Use Trenitalia or thetrainline.com?

I go to www.TheTrainline.com all the time for its user-friendliness to quickly view schedules, the frequency of trains and ticket prices. Then I go to the site of the actual train company to compare ticket prices. Often there is little difference in the ticket prices between the two. But even more often, TheTrainline offers discounted train tickets months in advance before the national train company itself ( Trenitalia, for example) has them up for sale on its own website. In many cases recently, I’ve seen deeply-discounted fast-train tix ( up to 70% off) for sale 6-8 months in advance on the Trainline that are not listed on Trenitalia’s or SNCF (France) or Renfe’s (Spain) websites.
If you have the chance to buy a ticket at a fire-sale price before they are even offered for sale on the national train company’s website, why would you not buy it? Another consideration is www.TheTrainline will list ALL the trains on the routes you are looking at. Other websites often do not list their competitors trains . In this situation, you do not have a complete picture of what the price of tickets even is for all the trains that can get you where you want to go.
wwwTheTrainline.com is a reputable company operating from Britain that makes most of its revenue from the ads it places on its website. The tickets may have a US$2-5 fee added on which is built into the ticket cost you see online. Often, there is no fee added on.

“The Man in Seat 61” is a website (www.seat61.com) authored by Mark Smith, a former British Rail worker. Mr. Smith is considered an authority on European train travel and he has endorsed TheTrainline on his website as an alternative way to buy European train tickets.
Smith recommends you buy Italian Regional train tix at the station on the date you need them mostly because online tix are not exchangeable and non-refundable. There may be a time where there’s a tight transfer connection such as rainy weather causing a stampede of travelers heading for the train station to get on with their travel. In that event, you might want to buy tickets online so you don’t have to stand in a lengthy line of others simultaneously trying to buy their tix at the ticket machine or window.
Luggage must be stored on the overhead shelves above seats or in the luggage racks at the end of the train car. It’s a good idea to keep an eye on your luggage. While seat reservations usually are not necessary, consider getting them on long-haul trains if you’re traveling during Easter weekend, April 7-9. Regional trains in Italy do not offer seat reservations.

Have a great Trip!

Julie,

I use Trainline quite frequently, especially if I'm travelling to several countries as that provides "one stop shopping". I believe they also sell tickets for Italo Treno in Italy, so that's very convenient. They charge a small fee now but I don't find that to be a problem. I have their app on my phone so can buy tickets "on the fly".

The reservation fees for the express trains (Freccia, Intercity) are compulsory so you won't have a choice with that. The tickets will specify your coach and seat no.'s. Note that the reserved seats are specific to train, date and departure time and can *only** be used on the one train listed on the ticket.* If you board the wrong train for any reason, you'll face hefty fines which will be collected on the spot.

One point to note is that it's possible to get discounted Super Economy or Economy tickets and save some money. However those tickets have to be bought well in advance and have a few conditions (ie: Super Economy are non-refundable and non-changeable once purchased).

Reservations are not possible and not needed for the Regionale trains. I don't find it necessary to buy advance tickets for Regionale trains, as it's so easy to buy the tickets from the kiosks at the station. However, it's important to note that locally purchased tickets must be validated (time & date stamped) prior to boarding the train on the day of travel, or again you'll face hefty fines. The same is true of Metro or Bus tickets.

If the schedule shows a change time of eight minutes, that's usually quite adequate (assuming the trains are on time). Sometimes the train is just across the same platform, and sometimes it will be necessary to go down the stairs to the underground passageway, and then up to the platform where your next train is. The electronic sign boards will have all the information.

This video is somewhat dated but you may find it useful - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6n8rITO1Eek .

Ken has given you the correct picture. Imho there are some additional points:

• when a third party is selling discounted / full price tickets before the train company, they are actually selling you a commitment, a "promise" to buy. Not a real ticket. In short you are paying a middle-man's bot to routinely check the official sites on your behalf. Nothing wrong with that, once you know it.
• there are two competing companies that run high speed trains in Italy: trenitalia.com and italotreno.it Of course seeing both services on a single app is very handy, but connections between competing companies are not protected. In other words, if you miss a Trenitalia bullet train because Italotreno was 2 hours late (or viceversa) neither company has the obligation to rebook you for free on the next train of the same type going to your final destination.
• Italian stations are smaller than airports. As an example, It takes around 20 minutes to walk from track #1 to track #24 (the last one) at Milano centrale, the biggest Italian station; even if the building itself is huge and they squeezed a Mall and a food court inside it... all tracks are parallel and in a separate area where only passengers should enter
• the minimum transfer times are set by Trenitalia and depend on the station. When transferring into a Regionale train this is never a problem because you can freely take the next Regionale. When transferring into a train with reserved seats, you'd better meet the transfer times given on trenitalia.com if you want a protected connection .

Julie

I used trainline to book Spanish trains I found it very easy to use compared to renfe.com. If there was a small booking fee, it was worth it to avoid my frustrations with dealing with renfe.com.

In trainline, you set up a "railcard" for each passenger. The railcard contains the correct spelling of your name, birth date and email address so that you don't have to fill in that information each time you book a new ticket.

I seem to recall that once you select your train, trainline will provide you with the tentative seat numbers before you finalize the purchase. I remember reading, and in my very limited experience, trainline's algorithm will seat people in the same group together provided that the seats are available. I have also read that if you are not happy with the location of your seats, you can just reset your booking to generate a different seat location before finalizing your purchase. I don't know. I've never had to do that because I was always satisfied with the location of our seats. Good luck.

Thank you all for the replies. They were very useful. I dived in last night and started booking. Booked one on Deutsche Bahn in the end as I decided I wanted to book seats and on that train Trainline did not to offer seat reservation and one on Trainline. Have a few more to book, probably with Trainline. Won't book Regionale ones in advance. I looked at Mittenwald to Innsbruck the 6.48 departure arriving at 7.53 but cannot tell whether I should book this or if it is just a local type train that does not sell out. I was hoping to book a train Florence to Orvieto, to have about a 4 hour or so stop there and then carry on to Rome but I don't think the train times will work for that unfortunately. It looks a gorgeous town. They all seem to get there too late in the day so may have to flag that idea. Am hoping negotiating the trains with suitcases will not be too bad. I guess a lot of people do this all the time. Thanks very much for your help.

Julie, how many suitcases will you have? One test to see if you can manage your luggage for the train is to see if you can carry it up and down a flight of stairs and then lift it over your head. If you can do that, you will be just fine.

What is your date for Orvieto?
I see many trains that you could take arrive as late as 11am, leave by 5 ish, Etc

There is luggage storage at station
Take the funicular/bus combo up to town

You want
Firenze SM Novella to ORVIETO ( not CENTRO)

Probably best to use Trenitalia site or app for this route

Orvieto is worth a night or 2 if you can swing that

They all seem to get there too late in the day so may have to flag that idea.

Did you pick an early hour of departure? There is a Regionale from Firenze SMN departing at 6:40 and another one at 9:04. Then there is an IC train (with reserved seats) departing from Firenze Rifredi station at 10:15.

thank you !

You asked about time needed to change trains at various stations. One station where extra time may be needed is Bologna. The station is huge and has sections for different types of trains, with most regional trains using surface tracks and most fast trains (Trenitalia Frecce and Italo trains) using the deep underground tracks. Transferring between a regional train and a fast train involves a long walk, and the signage can be confusing if one is not already familiar with the station.

Hi Julie,
How was your trip?

I agree about Bologna Centrale. Perhaps because it is more underground it seems confusing. Rome is easier to me. But familiarity helps. I often fly an and of Bologna and spend a day or so on arrival and departure.

Hello again, thanks for all your replies. Priscilla asked how my trip was. It was great thanks. I did all my train bookings bar one on the Trainline website. It was really good to use. I prebooked most trains. We found all the stations, platforms and trains and our seats easily and all our trains were on time so we were really lucky. I had researched a lot which I think defintely helped. Bologna Station was a monster of a place size wise. Coming from little NZ we were amazed at how many levels it had and the distance of subways etc to walk through but we found our way easily enough.

We also stored luggage at Bologna, Innsbruck and Orvieto at the train stations. This also went smoothly and easily and allowed us to have a brief look around these places too.
Loved our week in Venice, Mittenwald in Bavaria was gorgeous as it snowed the day we arrived. Val di Funes in South Tyrol was stunningly beautiful with an amazing mountain range. We also enjoyed Florence and Rome. Row Venice as really fun, Torcello and Burano were very pretty, a cooking class in Venice was very enjoyable. Uffizi was excellent, loved looking at so many beautiful churches - San Pantalon in Venice was a wonderful find in particular.
Travelling by train was really good and easy. THe only slightly stressful part was hoping there would be somewhere to put our bags. This usually worked out of. Do not take a big bag you cannot lift or move easily though. Crossing the roads in Florence and then Rome was pretty terrifying for us at first, especially with all the traffic on the" wrong" side of the road for us. It was wonderful and I can't wait to go back. Already day dreaming of where I would go next time but it will definitely include Venice.

so glad it was such a wonderful experience