Trenitalia and Visa payments

Welcome to the club. Most people here (95%+?) have not been able to get the Trenitalia site to accept their US-issued credit card. It's not anything you're doing wrong.

Larry figured out how to do it, but I notice lately he's been telling people asking your question to just buy tickets once they get in country; train station clerks or machines will take your credit card.

Hi Kent,
Thanks for the reply, This train will be our transport to our first night in Italy and I don't want to get left behind at the station without a reservation. I also want to keep my group of 6 together somewhat. (same car) Any ideas on 1st class vs 2nd class seats? How about smoking vs non-smoking cars?
Thanks,
Dave

Others on the forum know more than I do about trains, let's see what they say (might be tomorrow before they're on the forum).

In the meantime, here's Larry's explanation of how to do the Verified by Visa thing:

http://www.ricksteves.com/graffiti/helpline/index.cfm/rurl/topic/28176/how-to-use-your-visa-card-to-buy-trenitalia-tickets.html

I agree with Larry to buy your tickests when you are there. It is easy and, I think, cheaper. You will find user friendly automated machines or you could wait in line and deal with a person.

RB

Another option is to book your tickets on RailEurope - they do charge a small (very small in our case) fee, but will accept US cards. We had the same situation, needed to be on a particular train after landing in Rome - we did buy all of the other train tickets at the station and it worked great.

Dave, if you can trust us on the site, you will not be left behind in Milan. North Americans simply do not recognize the enormity of the Italian train system. One issue that you have is that Trenitalia will not accept online reservations and sales for more than 5 people. Second issue. Most of the trains going from Milan to Vernazza are either IC or R trains. No reservations are possible on the R trains. It's the local and much like a bus. You buy your ticket, get on and find your seat. First on gets the set. The IC train is the same except that you used to be able to pay 3Euro extra for a guaranteed seat. But, I don't think you can do this online. There are some runs with EC trains. These trains DO require seat reservations.

If you are arriving in Milan by plane, you are looking at just short of 2.0hrs before you will arrive at Milan Central (1hr. to de-plane, get your luggage and clear immigration and 1hr. for the bus ride from the airport to the train station. The remaining factor is that planes are sometimes late. This will definitely throw a kink into your travel plans.

The suggested strategy would be to buy tickets on a run that has IC and R trains. These will be open tickets with no time or train number on them. With point A being Milan and point B being Vernazza, you can hop onto any train run going from point A to point B. Remember - no seat reservations. If seats are full, you can stand. But, that's not likely.

If you are really out of your comfort level, you can buy the tickets you want from Rail Europe at a higher price. But, remember, all you will get from RE are open tickets. Once you get there, its the same rules described above. If you get there early enough for your train, get on early and get your seats.

RailEurope does not charge a small fee they charge a big fee. First, they mark up the tickets maybe by as much as 50% and then charge you a small service/delivery fee to make it look good but you have already paid a substantial fee to book with them. There are some discount available for advance purchase on Italian rail but the basic ticket without the discount is very reasonable. Not so for other countries especially England but for Italy buy them when you get there.

I tried and tried and never was able to book/pay online.

It's true what the rest have said about the trains -- I've never been unable to get on the train I wanted.

If you're still unable to relax without a reservation, it seems like I read of others calling Trenitalia, or as a last resort use a broker.

But as someone else made reference to, once you use the Italian train system you'll realize that in its own funky way, it's going to get you where you need to go.

Hello everyone,
Thanks much for all the advice. We will be flexible and go with the flow as it were. I am reminded that one of the things the Italian prople remember about Mussolini was that he got the trains to run on time. Well, a belated thanks to old Benito.

Looking forward to experincing Italy...on a train.

Thanks again,
Dave

We had the same problems, so I just bought tickets the day I arrived into Italy. Our train had massive delays, unfortunately, but the ticket purchase process went smoothly.