only good for 4 hours. It won't be good for 60 days.