Trenitalia purchasing advance tickets confusion

Trenitalia is barred by Italian law from selling train tickets until the Revised European Train timetables are officially released the second Saturday of June. This year, that date is June 14. Tickets for trains running after June 14 will not be available on Trenitalia’s website until after that date.
The same thing happens on the second Saturday in December.
While Trenitalia is restricted from selling its train tix until after those dates, private train operator Italotreno ( aka “ Italo”) and third-party train ticket resellers, The Trainline and Omio, are not barred from selling train tickets prior to that date.

You often can find train tickets for sale on The Trainline’s website ahead of the dates when the newly-revised Train timetables are released.
www.TheTrainline.com

which I find understandable but my question is how can some seats be "unavailable" if no one is allowed to purchase seats until then?

I imagine since the tickets are unavailable, so are the seats. In the inconsistent world of train company websites, one cannot infer that because some seats are not identified as being “ unavailable” that they actually are available.

The Spanish national train company, Renfe, often posts some trains are”Sold Out” when, in fact, the tickets for those trains have not even gone on sale yet.

High speed rail tickets are usually purchasable about two months before your trip. Sometimes the tickets and time will be visible but when you try and actually buy it you'll find you cant. Trying to buy one a month earlier will work fine and that's a sign that they're not available yet. This is complicated by the June release date, but you should be able to buy your tickets once that passes and the schedule is "official".

There are plenty of tickets - the Milan to Como tickets literally can't sell out - so just check back after the middle of June.

Have a great trip,
=Tod

We're traveling to Italy in mid-June, so does this mean we won't be able to buy any tickets in advance until we're already there? This is so confusing because so many posts I've seen recommend booking high speed trains in advance.

@kenko that doesn't seem to be the case, you are able to select seats but when you go to confirm that's when they "error" message appears.

@hiredman Thanks

We're traveling to Italy in mid-June, so does this mean we won't be
able to buy any tickets in advance until we're already there? This is
so confusing because so many posts I've seen recommend booking high
speed trains in advance.

Many of the trains will be available well before the 6/14 date. You will be fine. I'd start looking mid April to beginning of May. Rare that any fast trains sell out.

I successfully bought tickets (business class) on the Trenitalia app today for the end of July (2025), Milan to Florence.