Booking Trenitalia seats that face forward

The problem is that at terminal stations, the train switches directions. Those stations would be Milano Centrale, Firenze S.M. Novella, Roma Termini. So Milan to Rome will change direction at Florence, or Florence to Naples at Rome, or Turin to Florence at Milan.

My solution, as wife hates traveling "backwards" is to book seats facing each other across a table. I don't mind, so we can switch when the direction changes.

DH and I do the same as Sam.

Not possible, because often the train changes direction en route. What starts out as a forward facing seat ends as a backward facing seat and vice-versa. And, even if you aren't on a route where the train changes direction, depending on where it went previously that day, it could be either way around. Trains are totally symmetrical, they run in either direction.

If one of you objects to travelling backwards (which isn't as big a problem as some think), just buy two seats facing each other.

The cars are designed to run in either direction so all the seats facing the middle. So there is noway to know how the car will be hooked to the train. And, as already mentioned, a train sometime will switch direction of travel. If the car isn't full you can switch seats until the other passenger shows up for their seat. All seats, except Regional trains, are reserved.

Thank you all so much for clarifying. I went ahead and did as suggested and booked two facing each other in the middle of the carriage.

Funny, the tickets were available to purchase for Sep 13, but not the route we need on Sep 16. I expect I'm just a few days too early for that one.