What's the final word? Buy Rail in Advance?

It's 95% odds that it's going to be impossible for you to buy tickets in advance.To know why, go here How to Search the Helpline, search on trenitalia(hint: the Trenitalia site doesn't accept 95% of US issued credit cards)And the good news is: You don't need to buy tickets in advance in Italy. Just buy the tickets at the Rome Termini station the first day or two you're in town.

You can try giving Byron at budget europe travel a call. They can book seats for Italy rail tickets in advance.

budgeteuropetravel.com

(not affiliated. they are handling some rail reservations for us for our upcoming trip, including in Italy)

Don't panic. There are 53 trains a day departing Rome for Florence (I've counted them on the Trenitalia website). Each holds 400 passengers. There are over 30 trains from Florence to Venice. Just buy when you get there. You can't really comprehend this enormity until you get there and experience it for yourself. You can even buy your Florence/Venice tickets when you buy the Rome/Florence tickets. Just look at the train schedules and write down the train runs you want. This includes departure city, destination city, date, time and train number. This makes it super easy to either walk up to a ticket window or an electronic ticket machine to buy your tickets.

I took the advice from this forum's users and bought all of our tickets (travelling couple) when I got there. (Rome-Pisa-Florence-Siena-Milan-Venice-Napoli-Rome) I never had any problem getting the tickets I want except when we took the Napoli-Rome leg of our trip. It happened to be on a Sunday of a 3-day weekend (Fri-Sun). The first train I wanted only had an one seat available so I took the next one available which left an hour later (same evening). The train was packed, our assigned seats were occupied when we got there but upon showing them our assigned seats, they moved-on to another location. All the aisle-seats were taken (Regular train - stops at most of the staions along the way)and a few were standing on the aisles the whole time. My advice, still, will be to purchase your tickets when your get there and save some bucks, plan ahead, check info on the local area for any events happening and then maybe purchase your tickets a day earlier. Happy Trip. Also thanks to everybody that answered my earlier inquiries.

I wouldn't. We just returned and we didn't experience any problems buying tickets the day we wanted to travel. But, make sure to take a schedule with you so you know when to get to the stations. We forgot this in Venice and had to wait for an hour for the next rain to Florence

I agree; just buy them when you get there. Keep in mind during the course of your vacation that there will likely be lines at the ticket counters and you may stand there for a good 10 minutes before finally getting to the window. We used both the ticket window and the express ticket machines with good luck. The biggest thing you need to be SURE to do is to validate your ticket! We were very tired when we got to Rome, and on our last train leg to Verona, we forgot to validate and we got a fine of euro 50 each. So find the little yellow (or red) timeclock-looking machines all over the waiting areas for the trains and stamp your ticket before boarding!! Have a great trip!

No problem to buy tickets on arrival in Italy BUT if you know the exact day and time you wish to travel, give buying online a shot so you can try for an advanced purchase discount.

I believe these discounts are also available at the ticket kiosks BUT most travelers arrive too close to their intended travel day to take advantage of these fares at the station.

Lay all your credit/debit cards that will be going with you out on the table, and try them all until one works. My Schwab Debit Card worked on the first try.

I was all excited on my first trip to Italy. In this excitement I wanted to make sure every thing worked. So I bought State's Side a four day European Rail pass for two in 2004 for $406. This was not cheap at the time. This would now be $624 dollars for four day first class saver fares.

Yet this is what we ended up using: I have to use current train fares. So compare with the 624 number.

Train for two from Florence to La Spezia and back. Would cost today: 80 Euros First Class.

Two, From Florence to Rome and back. Would cost: 224 ""

Two, one way from Florence to Venice. Would cost: 106 ""

Total 410 euros, 533 dollars

We didn't get to use day four of the rail pass. This was for a round trip Florence to Siena, but the weather was nice so we rented a motorcycle instead. If we'd have taken the train it would have been 25 more Euros. $566. So it never really worked out to buy the passes.

The trains taken would have been 276 Euro, 359 dollars for second class at current rates.

These are approximate numbers, but to do it over again, I would have just bought the tickets at the stations point to point.