Reservations

maryann, You may require reservations, depending on which train you choose. Typcially, on the route from Venice to the C.T. (via La Spezia), there are two legs to the trip. The first leg from Venice to Florence is via ES/AV and therefore requires reservations. The second leg from Florence to La Spezia is via Regionale, so no reservations needed. On the route from Florence to Rome, you could take a Regionale with a travel time of ~3H:41M (no reservations) or an ES/AV with a travel time of 1H:30M (reservations required). I obtained this information from the Trenitalia website. Happy travels!

I normally do second class with no reservations (but I usually travel outside of high season). The last leg getting to CT is from either Genoa or La Spezia. This is a local train and reservations aren't available as far as I know. The longer leg will be on a faster train and, if traveling during high season, a reservation may be a good idea.

maryann, You might find it helpful to download the PDF file for Reservations. Go to This Page and scroll about half way down to the " Train Reservations" section. The link is on the right side. Cheers!

IS the cost of a reservation (purchased in Italy) listed anywhere on the Trenitalia website?