I am looking ahead to May 2023 for train travel from Milan to Nice (changing trains at Ventimiglia). Although I am not trying to reserve seats or purchase tickets at this time, many of the trains for mid-May already show no seats available. Can I assume that this is because Trenitalia has not yet released seats for sale this far in advance? Assuming this is the case, when does Trenitalia normally open up their fast train reservations? Thanks
Posted by
Italy
3812 posts
As explained on the search results page of trenitalia.com , they can't sell you a through ticket from Milan to Nice-Ville because one of the 2 trains is run by a competing, foreign company.
In short, put Ventimiglia as arrival station because the Ventimiglia-Nice TER train is a French train run by the French state railways, aka SNCF
Posted by
California 🦋
5298 posts
One can usually book Trenitalia tickets around 120 days in advance.
Having said this, I just tried “booking” ticket on this route and was not able to.
My mom and I traveled that journey (in reverse) many years ago and enjoyed the scenery very much.
Check here for more helpful details for this train journey: www.seat61.com
Wishing you a wonderful journey!
Edited to add:
Ha! And after posting this reply, Dario saves the day! That makes perfect sense, thanks Dario!
Posted by
OP
13 posts
Full travel to Nice is not the issue. At this point in time, I cannot purchase a ticket on any of the Intercity trains in the month of May from Milan to Ventimiglia. I can reserve for similar days and times for February, March and April, just not May. I had already checked with the seat61 website and they state that Trenitalia usually opens up these trains about 120 days out, but sometimes not until 60 days out. So what I was asking is does anyone have an idea or any personal experience as to when Trenitalia might open up the Milan-Ventimiglia Intercity trains for reservations. I can't find anything on the Trenitalia website. Thanks
Posted by
Italy
3812 posts
The Seat 61 site is wrong, Trenitalia opens the bookings up to the next timetable change, or up to June 11 in 2013. In fact I have made a search and the IC booking are blocked only on May 12 and 13 and on May 20 and 21. Two week-ends out of 4 in May.
If they have blocked the bookings on a specific route it's because they are going to add more trains on that route on those days. Or because they are planning some works on that line. Since they always add new trains from Milan to Liguria around Easter, I bet on the first option.
In both cases, since nobody else can get those tickets now (and 99% of Trenitalia's customers wouldn't dream of), you can only forget about that leg and check again in late March.