trains in Italy

Regional trains
Fare never changes, no discounts
Cannot sell out
No seat reservations

Unfortunately the Regionale trains are more like bus on rails. Regionale trains make frequent stops with lots of people getting on and off. Over the last 30+ years using trains in Italy we have stood a few times to start but a seat becomes available within a couple of stops. The fare for a Regionale is fixed -- doesn't change. ALL other trains in Italy have a seat reservation with the ticket. There are discount tickets available for the other trains but the number of tickets is limited and those tickets will sell out a few weeks in advance. The base ticket in Italy is still fairly reasonable. Rail travel in Italy is easy and fairly cheap.

The Rome-Florence regionale veloce trains are all 2nd class. I'd say a good chance of getting seats, as few people are going all the way to Florence from Rome as they would most likely take one of the fast trains. If you don't see any seats, just wait. Some people will get off at the next stop and you can grab them before others get on board.

if you want, you can take an IC train that does not cost much more than a RV train, that is faster, and has reserved seats, but it only stops at Florence Rifredi station. Then you would have to go back to Florence SMN by a regional train, a whole 7 minutes

So if you take a regional train, it doesn't matter when you buy the ticket?

So if you take a regional train, it doesn't matter when you buy the ticket?

Correct - the price is the same every day. No sales, no surcharges.

I took this regional line in the other direction and the busiest part of the journey was the last part into Rome (on a Friday afternoon). Even then we still had empty seats across from us.

There aren’t any major cities in the middle of the line so I wouldn’t expect large crowds.

You can buy IC train tickets anytime as well. The Base fare (anytime flexible) for Orvieto to Florence SMN is 25.10 EUR, vs the regional train fare of 18:10 EUR. If you want to book a nonrefundable or partially refundable IC ticket, you can buy for a specific departure for as low as 10.90 EUR.

Ksea, That's good info. We will be traveling on Friday afternoon. I was wondering if that would make a difference.

Certainly more people will be traveling on a Friday afternoon.

You do realize that you are asking us to predict a particular train loading on some Friday afternoon at an unknown date in the future.

It's okay. I just found a good rate on an intercity train. I did make a mistake, I think, and use paypal. They use a spread on the exchange rate, which isn't as good as the current rate and don't have to finalize for 72 hours, to see how the rates change. Live and learn. I really can't be more than a couple dollars.

When you use PayPal, you can specify that the transaction take place in euros rather than dollars, and you should do so, just as at hotels, restaurants, shops and ATMs (bancomats).