Train tickets in Italy

Were you using the English version of the Trenitalia when you were searching for tickets? I found it to be fairly easy and was able to book a Super Saver economy ticket for !9 euros from Milan to Venice. Trenitalia sends you the ticket over e-mail and you get it validated when you arrive at the station to depart on your train.

Maybe you forgot to use the actual Italian city names, Venezia, Firenze, and Roma. The Trenitalia site will prompt you with the station names, normally for us tourists that would be Venezia S. Lucia, Firenze S. M. Novella, Roma Termini.

If you OCD is about full trains then don't worry. It is extremely rare for a train to be completely sold out. And since many trains between major cities tend to run on an almost hourly schedule and sometimes more frequent, for every train all day long to be sold out would be close to impossible. However, the only reason to buy tickets in advance, on-line is to take advantage of deep discounts that MAY be available. But those tickets are basically no to one change, no refund. So you have to committed to your schedule. All trains in Italy, except Regionale trains, require a seat reservation so any ticket purchased on line is specific to a day, time, train, car number, and seat number. Miss the train the ticket is dead. Regionale trains are open seating so that doesn't apply. Only Regionale ticket purchased at a machine or in a station must be validated prior to boarding.

Those are easy sites so don't know what you mean when you say you cannot navigate them. Where does the problem arise?

Or you could try trainline.eu. Prices are the same as on Trenitalia but some people find it easier to use.
If you buy tickets online, the printouts do NOT need to be validated, but they are good for the specific date and time ONLY. Worth doing if you buy far enough in advance to get the super-economy fares.

Otherwise, buying regular-fare tickets at the station from a machine OR from the attended counter is easy, but those DO need to be validated in the little machine.

It was helpful for me to get pointers from this site: http://www.seat61.com/

Check out his section on Italy. I read this before navigating the websites of www.trenitalia.com and www.italotreno.it. I bought my tickets online from Trenitalia and Italo. Call your credit card company prior to purchasing online so they know a purchase will be made. Otherwise, your transaction may not go through. I had no problem purchasing my tickets on both those sites. With high speed trains there is a mandatory reservation. Since it is a specific train at a specific time, on a specific day, you do not need to validate the ticket.

Thank you everyone for the quick responses. The problem I was having was when I was typing in the departing and arriving destinations they weren't sticking. I think because, as the replies stated, I was putting in Florence and Rome. I will try again using the Italian names for the cities I want. From Florence to Rome there will be 4 of use traveling together and our time will be pretty set as we need to arrange pick at the station in Rome so will definitely get that ahead. But it will be just 2 of us from Venice to Florence with no pick to arrange so maybe I will try be spontaneous and purchase at the station. Thank you!

As you enter the Italian station names. a drop-down menu appears; press the correct station from that list, as previously posted. I find that just typing in the station name without choosing from the pull-down menu doesn't always stick.

Yes, it's rare that Italian Trains sell out - but it does happen especially if you're traveling on a holiday as we did. The only high speed train available to us for Naples->Rome departed at a HORRIBLY early hour which forced us to catch the very first train out of SOrrento. Seems like it was 5:00 or 5:30 in the morning departure. That's NOT what we had planned, but we obviously should have purchased our tickets ahead of time.

....buying regular-fare tickets at the station from a machine OR from the attended counter is easy, but those DO need to be validated in the little machine........

That is not quite accurate. Just to be clear. -- ONLY a Regionale train tickets purchased at the window or a machine has to be validated. All other tickets either at the machine or window will come with a specific seat assignment, in a specific car, train, date and time. That ticket is only good for that train at that time. A Regionale train ticket can be used on any R train at anytime so that ticket needs to be validated - time stamped - prior to boarding.

Trains in the summer, in the middle of the day and between the main tourist cities will sell out.

seat 61 used to have poor advice about getting low fares, maybe he's better now. In any event for trenitalia, pounce on the 120th day before train departure for the cheap fares on high demand freccia routes.

I made my train reservations today for Florence to Rome. Printed the tickets, made note of the PIN number in the notes on my phone, and saved the e-mail so should be covered. Still haven't decided on how to handle Venice to Florence. Thank you everyone for your great tips and advice!

Buy your tickets from Venice to Florence the same way as your other tickets. Note that your departure station will be Venezia Santa Lucia and your arrival station Firenze SM Novella.

I normally buy tickets using www.trainline.eu which sells at the same price as the rail networks. Note that on the Venice - Florence route, you can travel either via Trenitalia or Italo Treno (both are high speed service).

Trains in the summer, in the middle of the day and between the main tourist cities will sell out.

This is an overly pessimistic statement.

Trains could sell out when Italians are on vacation : early/late august, before and after a long week-end. Once I read about all high speed trains to be completely sold out (I mean first class included): it was on Easter Monday when all Italians do the traditional "pasquetta" trip. Those tourists weren't stuck in Bologna, they had to travel to Florence using the old line through the Apennines and changing in Prato. Long but doable.

There is no particular reason for trains to sell out in June or July.

The only times I have encountered sold-out trains were on routes to/from Roma-Firenze, Firenze-Venezia, and Ancona-Bari. These were in July, regionale trains (before the Freccia lines began service), and seats became available as people got off.