Planning a trip to Italy in Oct 2017 - not sure of the itinerary yet but here are the following trains we (3 of us) want to take. Are reservations required for any of them, or just show up at station or order on-line before leaving the states. Am going to try to fly in to VCE and out of Rome. Have never done trains (by myself) only with RS group!
Venice - Milan
Milan - Florence
Florence - Assisi
Assisi - Rome
Thanks for any tips and happy travels!
PS - Will NOT be using a rail pass.
Depends on the class of trains you take. The high speed express trains require a reservation, which comes with the price of the ticket. And the reservation is for a specific train, so if you order online, make sure you can make that train. If you have a rail pass, you need to purchase a separate "reservation". In the case of high speed trains, it is more than a seat reservation; it includes a surcharge for using a premium train.
Regular InterCity trains also require a seat reservation, but it's just an administrative charge to reserve the seat.
Regional (milk run) trains do not require a reservation.
I suspect that for most of the routes you indicate, you will want to use high speed trains and will have to have reservations. Assisi is only served by regional trains, so from Florence to Assisi and Assisi to Rome you shouldn't need reservations. No reason to buy tickets in advance.
There are two types of train in Italy:
1) Long distance or high speed trains, under a number of brand names.
2) "Regionale" or local trains.
For long distance or high speed trains, when you buy a ticket it is for a specific train (like air tickets are) It will say train (date time, train number) and a seat number on the ticket. The ticket is only valid for that seat on that train. These tickets are cheaper the earlier you buy.
For Regionale trains, you do not and cannot reserve seats. A ticket is valid on any train, and you need to timestamp ("validate") the ticket just before you get on the train, to stop you using the ticket twice. Thre is no discount for advance purchase of Regionale train tickets.
The only time you ever need to buy a resevation as a separate purchase is when you have a rail pass, and passes are very rarely a good buy or Italy.
Venice - Milan and Milan - Florence are high speed trains (1).
Florence - Assisi and Assisi - Rome are by Regionale trains.
See here for lots more info: http://www.seat61.com/Italy-trains.htm
You can look up train times, see what sort of trains they are and buy tickets at the Italian Railways site: http://www.trenitalia.com/tcom-en
As said in the previous answer: advance buying of tickets for the long-distance trains is profitable. The discount can be 50 percent or more. E.g. a ticket Venice-Milan bought today for tomorrow, is some EUR 45; bought for the same weekday in May, it's less than EUR 20.
There is no need whatsoever for 1st class: 2nd class gives all the comfort you want.
The process is simple at the above-mentioned Trenitalia site: payment by credit card and an emailed pdf for printing at home. The one thing to remember is to use the Italian originals for place names.
