First time in Italy (and Europe) - Do we purchase train tickets in advance??

Posted by AshAbe on 08/23/15 08:00 PM

My husband and I are heading to Italy for our honeymoon the first & second week of October. We will be traveling from Rome to Florence to Cinque Terre to Siena and finally back to Rome for a night before heading home. I have read mixed reviews about purchasing train tickets. Should we buy them all now, ahead of time or do we purchase them the day the before we want to travel to each city? I like to plan and I think we will stick to our schedule. We plan to book 2 tours ahead of time and also purchase the Roma Pass and Firenze Card so we dont have to worry about lines - but to confirm that means we dont have to make reservations right?

Many thanks in advance.

Posted by Norma

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

08/23/15 08:04 PM

8293 posts

Your title refers to train tickets but your post asks about plane tickets. I know you mean the former but maybe you should correct your post.

Posted by AshAbe OP

08/23/15 08:15 PM

2 posts

Ah, good catch. Sorry about that. I meant train tickets. So new to me!!

Posted by Lee

Lakewood, Colorado

08/23/15 08:39 PM

19092 posts

Italy has very good deals on online advance purchase train tickets, but if all of your trips are short, the savings might not be worth the inflexibility. Look up both advance purchase and full fare prices on trenitalia.it. (Hint: don't use RailEurope prices. Point-point prices over there are less than R/E prices, and R/E probably doesn't have the adv purchase prices.)

Posted by Stephen

Charleston, SC, USA

08/23/15 08:54 PM

922 posts

I would buy the Roma to Firenze tickets in advance. You should be able to get a super economy or economy ticket on the freccia (high speed train) which will be a significant savings for 2 tickets. For your other trips, you may be able to save some money if it involves an InterCity train, but you would have to look at the options for your dates to make a better decision. You cannot buy regional train tickets more than 7 days in advance and there is no discount. For the regional trains, make sure you validate your tickets just prior to boarding the train. The trip from Siena to Roma could take you back through Florence and then on a freccia train to Roma, or you could just go with the regional trains. I would look at schedules as well as the number of stops and length of trip. Make sure you set up an account on Trenitalia before purchasing the tickets. That way, you can access them later if something happens to your email.