Trains: Reserved vs General seating: "how to"

Robyn,

It's been awhile since you were in Italy so I'm sure you'll notice lots of changes.

The express trains on the Trenitalia network (Freccia, Intercity) have mandatory reservations which are specific to train, date and departure time. That meams the tickets can only be used on the one train listed on the tickets. If you miss that train you can't board the next one as you'll likely face hefty fines which are collected on the spot! If you buy tickets in advance, it's possible to get sizable discounts using Super Economy or Economy tickers. Those are limited so once they sell out for a particular train, you'll be stuck with Base fare, which is the highest. Note that the discounted tickets have conditions, and Super Economy are non-refundable or changeable after purchase, so be sure of your details when you buy.

No reservations are possible on the Regionale or Regionale Veloce trains. Just board the train and find a seat. If no seats are available, you'll have to stand. If you buy Regionale tickets at the station from one of the ticket machines, note that these must be validated prior to boarding the train on the day of travel, or again you'll risk hefty fines collected on the spot. The same is true of bus or metro tickets.

One other change since your last visit is that there's a competing rail network on the high speed routes, Italo Treno. Their coaches are a nice maroon colour, so your won't confuse those with Trenitalia.

Regarding your ticket purchase, you might consider just starting a new account on the Trenitalia site. You can buy tickets for Italo on their website. You can also use one of the ticket resellers, such as Trainline, which also sells tickets for many rail networks all over Europe. If you're going to be travelling in different countries, that provides "one stop shopping".

Buon Viaggio!

The only thing I'd add to Ken's advice is to download the Trenitalia app for the phone and use it,

You can check schedules, track trains in real time and buy tickets with waiting in line at ticketing machines or as you're boarding the train if you have to.

Battling with the trains is part of the Italian experience - have a great trip!
=Tod

I'm heading to Italy in March and have been using Trainline to book my various trips. I've gotten some great deals as I booked well in advance realizing that I'm out of luck if things change. I also realize I'm paying a slight premium to use Trainline but for 3 weeks it's well worth it to have one app, in English, to guide me through train trips in Italy, Switzerland, and France.

Very easy to use, used it in England and Scotland last year as well.

To get you up to speed on train travel in Italy
https://www.seat61.com/train-travel-in-italy.htm

I am also traveling in March. I looked at both trenitalia and Italo, downloaded both apps and applied for the CartaFreccia for trenitalia (to get senior discount, applied in Jan. got email 35 days later). Once you sign up for Italo, they send emails weekly about discounts. I ended up booking non refundable tickets on Italo for a fraction of the price of base. For our first train, Rome to Florence on arrival day, I booked 2 sets of tickets, 3 hours apart (in case flight is delayed) because they were so cheap. Yes, I'll be throwing away about 15 euro total (2 of us traveling) but it was still less than half the cost of the economy. We shall see if my strategy works. I'll update after the trip. And yes, the flight could be so delayed we miss both trains, but at that point we have bigger problems (and trip insurance).

Ken, can you just clarify, If you buy a regional ticket on the app (say trenitalia regional FCO-Termini) is there still a need to validate the ticket before getting onboard, or does that happen automatically?

No validation needed for regional purchased online or on app

sanomh, tickets bought on the Trenitalia app have a QR code for each ticket the conductor scans if/when they come by and check.

=Tod

Great, thanks for the confirmation on not needing to have app tickets validated. Is it also true, that if I buy the FCO-Tiburtina ticket on the app (~8euro) that's a regional train, so I can take any train on that day? Or is it specific to the exact time/train? If it's specific, I will just wait until I'm sure which one we'll need, and buy it on the app.
Thanks.

that's a regional train, so I can take any train on that day?

You can take any Regional train running on the picked day only if you buy the old-fashioned paper tickets at the counter or at a ticket machine.

Validating means time-stamping a paper ticket before boarding a Regional train. The moment you have time-stamped that ticket, you have 4 hours to use it on any regional train on that route.

If you get a Regional ticket online, the 4 hours "window" start with the departure of the booked train. That's the reason you don't need to print and time-stamp e-tickets; and that's also the reason why missing a Regional train isn't a big deal: You can always freely take the next one.

The problem with both Regional trains serving Fiumicino (the FL1 and the Leonardo Express) is that the evil minds behind Trenitalia have shortened the 4 hours window to 90 minutes. On the other hand neither the LeoEx nor the FL1 can sell out and have reserved seats... whereas there is free wifi at FCO airport.

Thanks Dario, sounds like the smart thing to do is to just wait until we're at the airport and know approximately which train we will catch, then just use the app and free wifi to book the ticket.

@sanomh

That is exactly what one should do. Or just buy at the ticket machine (or the ticket window) at the airport station, if somehow you can't get wifi signal on your app.

Thank you so much everyone!
I know ALLL about the fines on the trains; even tho I KNEW I needed to validate before boarding, on our first day of my first trip, we were on our last connection for the day (a very LOOONG day) and saw we needed to be on the other side of the station NOW, as the train was about to leave. We hustled over, jumped on, and almost right away it pulled away. We had forgotten to validate. We got a 50 euro fine each. BOO! The conductor didn't care that this was our first day EVER in Italy, that our previous train stopped on the track for a good 45 minutes, making us late, and we didn't know how the train system works for the most part (didn't know there'd be another train along soon enough we could have taken, IE.).
I didn't know there was a competing train line! Does this mean "less train strikes"? Or does that make any difference?
I happened to have made a trenitalia account but there's just no info on what trains are what, or what a person is expected to do or not do for each type of train. So, thanks for the help!!
Robyn