Help! Trenitalia.com

Buy them when you get there. The no advantage to early purchase other than some discount opportunities. It has been common knowledge for a long time that few if any Am credit cards are accepted on the Trenitalia web site. A couple of reports suggests that the verified VISA might work but not always. A seat reservation is required for those trains but there are dozen of trains each day with thousands of seats so you will not have any problem getting a seat.

You should be able to buy the Munich ti Vinenza ticket (or at least to Verona) on bahn.de. Maybe even get a nice discount. The rest you can buy in Italy after you get there.

Donna - If you are buying regular priced tickets, just buy them when you get to Italy. Stay away from RailEurope - they are always double the price and that does not even include their 'handling fee' they add to everything. If you are trying to buy some of the discounted tickets that have to be purchased in advance (usually the Mini fares), here are a couple of things that worked for us. Once you have a problem on the Trenitalia site, don't immediately try again. I found that if we waited 3-4 hours or even overnight, we could get back in and past the errors. One time it worked immediately after we cleared cookies and temporary internet files. It took several attempts over a couple of days, but we were able to purchase some fabulous deals for three different trains. You also might want to try creating a new logon for Trenitalia. For some reason I couldn't use my old account but had no problem purchasing a ticket when I created a new account. Also, be careful of what you place in your cart as the final purchase screen doesn't clearly indicate what you are purchasing. One note on the credit cards - you can check with your card issuer to see if the charges actually were attempted. If so, you can probably clear that up with the card issuer. If not, the problem is on the Trenitalia side which is probably the most likely problem. One other posted mentioned possibly success using a Visa - that's the card that ended up working for our purchases.

There is a Eurocity train (EC 87) leaving Munich at 11:31. On the Bahn website, you can advance purchase a Europa-Spezial ticket to Vicenze for as low as €39. The train goes to Venice, which means it passes through Vicenze, but it does not currently stop there. However, the railroad provides a substitute bus from Verona to Vicenze as part of the ticket. There is also a night train from Munich to Venice that does stop in Vicenze (at just after 5 AM). With advance purchase on the Bahn website, you can get discounted accommodations on this train. Other than those two trains, all trains from Germany go only to Verona and you would have to purchase the last part from Italian Rail in Verona (or in Munich before you leave).

Donna, As the others have mentioned, I wouldn't bother buying the tickets in advance, as they're so easy to purchase there. In the same situation, I'd probably: > Munich - Vicenza: Buy the ticket that Lee mentioned when you arrive in Munich. You can either use the regular ticket windows or the EurAide office in the Munich station. > Vicenza - Florence & Florence - Rome: Buy those when you arrive in each town (you'll be at the station anyway). If you buy the day before travel, you may be able to get the new Mini fares at a substantial discount (check www.roninrome.com for further information. Happy travels!

Thank you so much everyone. With your advice we will now wait to buy tickets for Italy once we are there. I must admit that my husband wants to try again to request online reservations with the suggestions that some of you sent. We are ready to leave tomorrow so May can't come soon enough!! Fondly, Donna

It is easy to buy the tickets there. But if for some reason you really want them in advance, and cannot get a purchase to go through on Trenitalia, then Rail Europe is not that bad an option for tickets in Italy. I know, I am the rebel here. But I have compared the prices many times, and they are very close. No, you don't get the advance purchase mini fares, but you won't get those if you wait and buy in Italyneither. So Trenitalia fist, for the mini fares, but if it doesn't work and you still want tickets in advance, take a look at RailEurope. Here are the fares for comparison, using prices for second class: Vicenza to Firenze, 49,50 euros on Trenitalia and $68 on RE. Converting the euros at today's rate of $1.37, the Trenitalia ticket is $67.81, or all of 19 cents less than the RE ticket. Add the foreign transaction fees that you will pay in Italy with most credit cards, and the Trenitalia ticket is $69.85, or more than the RE ticket. Florence to Rome on the Eurostar, 45 euro on Trenitalis ($61.65) and $62 on RE. You do have to pay a handling fee of $18 to RE unless you meet their minimum purchase amount.

This isn't Italy, I know, but RailEurope seems to have adjusted their fare for Italy to hide their high prices. In Germany, a circuit trip from Frankfurt airport to Munich to Berlin and back would be $441.32 full fare from the Bahn and $552 from RailEurope (plus any shipping and handling fees). And that's what RailEurope would charge you for the trains they wanted you to take. There are a lot of less expensive trains; and with advance purchase (which is what you're doing on RE anyway) you could probably get the entire circuit for less than €90, $120.

Lee, we have discussed this before. I have compared RE fares with Trenitalia many times and they are comparable-- often within a few cents. This seems to apply to Italy, but not to train tickets in other countries. I just want to point out that the anti RE bias need not apply to tickets in Italy. I am not talking about Germqny, France, etc., just Italy. It is worth checking out if one wants tickets in advance and cannot accomplish the purchase on Trenitalia.