Point-to-point tickets

Whether you have a rail pass or point-to-point tickets, you need a reservation to assure a seat. Point-to-point tickets will include a reservation where one is required, or you can purchase non-mandatory reservatrions separately at the counter or, sometimes, online. Seats on regional trains are not reservable, everybody takes their chance.

ALL trains in Italy except for the regional trains require a seat reservation and it is included with the price of the ticket when you purchase. The only time you can purchase a separate seat reservation is when you have a rail pass.

Not to worry here. The purchase of a point-to-point ticket includes any needed seat reservations. It's not like a railpass. Also, some runs out of Santa Margherita-Ligure Portofino (the actual name of the train station) begin on a Regionale train. No seat reservations permitted. It's like a bus on tracks. You buy your ticket, validate it at the little yellow box in the train station, get on and find your own seat. If no seats you can stand just like a bus.

Thank you - all three of you - for your responses. I feel so much better now! As Rick would say, Keep on travelin'!

To be precise, to see timetables and fares on the Trenitalia site, you will enter to enter the name of the station like this: S. Margherita Ligure-Portofino. For fares on regional trains enter a date no more than seven days in advance.

Also, if you reserve train tickets on the Trenitalia website - remember to "sign in" or "sign up" if you haven't already - people are having trouble retrieving proof of their reservations if they don't.