Train travel in Italy - need advice

You would be best off buying the tickets at the stations as you go - the Trenitalia website shows that they are mostly Regionale trains, so no point in buying in advance. If you haven’t used the Trenitalia website before, things to remember are:
Use Italian place names.
Set not only the date (day/month/year format), but also the earliest time you might want to travel (24 hour clock).

You can buy tickets in advance and get some deep discounts. I never do this for any train travel the day I arrive in Italy. If the flight is late and you've purchased discounted tickets they are useless.

Buy point to point tickets. There are some family tickets available but price check first to see if buying discounted tickets will be cheaper as to get the family ticket you buy full priced adult tickets.

Donna

Definitely no need for a pass. You buy the tickets at the station when you’re ready to travel.

Some of the trains from Florence to Chiusi are price-variable (cheaper if you can snag a non-refundable/non-changeable ticket by buying well in advance). Those more-expensive trains won't actually save you significant travel time, so you needn't make a point of taking one of them unless the schedule simply works better for you. The other departures are regional trains on which fares do not change. If the Florence-Chiusi trip is to be taken on the day you fly into Italy, it's not a good idea to buy the ticket ahead of time because of possible delays. If that ticket is for travel on a later date and you want to take an InterCity train or a routing including a Frecciargento, you can save by buying ahead of time. If prefer a regional train, you may as well wait; you can't buy those tickets very early in any case.

For travel between Chiusi and Rome, you again have the option of slow regional trains or more expensive InterCity and Freccia trains, but in this case there's rather more of a time difference.

The easiest place to look at the schedule is on the user-friendly Deutsche Bahn website, but you cannot buy Italian tickets there.

Thank you! This is helpful!

hc,

All the trips you've mentioned are very easy, and since you'll be travelling today there's absolutely no point in buying advance tickets online. Just buy at the stations, using either a Kiosk or staffed ticket office. The discounted tickets are only available well in advance for the express trains and since you'll be using Regionale, the tickets are always the same price, whether you buy in advance or not.

When you're settled in Italy and have a few spare minutes, you could always buy all the tickets for your trip at the same time. However, don't validate them until just before use (more on that below). You might want to use a staffed ticket office for that, so that you make sure to get the appropriate discounts (if any) for the kids.

Many of the trains you'll be using will be Regionale so it's VERY IMPORTANT that you validate (time & date stamp) the tickets prior to boarding the train on the day of travel, or you'll risk hefty fines which will be collected on the spot! The validating machines are typically close to the tracks, and will be either yellow or green & gray coloured. Validation is also necessary when using buses, metro or other public transit.

Regarding each of your trips.....

• Florence airport to Firenze Santa Maria Novella - use the Tram which has a travel time of ~19 minutes. The cost is very reasonable.
• Firenze SMN to Chiusi-Chianciano Terme - most of the trains are direct but there are some with one change. I'd recommend using one of the direct Regionale trains. Travel time is ~1H:50M and cost is about €14 PP (might be a discount for the kids, I didn't check).
• Chiusi-Chianciano Terme to Roma Termini - there are both Regionale and Intercity trains on this route. I'd suggest using a Regionale Veloce train as it will be considerably cheaper and not really much difference in time. Again, look for a direct train. Fare for the Regionale Veloce is €9.95 PP.
• Chiusi-Chianciano Terme to Firenze SMN - again, use one of the direct Regionale Veloce trains. Travel time ~1H:50M and fare €14 PP.

You can see all the train solutions on the Trenitalia website.

If you do decide to use an Intercity or Freccia train at some point, note that these come with compulsory seat reservations which will be included in the cost of your tickets. These tickets are specific to train, date and departure time and can ONLY be used on the ONE train listed on the ticket. If you board the wrong train by mistake, you'll again be subject to hefty fines!

Hope this helps.

The Trenitalia app saves time at ticket machines and windows.

"The Trenitalia app saves time at ticket machines and windows."

Unfortunately the Trenitalia app is only available for iPads in the Canadian Apple store, so not much use to those here who only have iPhones. I much prefer using the Trainline app as they offer tickets for many different rail carriers all over Europe, including both major rail networks in Italy. That provides "one stop shopping". Although Trainline may charge a small fee for some trips, I don't find that to be a problem.

As I don't know which country all posters on the forum are from (not everyone provides this information in their profile), I provided a generic link to the Trainline site. Anyone that wants the app will need to check their respective App stores.

The trenitalia app is a real time saver. We used it almost exclusively to book tickets during our most recent trip to Italy last June. Although I was initially a little reluctant to try it, after a few comic misadventures at remote stations where the kiosks wouldn't accept my credit card info, and at SMN in Florence with its long lines, I decided to give it a try and never looked back. With it I was able to conduct searches and book the tickets while sitting in our apartment or in a restaurant sipping a coffee, then bypass all of the chaos at the stations while boarding the trains.
Once you've established an account (which is easy to do) one person in the group can book tickets for everyone ... no need for everyone to have individual accounts or their own smart phones. The tickets are sent to you as an attachment to a confirmatory email you'll receive once the transaction has been completed. It really couldn't be easier or more user friendly.
Might add that booking the tickets electronically negates the requirement to validate paper tickets at the station before boarding since the tickets are already time stamped.

You dont have to buy tickets the day of travel, you can buy them at your arrival to that city, while you are already at the train station. Or buy them for all segments when you first get there. That way they are in hand, but not going through the online purchase hassle.

Stati Uniti.