Trains between Italian cities

Hi Becky,
Not sure if the schedules are available at the stations themselves (although, it seems logical that they would be), but you can certainly get them at most tabacchi. You could also just spend some time now as you're at the computer and copy down some departure/arrival times for the days you're planning on traveling, the schedule won't change between now and then...
Train travel in Italy is surprisingly simple -- expect the occasional hiccup, and just enjoy a different culture!

Becky,
I am 99% sure that in his book Rick talks about having the train times posted at the train stations. But yes, at the tabacchi they will have them too.

The schedule is certainly posted at the station, not sure if there are schedules for distribution. I have always went on line and printed out schedules for the day and destination I am traveling as a reference, or even just noted the departure times. For example, Venice to Florence, it looks like there is about one train an hour and they leave at about 45 min after the hour; I may not need more than that. If I know the specific train I want to take, then I also print out the detail of the trip and use that for reference at the machine, or give it to the ticket counter to help in communication, whether I am buying tickets on the spot, or a few days ahead. For February, I would think that there should be plenty of seats.

I think the easiest thing to do for travel on the Eurostar is to see a travel agent once you are in Italy. That's what I have done in the past.

Amica fares (20% discount) are sold for your Venice-Florence and Florence-Rome routes. If any of the allotted seats are still available, you can get those fares up to midnight of the day before departure. They're good for a specific train at a specific time. If you buy your tickets at least a day or two in advance, you should have a good chance of getting Ameica fares.

Large train schedules are posted in every train station. In Venice, Florence and Rome, they are posted in multiple places. Unfortunately, the schedules are for that station only. These large yellow schedules, behind glass, show every train leaving the station hour-by-hour AND, it shows every stop on every run for every train. For a complete schedule, we never had one. We used www.trenitalia.com/en/index.html to map out a complete schedule of where we wanted to go. We knew the dates, times and train numbers. For short day trips, we could identify the train numbers and times by looking at the large yellow schedules in the train stations.

Trains between Venice, Florence and Rome are the best, fastest and most frequent in Italy. Use the Eurostars. Note that you will need seat reservations for these trains. Very easily done upon arrival. Again, plan in advance.

Note also that you are within 90 days of your travel. You can go onto the website and see accurate train numbers. Just map out some good dates and times as the when you want to travel between the cities.

For example, HERE'S A LINK to a schedule for early trains out of Venezia Santa Lucia to Florence Santa Maria Novella on Feb 3. Go for runs that don't require a train change at Mestre. On runs without a train change, you can see the train number in the "train no." column. You can do this for Florence to Rome as well.

THANK YOU so much. This has been extremely helpful!

I always printed out the schedule for my intended routes and carried that with me. It is great when you have to buy from an agent as you simply show them the schedule and point to the one you want. With most locations having machines, I only needed it when going from Rosarno to Rome.