Trains from Rome Termini to Venice Santa Lucia

Barbara, The "best way" would be to take one of the high speed Freccia trains (reservations compulsory, which will be included with tickets), which travel at up to 300 kMH. You can certainly purchase tickets on the www.trentialia.com website, and some significant savings are possible if you buy early and can get the "Super Economy" fares. However, one important point to note is that the tickets will be specific to a particular train and departure time, so you MUST use the train specified on the ticket. You can NOT just board any train heading in that direction. If you're caught without valid tickets for the train you're riding on, you'll risk hefty fines of about €60 PP, which will be collected on the spot! Be VERY SURE of your travel date and times when you buy tickets online. You may find it helpful to have a look at the excellent www.roninrome.com website, as he has a very extensive tutorial on the process of buying tickets from Trenitalia. Their website is not always "user friendly" and some people have reported problems when buying online. If you don't mind using Roma Tiburtina station (which is a couple of Metro stops or a short Taxi ride from Termini) you could also use the new Italo high speed trains to Venezia S.L. The travel time is about the same and the currently show fares at €40.50 PP for runs in mid-October. Happy travels!

The only reason to purchase on line is to take advantage of the discounts that might be available. But the super economy ticket, while very cheap, is no change, no refund type of ticket. Out of luck if you change your mind or miss the train. Take any train you like that matches your schedule. Lots of options and times. See trenitalia.com for scheduling pricing info. The earlier you purchase the better change for a discount ticket. Also, you can walk up 30 mins before but your ticket at base fare - still very reasonable.

Barbara, there are 20 train runs a day from Roma-Termini to Venezia Santa Lucia. All but one have no train changes. A few stops but no train changes. For almost all of the runs, you will be on a Frecciargento fast train. These are the "tilting" trains that can reach speeds of 155mph. Tilting means that they will "lean" on flat curves to maintain higher speeds. The journey takes 3hrs45min. The regular 2nd class fare for this run is 80Euro. You can easily buy these tickets when you arrive in Italy 1-2 days in advance. You can see these runs on www.trenitalia.com. Alternatively, you buy the tickets online up to 119 days out from the time of travel. Your planned trip is about 70 days out. Trenitalia will let you buy tickets for up to 5 people so you are OK there. You can even buy the tickets at full fare (with all exchange and refund privileges) right now. But, if you can nail down your day and time of travel, you can go online at purchase tickets at a reduced fare. The Super Economy fares are as low as 29Euro but I don't see any for late October. I do see a few 39Euro and lots of 49Euro tickets. The Super Economy tickets are non-refundable and cannot be exchanged. The 49Euro tickets are Economy tickets. These can be exchanged once before travel for a 12Euro fee. Again, if you can nail down your precise departure time, this is a bargain. Once you purchase, you can print out your tickets moments later at home. If you will provide your expected travel date, I can show you the morning train schedules. Or, you can see it yourself online.

We are doing that same trip in late September. We always purchase early to get the really cheap tickets and on a trip that long, we opt for 1st class. We registered on the Trenitalia website with a user name and password. Once you do that, and it's no hassle, any ticket purchases go smoothly if you notify your credit card company that you are purchasing tickets from Italy. You are probably too late for the super economy tickets but there still may be some in 1st class. Bought early enough, the 1st class tickets aren't that much more than 2nd class and you can usually avoid screeching kids or disruptive groups by doing so. Lots of your questions about train tickets all across Europe are explained at www.seat61.com. We opted to leave around 0700 from Termini and arrive around 1030 or so in Venice. You will have to use the Italian names for the stations Venezia Santa Lucia and leaving from Roma Terminior it won't work.

Thanks to all for your useful help!

7 AM is a brutal time to leave. Your are on vacation. Relax. Leave at 1000.

Be sure to rype in Roma Termini and Venezia Santa Lucia.