I am trying to buy 4 tickets through Trenitalia for 5/30 from Verona to Rome and then 6/2 from Rome to Florence. I am getting stuck with having to register and then NOT having an italian address…. On the easier to use Italiarail I was being charged a 15E fee for booking….
Anyone have this same problem and any ideas on how best to purchase these tickets?
Thx.
azeeb,
Some people do seem to have trouble with the Trenitalia website, and as you've found the ItaliaRail site is considerably more "user friendly". Basically you have three options.....
- Have another try at buying tickets on the Trenitalia site.
- Pay the €15 fee on the ItaliaRail site.
- "How best to purchase the tickets" - buy them locally from a Kiosk or staffed ticket office when you arrive in Italy. You'll pay a bit more, but you won't have to deal with temperamental websites.
Good luck!
Two things
- Are you trying to book freccia (high speed) or regionale trains? If freccia you should have no issues.
- Once you select the freccia train service you want to book there is a section in the booking process where you can click unregistered user. It is easy to miss so read everything carefully.
You can also register using your hotel's address since the address has no value.
As Frank said, the address will have no impact on your tickets, which will be emailed to you. I would print out the email and carry a hard copy, but you can also just show the conductor the ticket on your phone or tablet.
I also have had the impression for forum reports that Regional train tickets throw up the registration issue more often than do the faster trains. Another option is to reserve through Rail Europe, who matches the Italian prices, but translated through whatever euro/dollar exchange rate they currently have applied.
You should never buy Regional Tickets on-line unless it is part of a total journey, A-D, with C-D leg being a regionale train then it would be included in the total ticket. This is no discount for Regionale tickets on line, they never sell out, so there is no reason to buy ahead of time. An on-line Regionale ticket, if available within the seven day window, comes pre-validated and believe it is only good for five hours.
Thanks for the great tips. I was able to book today with no problem.
Which site did you end up booking through?
I used Trenitalia and it ended up being very easy!!
I tried booking on Trenitalia yesterday with no luck. Could you please tell me how you figured it out.
Make sure you check the non registered user box.
Also, my bank had actually denied the charge which was why when I thought I'd done it correctly it didn't work.
Also I noticed that there are tickets for "Carte" holders that I do not think are available to us.
Hope that helps.