Italy Newbie ~ Train Reservations!?

I'm a not book ahead person. I like leaving flexibility in my schedule. No reservations, second class should work fine in April (my small calanders don't show 2009 holidays).

Other people really like to have everything nailed down ahead of time. If that's you, you can book online and others here will tell you how to do it.

For April travel, prepurchase from US isn't really necessary. I usually travel in Italy in either May or September and have never had problems purchasing tickets a day in advance. Purchasing in Italy also gives you more flexibility on travel times. There's a tool on the Railpasses tab above that will help you estimate cost of point-to-point tickets versus rail pass. Select Regional Passes - Italy. Keep in mind that several legs of your itinerary will be on trains requiring a reservation, and that cost is not included in the rail pass price.

I assume Eurail pass best for this schedule

The only way to know this for sure is to go to the Italian Rail website and look up the individual tickets and compare them with the cost of a Eurail individual country (Italy) pass.

A quick look showed that your four most expensive legs would be just slightly more expensive with point to point tickets vs a rail pass except that did not include the passholder reservation fee on some of the legs (if you use Italian EuroStar). Those reserv. fees are often half the standard fare, so the pass would not pay. For most of the other legs the p-p fare was less than a day of a pass.

So, I don't think a pass would pay, at least not for all of the days, but you have to do the work yourself, figuring the trains you actually want to use. Don't forget to add the passholder reservation fees to the railpass cost. The link on this site ("Railpasses" > "Using your railpass") is not currently working, but as I remember, the passholder fee is about $20 per reservation. Also, assume you will buy all of your tickets (except possibly the first leg) with Amica fares, if available.

Trains in Europe run MUCH more often than US trains or flights between cities so there is little worry of not getting to your destination. You need to check the trenitalia website for some of your towns to make sure trains go to them. Castelrotto, for example, does not have a train station according to the trenitalia website and to http://www.filcoo.com/en/italy/tg/castelrotto_travel_guide.htm

As for buying in advance, your US credit card won't work on the trenitalia site, and many travelers report that resellers only offer a limited selection of the trains between points. In cities & most towns you can save time and just use the kiosk instead of waiting in line for an agent; kiosks have an english menu available. If you buy a day ahead rather than day of travel you may be able to get the amica fare with 20% discount. Lastly, buying as you travel preserves some flexibility; if you want to spend more time in a place you can take a late afternoon or evening train out.

Thanks everyone for the informative replies!

Jack