Trenitalia Website - I've Just About Had It!

No, there is no big problem waiting until you get to Italy to purchase your train tickets. The difficulties you've encountered are perfectly predictable and as you mentioned, much discussed on this site and on other travel sites as well (TripAdvisor, Fodors, Frommers, etc.). Consider it an introduction to how things are in Italy; I appreciate Italy for the respite it gives me to my too-planned and overly-scheduled life.

A couple of things. First, I purchased a train ticket on Trenitalia a few days ago. Everything worked fine with my American credit card.

If you can log on and have the system recognize your ID and password, you're half way there. Also, you might encounter difficulties if you try for the discounted fares.

Are you trying to use the home delivery option? It's available on some runs. This one is tough. I haven't broken the code on this one because the fields are in Italian which I can't translate. If the journey is entirely in Italy, you should be presented with a self-service option and two ticketless options. If neither your origination point for destination is equipped with a self-sevice machine, you won't see that option.

Don't be afraid of these options. I selected the self-service option. My receipt contains a reservation code that I can punch into any self-service machine in Italy to get my ticket. On the ticketless, the conductors carry PDA devices. They can enter your reservation code and validate everything by wireless.

Last resort. Take a look at www.italiarail.com. They are the official site in North America for rail travel in Italy. They are a broker.

Finally, most North Americans are so insistent about having their tickets in hand before they travel to Italy. They are so fearful that there won't be a train when and where they want to go and if there is, it will be full. Nothing can be farter from reaility. Trenitalia has 8,000 train runs a day in Italy. Except for major holidays, you will always find a train and a seat. Exceptions can be found in the Cinque Terre during high seat. The trains are like Disneyland. But, you just get on and stand. It's only a few minutes the next stations.

Kevin, don't stress yourself with pre-purchasing tickets for Italian trains (especially to the point where you have to stare at a Zen garden!).

As the others have suggested, simply take the Leonardo Express from Fiumicino to Termini (€11 each from what I recall), and then buy your tickets to Pisa at Termini. There are lots of ticket windows, so it shouldn't be a problem. You might want to check the www.bahn.de website to get some idea on what times the trains will be departing from Rome.

While you're waiting to depart, stop and have a coffee or whatever (even McDonalds is nice after a long flight). There's a small supermarket at Termini (one floor down) if you just want to buy sandwiches, bottled water or juices.

While you're waiting, also check to see which Track No. (Binario) your train to Pisa will be departing from. If you're taking a fast train on that route, you'll probably have a reserved seat, and your ticket will specify your Car No., Seat No., etc.

Cheers!

Kevin, give it up. Relax. As repeated many times on this site. The need for advance reservations -- other than night trains -- is almost nil even in the summer months. We have been trained by our airlines to buy tickets weeks if not months in advance. Train travel in Europe is totally different. Even the locals do not buy ticket very far in advance. Just no need.

Thanks for the replies. After posting my message, I did stare at my miniature zen garden for a while. I'm not too worried about buying tickets at the train station. Still, we land in Rome and immediately take to the rails to get to Pisa the same day. I thought to simplify the process for a couple of tired, jet-lagged souls, I'd at least have my first-day tickets in hand.

And, yes, I do think the Trenitalia website is just a little taste of the spectacular chaos which is yet to come!

Kevin, me again. It's not nearly as bad as you may think. In California, you would think nothing of jumping in your car to drive north for 4 hours. It would be unthinkable to consider the trip by train. In the U.S., we don't travel by train, we travel by car or airplane. In fact, I dare say that ouside of light rail stations and train stations from Washington D.C. up through the northeast, many adults have never or rarely have been in a real train station.

Get ready for a culture change. You'll be on a few trains and will fit right in.

Kevin, it will be less stress to buy your tickets once you get there. Even if you crack the website's code, you'll then be sitting on the plane with tickets in hand for a specific departure time. The minute your plane is late, you'll stress about missing your train. Don't add that stress to your trip!

When you land in Rome you'll take the Leonardo Express to Rome Termini station. You'll buy the tickets for that from an automated machine that accepts Visa. When you get to Termini, you can buy tickets for the next train to Pisa the same way. Or you can give yourselves a couple of hours to wander, sip a cappucino, remind yourself that you're in Italy, and then take the train to Pisa. It couldn't be easier.

Just remember to have your ticket stamped before you board your train.

Enjoy Italy!

Kevin - I purchased tickets using a Canadian Visa card so I'm not sure why you're having trouble. I just did it the other day. It took a couple of tries because it didn't want to accept my American Express at first - so I switched cards. What problems are you having?

Thanks for all the great replies. I think I read another contributor mention that his Canadian credit card worked fine. Maybe it's a U.S. credit card thing, but I can echo the experiences of others who have tried and failed: basically what happens is that you get to the point where you enter your credit card number and click "pay," only to be told that your credit card doesn't work. I tried it with American Express, Visa and Master Card. In other words, forget it even trying. We'll wait until we get there to get the tickets.

Kevin,

Congratulations on your acceptance of the first character trait required by Americans in Italy - PATIENCE! (Tolerance is not far behind!).

You've already found - and will see more when you arrive - that things in Italy do not often work they way we're use to - or work at all!

I think everyone has given you solid advice; you can get your tickets when you get here - "No worries." as my Australian friends down the road say!

I live here, use a US credit card on trenitalia.com, and have been probably successful online about 80% of the time... after being denied a few weeks ago (they sent me an email!!), I resolved to just buy my tickets downtown at Termini! The website is just inconsistent... it's not you!

My advice is like the experts here - get your train tickets when you arrive... be PATIENT, tolerant, and flexible!!!

Once you're here, you will fall in love with Italy! Yesterday we were at the beach. Today we're headed back to Siena, and tomorrow (no school) we're headed downtown for the huge military parade held each year! There's always something to see/do in Italy! Good luck!

Ciao,
Ron

Let me just say, Kevin, that I can totally relate to your attempts to have all your ducks in a row before you even leave American soil. I've been doing the same thing since October. Recently, I tried to look up train schedules from the Trenitalia website and got so nervous because the trains from Rome to Assisi don't seem to leave early enough in the morning to make it there with enough time for our one overnight visit. I wrote about on this site and got great responses including - relax, try again in a few days, wait until you get here. I just love this travel community. I have learned so much and everyone is very friendly and helpful. It's great to have other travelers to talk to especially since I'm a control freak and my husband still isn't sure what day we're leaving.

I wish I had zen garden! :-)

Mind you, it's a miniature zen garden! Yes, I can relate. I'm the one who has to have everything planned out with the element of "murphy's law" completely minimized. But, what the heck. I'll buy the tickets there.

By the way, is it possible to buy all my trip's tickets in one batch when I get there, or am I pretty much restricted to the day of, or the day before, the train ride??

Kevin, this came up the other day in another post. One person suggest to write every train trip down - dates, time, destination - on one piece of paper and hand it to the ticket agent at Termini. That way, you can buy all your tickets at one time. So I think that's what I'll do - expect to respect those posts who suggest that pinning down too many details might be a problem when things get thrown off schedule.

So on second thought - maybe the train tickets will be the one thing I attempt to do spontaneously! After all, I need the practice. :-)

Kevin: you will be able to do several or all of your tranactions at the same time. Usually I arrive in a city through its train staion, if there is a particular train I know I want I just get my tickets before I leave the station. The automated kiosks are very easy to use (basically just follow the prompts) with an English language option, and they take debit or credit cards (just let you bank know your travel dates).

Me Vs. Trenitalia.com

I read all the advice above and tried it all with no success. I was about to succumb to paying an extra $300 to italiarail.com or a travel agent and justify it to myself as an hourly savings vs. continuing my fight. Then I called American Express to ask them one last time if they knew why their card doesn’t work on the Trenitalia website and only Visa and Mastercard do. They didn’t know, but asked if I would like to be transferred to their travel department. “You have a travel department? Sure, what could it hurt?” Their travel department gave me the direct phone and e-mail address of the American Express travel office in Venice, our first stop. (You can also find this info on their website, I later found out.) I e-mailed our ticket itineraries to them, they gave me the Amica price quoted on the Trenitalia website, no fees, no booking charges, no commission, nothing. We will pick up our paper tickets at the St. Mark’s Square office of American Express Travel the first day of our trip. You can do this at locations all over Italy, including Rome as well. Just make sure you do it at the first location you’ll depart from by train. It does you no good if your tickets are in Rome and you are in Venice. Our credit card has been charged, the customer service was excellent and I didn’t have to pay a dime more than I would have if I waited and bought them in Italy. In fact, I probably saved, because even after wrestling with this for 2 weeks there was still an Amica fare available.

We have tickets Venezia to Roma, Roma to Paris for two people in two beds for 250 Euro. Man, I don’t wish this hassle on anyone else, so I post this to the blogosphere in hopes that it may save someone else some hassle.

I just bought tickets over the Trenitalia website yesterday. I tried in the morning (Eastern daylight savings time) after having trouble using the site at night. My first credit card didn't go through but the second card did. (The first company called later in the morning to make sure there was not a fraud attempt on the card and it was then noted that I would be using it to purchase tickets for Italy. I actually had called them earlier but the info seemed to have fallen through the cracks on their computers.) I did the ticketless option and was thrilled to receive the email with our ticket information. Maybe I was just lucky but seems I read somewhere about doing the reservation when it would be office hours in Italy. Good luck!

Ron, thank you for bringing us all back to "Italian Reality"...you had me laughing with the first sentence.

While planning our trip for the past five or so months, the one thing that's made my stomach hurt all along is the umpteen million attempts to figure the trains out in Italy. At one point, I even got a password and the okay to buy online. But when I went to do so, the website told me I had waited too long (about a week) and my password was no longer valid! I've gotten the same advice as you - buy it when you arrive. But, as a plan-ahead blue blooded American, I wanted to have the tickets in my hand (or at least understand what to choose from their - count 'em - 17 different fee options). So, when I was in New York a few weeks ago, I went to the Italian Tourist Bureau in Manhattan who told me, yea, I wasn't alone even he couldn't figure it out. Imagine my delight when he gave me a telephone number for an English speaking Italian train agent in Manhattan. Too excited by this news, I dialed just today. Alas, turns out he's from Rail Italia, not Trenitalia. Sigh. The agent I spoke with today agreed that even he couldn't figure out Trenitalia - calling it way more complicated than it needs to be. So, I will wait until we arrive next Wednesday and keep reminding myself to trust the word of those who have gone before me.

I'm an planner, so waiting to buy tickets made me nervous. BUT my son got sick in Venice and we never bought tickets until the day we left. We had our hotel look up the time table, and we got to the train station in Venice about 45 minutes before the train and purchased tickets to Florence. No problem. The train was very crowded but we found 4 seats.

Before reading these wonderful postings, I spent several weeks trying several different non-American Express credit cards (the Trenitalia site warns against those) to no avail. With my trip scheduled for early August, I finally called Trenitalia on 7/11/08 and spoke with a wonderful agent, who informed me that alas they are no longer accepting ANY American credit cards via the web site because of "problems with the banking circuit." I want to lock in our tickets from Naples to Rome and Venice to Montreux, Switzerland, so will use the American Express office for that as suggested by L.J.T. -- and take the advice of the rest of you to wait and buy the other intra-Italy tickets when we arrive. Thanks!

Because I enjoy exercises in futility, I would like at least to try to buy my Italy train tickets for me and my family ahead of time online, but I can't seem to get past the password change stage! They have been very good about emialing me a pssword after I register, but when I try to log in to change the password as directed, I get either a "password has expired notice" or "password is invalid/log in IDs do not match" etc notice. any guesses how to avoid this problem so that I can fight my way through the next step? I even tried to register as a second person at my same email address, and it didn't go for that idea either.

I would like to avoid having to purchse tickets, even through a kiosk at the station if possible because the train which would be the most convenient for us to take from Venice to Verona leaves at 9am. Knowing my family, I doubt we will have a lot of time to spare in getting to the station at that hour. As we only are in Venice two days, I would rather not have to take the time from our sightseeing to go to the train station to take care of tickets in advance.

All that rationalizing being said, does anyone know how busy the kiosks at the St. Lucia staion are likely to be at 8:30 am on a weekday morning?

I do like the suggestion about using the American Express office except that I am trying to use my Visa Card as much as possible for my travel expenses as they have a great promotion going tied into travel $$ spent

Any suggestions, I do need 3 seats together as I am travelling with children.

Thanks,
Tracy M

Tracy, in my experience is registering with Trenitalia, I ran in to the same problem. It seems that you must sign back on within a very limited time to change your password. You can't wait until later in the day. It's really a short window. Then, if you are successful, don't try to buy right away. Wait at least a day or so for the system to update. Then, you can purchase. To make it a bit easier, you might try www.italiarail.com which is a site in the U.S. for purchasing train tickets in Italy. It's much easier but costs a bit more as they are ticket brokers. Also, you want Verona Porta Nuova as the stop. Next, how old are your children? Over 12, they pay as adults. 3 and under ride free.