Trenitalia - Schedule Availability

Your train from Rome to Florence is a high speed train, and those are sold several months in advance. The slower intercity trains I think are only sold a month in advance, and have no advantage to being pre purchased because the price does not change....

No, I am afraid the above message is partially wrong. There is a seasonal timetable change on June 12 and December 11.

Since nobody but American tourists looks for train tickets months in advance, Trenitalia uploads the schedules of the long distance trains (that in theory could sell out), first. I mean the Intercity IC and the Freccia-something trains with only reserved seats and discounted tickets.

The summer schedules of the local trains with no reserved seats (the Regionales that can't sell out) will be gradually uploaded by June 11.

Therefore, use a day of travel before June 11 for planning and get tickets between June 11 and July 27.

Italotreno is less predictable, but of course they always meet the June 11 deadline.

Thanks tmalave and Dario.

Dario -- so Firenze to Pisa to Vernazza falls into the local and no reserved seats category? Same with Vernazza to Firenze or Milan (depending on which route we go)? I am guilty :-) that I do try to book long distrance trains early to perhaps save a little $ and of course to choose seats. Ha!

It depends on what trains you choose. You could do the entire Florence-Pisa-Vernazza trip on regionale, but you could also choose a routing that includes a leg on a Freccia or InterCity train. Fares on the latter would tend to increase as your travel date approaches. Note that you don't always save time by including a Freccia or InterCity leg; you could end up with a significant wait at your transfer point(s).

You need to go to the Trenitalia website and look at the options. For each departure, the type(s) of trains is shown right above the departure time.

Thanks acraven -- Trenitalia has become my friend ;-). I know the exact times and routes I want to take....just nothing has shown up yet...which then-I believe falls in line with what has been suggested being regionals or intercities. I do find on my last leg Vernazza to Venezia S.Lucia on 30Jul that if I request out of Firenze to Venezia S.M. Lucia there are schedules available....which means I could go ahead and buy this long distance train now.

This is no advantage to purchasing Regionale train in advance on-line. Couple of disadvantages if you do. -- buy them on site the day before or day of travel. There is no discount.

The advantage of purchasing Regionale tickets online (in advance or not) is that you don't need to time-stamp them before getting on the Regionale train.

Melinda's plan seems quite set. So, I doubt she needs an open Regionale ticket valid for 24 hours. The 4-hours window of the e-tickets should be enough for her.

Thanks again! Dario--I didn't realize I would not have to time stamp with online tickets; that is helpful, too! Always appreciate the expertise and experience! Thanks all!