trenitalia website

You might be ok if you use a different website. www.lefrecce.it English option available.

Just buy your tickets without registering. It's much easier that way. Donna

I tried the website Shirley suggested and had the same issue, could not get beyond the "change password" part of the process. Same empty screen saying "generic error". Am working on a mac computer so wondering if that could be posing an issue? Donna suggested buying our train tickets without registering but I thought that you needed to register in order to get the tickets emailed to you?

Laura, Donna is correct ( as usual!). You DO NOT need to register to buy tickets. It does help to recover or change tickets if you have registered and signed in... but Trenitalia is going through some real issues as they try and update their site. They should have hired the guys who did the Italo website! Just make sure to "print page" or at least copy down the "recovery" number after you pay. If an email comes, you won't need it... but you just never know. Good Luck!

Where could I have found the recovery number? I purchased tickets last night and never received an e-mail, so I don't have the tickets. I used a Visa, so the last screen I saw is a Verified by Visa page -- I do not believe there was a recovery number there. I e-mailed Trenitalia, but am tempted to just call my credit card, refuse the charge, and try again rather than calling Italy and trying to sort it out. I had trouble registering as well, so I went through without registering. Now I wish I had dealt with that issue rather than booking without being signed in...

Did you check your spam folder? It might have gone there. Donna

I did. I also checked my other e-mail address and its Spam folder. Nothing =/

I'm having similar issues. Glad to know I'm not alone.

You're not. I called my credit card company and they said they can dispute the charge once it goes through. It was a mini fare, so it's going to cost more to call than the ticket, likely. I was planning to buy Skype dollars as a back-up plan in case we needed to call home via the internet while we're in Europe, but seesh. It seems like a lot of work to call Trenitalia and try to negotiate the issue over a mini fare. Let me know if you have any luck resolving it. Does anyone have experience calling them? I would guess there's at least one English-speaking customer service representative. But you never know.

Laura, I've booked two sets of tickets this evening - Venice to Florence and Florence to Naples. I entered my email address both times and have received no email from Trenitalia as they stated. I printed the page for my records and if I don't get a confirmation from them (by email) in 24 hours, I will ask for resend - apparently you can enter the retrieval code. I'm pretty sure I need that code to enter when we get there (think it is called PNC?) I'm also disappointed to book a month out and not find the 9 euro fares they widely advertise - I've been getting like 19 euros and 39 euros - just my luck on the days I need to travel it is higher(than days on either side). Their website is not very fun!
Happy travels!

Yvonda, Thank you for the information. You're right - their website is no fun! Can you tell me where you found the retrieval code? Or how many digits it might be? I had the same problem, but did not receive a confirmation screen I was able to capture what I believe to be the Verified by Visa screen only. I don't think this screen gives me the information I need from Trenitalia in the form of the retrieval code, tough. Thanks for the help,
Kristen

Question about seating ... How can you tell from the seating chart which seats are facing each other?

Kristen, The retrieval code was on the confirmation page (not an email) - the last page after I paid - 7 digits - 18xxxxx
Good luck - I still didn't get an email confirmation this morning:(

Well I guess there's some comfort in knowing that I am not the only one challenged by the site! For those of you that purchased tickets but have yet to receive them by email, please keep us posted re: how the situation resolved. I think I'll wait a few days before trying again.

I've had similar issues. However, looking on the site Seat61.com, in the News tab there is a note of the problems with a suggested solution - I haven't tried this yet, will get back to it in the next few days. Meanwhile, I have pasted the Seat61 comments below. Problems at Trenitalia.com: Until further notice, use www.fsitaliane.it, not www.trenitalia.com...
It seems that Trenitalia (Italian Railways) are switching to a new IT platform, but are having problems. www.trenitalia.com and www.fsitaliane.it should be alternative addresses for exactly the same Italian Railways website, but the web address 'Trenitalia.com' has been switched to the new computer system, and for some reason the search results now open on Trenitalia's high-speed train mini-site www.lefrecce.it, which won't show regional trains or InterCity trains or international trains, and it won't recognise English place names such as 'Florence' or 'Venice' even though you switched it to English. So it's now as much use as a chocolate teapot, as my Grandmother would say. However, www.fsitaliane.it is still using the old platform (which works!) so I have temporarily switched all the links to Trenitalia.com (the address which most people know) on Seat61 to open at www.fsitaliane.it, so you can buy all the tickets, in English.

@ Kristin, if you registered on the website, you can get a printout of your tickets with the PNR code. Log into the website then click on the right hand side where it says "Travel purchased" under "My travel". There you will see your itineraries and a red "plus" sign on the right hand side. Click on the red x and it will bring up all the details regarding that purchase. On the right hand side, where it says "Receipt/voucher" there is a .pdf symbol. Click on that and it will bring up your ticket. Just print that out and present it to the conductor. I never received an email after my purchases, but have all of my tickets by printing these out.

Sorry Kristen, just noticed that you didn't register on the site.

I used Trenitalia.com, beginning of month, clicked on English and was able buy tickets for Rome to Florence & Florence to Venice. Got Mini prices & seats. Could it be your browser? I use Google Chrome, love how it will translate most pages.

I believe that when I made my reservations on the seating chart it indicated that there were tables between the seats (that's what I assumed as that was what we had when traveling France). I just assumed we would be facing each other. I might be wrong....

The tables show up on the chart as grey.

Thanks for the help, anyway, Melanie! The charge still hasn't gone through on my credit card, so I think we'll try calling them tomorrow or Friday -- I'll keep you posted on how this goes, Laura!

Kristen- I called my credit card company this afternoon and the charges ARE pending so.... I will give them another 24 hours and if I don't get the email - I will dispute the charges and start over - UGH! That retrieval code (as I found out today) will get you nowhere on their website unless you registered. When I purchased these tickets I did not register - I have on others because of course the $%$%#website would not accept the password - of course today it did. But as the others have said - I see where my previous tickets purchased while registered do show up. Does anyone know how to contact them by email - the page it lists for contacts is of course in Italian.

On another note (sort of) - I'm still a bit unsure about buying in advance. At this point the cheapest mini fare from Naples to Rome on 5/31 is 39 euros - it lists the base fare at 45 and the flexible at 56 euros. Can I buy the base fare the day of travel? Because at this point, 6 euros difference is not worth the hassle(of their website!)

Laura -- Thanks for starting this post. I had been struggling with the Trenitalia sight and assmumed it was me. Finally, after closely following the advice of the wise posters on this site, I was able to register at and secure 6 mini fare tickets. I hope it all works out for you as well.

Yvonda The charges are still pending on mine as well and I booked 2 nights ago. My husband seems to think it will be easier to call. I maintain that I would rather deal with my credit card company. But, we'll see. I e-mailed shortly after booking and not receiving the e-mail. I got the address from a thread with a similar topic (or maybe this one): areaclienti@trenitalia.it. I have not gotten a response, and, in the thread where I found the address, the person who posted the e-mail also said that feedback on e-mailing was not positive. Once it's all sorted out, all of our trains will be done with, thank goodness.

I'm debating if I should buy individual train tickets for each destination or just get a rail pass in the US before I travel. After reading the hassles, I'm leaning towards the rail pass. any thoughts?

Felicia I think it depends where you are going, how many trains you are taking, etc. We priced it out and budgeted for a rail pass, initially, but after pricing it out, saved about $500 by doing point-to-point tickets. It's probably easier to do a rail pass, but it's more cost effective, especially if you are able to book far enough advance and secure mini fares, to travel point-to-point. But, again, this has only been my experience.

Kristen - thanks for the email address - I sent one this morning - this is making me crazy!!

I just booked two mini passes yesterday afternoon and they both went through. I used the link from the Ron in Rome site: http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=ad1ce14114bc9110VgnVCM10000080a3e90aRCRD

I was trying to see train schedules on the "new improved" website. After a frustrating few minutes, I realized it was not giving me schedules because the station names were wrong (not because I couldn't sign in - which I couldn't no matter what). I had to use the ITALIAN names. Roma = invalid station. So I finally used the Italian site, and lo and behold, the auto-complete function works well in Italian. In Italian it will pop up the station as you type, but in English it will only complete if you type a few characters and then hit "enter." I guess Trenitalia is now in the modern world - "if it ain't broke, BREAK it."

Have you been successful in getting your Italian train tickets? I have been trying to buy train tickets for months. I have finally successfully bought the Italian train tickets I need. Many RS friends have coached me and helped me thru this process. It is my opinion that Trenitalia is not really interested in selling their bargain train seats to visitors. I think the answer is just persevere. Because I so frequently got some kind of error report, I thought I was doing it wrong and did not know what I was doing. Actually, I did the same thing over and over for several weeks, trying at different times of the day (late at nite was usually most successful). It also liked one of my credit cards better than the other even though I called my cards fraud dept, they said all was well with my card and nothing had been submitted for approval, I still would get a note from trenitalia saying bank error, try again later. Both cards I was trying to use are from capitol one. The site likes the gold card better and even notes it is a gold card when it is in the processing phase. I was trying to use my other capitol one card that gives me more points. Maybe it also charges the merchant more?? and therefore the merchant did not want to take that card. these are guesses.
The way I entered the trenitalia site is from a link from the ron in roma site. I would post the link but I don't have the computer skills to do that. Some RS friend had sent it to me.