Trenitalia app and buying tickets

It sounds like all adults traveling. Just have everyone buy their own on the app early and pick seats in the same car and be done with it. A ticket can be bought on the desktop site also and be emailed as an attachment and opened as a PDF on a mobile device without needing an app.

If buy separately you may miss some discount like 2 for 1.

You can set up your account on the website and add "fellow travellers" or something similar to your account so you can quickly add the same people when you buy multiple tickets so it makes it easier. You can probably do this on the app but I'll always choose to type on the computer is possible.

If you buy separate tickets you will be assigned single seats at random. If you buy a certain number of tickets together it will assign you seats together at random unless you "choose your seats". If you want to sit together you will need to coordinate your ticket buying and choose your seats individually. Fast trains offer many 4 seats facing each other around a table and if you're booking 3 or 4 seats together I would expect this to be default 4 person assignment if they are purchased together.

In general if you have a ticket and you are seated in the right class no one really cares if you are in your assigned seat. If you are seated in someone's assigned seat the conductor can kick you out if they insist, but people often trade seats or sit near their assigned seats. You can check in on the app saying you are on the train or if you don't the conductor will come by and check your ticket. Because they are assigned at random people will sit by their friends and may be in your seat when you arrive, but largely people don't care so they explain and offer to move back or let you have their seat instead. Italians take the trains all the time and it is just transportation so they are pretty causal about their usage. If you're going Florence to Bologna whether you're in one seat or another doesn't matter you're just getting back to school or whatever.

Because fast trains have very long trips - Turin to Venice - people often are only riding from Milan to Brescia or Verona to Venice so even if someone is assigned the empty seat you take they may or may not show up during your part of the trip.

Hope that helps,
=Tod

We utilized Trenitalia in April for Florence to Rome to Salerno to Taormina (Sicily). Three legs--with stays in each. I bought all the tickets for everyone well in advance online from here in the US to get the deep discounts. All I needed was everybody's name exactly as it's stated on their passport and then their birth dates. The Trenitalia app was intuitive & great to show the conductor for the four of us from my phone, although I did print up hard copies for everyone to have individually just in case my phone crapped out.

Yes, they do pay attention to assigned seats, although in first or business class--which we did across the board and it was well worth it for only a few more Euro per person--there was always plenty of room and it was easy for us to spread out.

Also should mention that if you purchase tickets on the website without an account - or through a reseller like Trainline - you can transfer them to the app on the phone using the ticket information. If you use your account on the Trenitalia site they should link and show up in your phone automagcially.

Keep in mind that if one person is the holder of the tickets they will need to scroll through the various tickets on their phone for the conductor. It's not a big deal and conductors are used to this but make sure it's the responsible person who will have their phone and it is charged etc. You can also usually transfer the tickets to the various wallet apps on your phone as well.

Just to clarify about the seating - if you are in second class headed to Bologna on a Sunday the car will probably be filled with college kids visiting, catching up or trying to study and no one will care about seats. If you're riding first class to Venice it will be primarily tourists and everything will be orderly and vastly over luggaged. It's hard to describe but certain trips have different vibes. It's usually orderly and organized and then occasionally explosively chaotic. Like the train that had different cars than expected attached to it and other people had the same seat assignments we had and the only arbitrator was a harried employee with a clipboard with unassigned seats on it.

We're probably vastly over-preparing you for a simple 2 hour trip from Milan to Florence that will be uneventful and straightforward, but navigating the occasional chaos of the Italian train system is sometimes part of the adventure. Riding to Florence sitting together will probably help pass the time but riding back may be quieter after all day in Florence.

Prebook tickets for any must see sites in Florence so you don't miss anything or waste time in ticket lines, have a great trip,
=Tod

Thank you everyone for all the responses. I tend to over plan for certain things like this to make sure we have every option available, so it's definitely not "over-preparing" me. I'm trying to see if it's easier for everyone to buy their own tickets, but luckily I travel with people who are fine with keeping track & calculating everything fairly in the end. I also wanted to know how tickets for others are handled. So every bit of information helps & this all makes sense. I appreciate it all.

There are apps for keeping track of costs. I use Splid. You enter an expense and who in the group is sharing it. The app will calculate who owes what to whom at the end of the trip.

I have travelled through Italy quite a few times. When travelling with my wife I just bougth two tickets for us, and when the conductor came I just showed both tickets in the app. (I do the same in other countries).
But one thing that the Trenitalia app allows that other train apps don't is loading already purchased tickets.
All you need is the name on the ticket, and the ticket code. A bit like with a plane ticket, and this way your fellow travellers can load tickets in their phones that you have bought.

My last trip in Italy was on an Interail Pass. I booked my reservations with Rail Europe, and then just added those tickets to the app using the PNR.

I'm trying to see if it's easier for everyone to buy their own tickets, but luckily I travel with people who are fine with keeping track & calculating everything fairly in the end.

An advantage of one person buying for the group is that the app or website will automatically calculate any group discounts that you're eligible for.