TRAINS

First, if you want an answer, read the posting guidelines. Using all caps is considered rude and is prohibited.

PLEASE STOP SHOUTING!! It makes my ears and eyes hurt. Now that we're sitting quietly, we'll begin.

Are you currently in Venice? Or planning?

There certainly is a morning railway bus to Villach, with train connections to Salzburg from there. Leaves Piazzella Roma at 0920 arriving in Salzburg at 1548. The whole thing is through ticketed by Oebb, the Austrian train company. Have you tried going to www.oebb.at click english, then go fill in your requirements? You can but it there, given many choices of tickets.

[Edit] I meant to copy in the quote from Rick Steves found in the guidebook update:

Connections

As of Dec. 13, 2009, Vienna–Venice daytime trains always require a connection, often including a bus on the leg between Villach and Venice (Venezia Piazzale Roma). Venice–Munich daytime trains now always require a connection at Verona (or choose the route via Villach with bus connection).

This also applies to Salzburg<<

EDIT: Although we posted at the same time, the times posted aren't the same. Hmmm...So, we're basiclly saying the same thing.

There are several daily trains on that route; some include a bussed section. Except for purchasing in advance from a reseller (at a substantial mark-up, usually), you won't be able to purchase these particular tickets in advance, but very likely that's not a problem.

What date are you searching? Deutsche Bahn lists at least 12 for the date of Aug 26 (a Thursday), and 2 of those don't involve a bus. It looks like to avoid using the bus, you need to route your trip through Verona. Going by the 3 1/2 hour bus saves quite a bit of time, though.

While it has happened before, US credit cards aren't accepted by Trentitalia. You can stop banging your head against the wall on that one...

Although I knew the answers better than the previous posters, I didn't post immediately, because I felt we should make Shirley adhere to the posting guidelines.

You could, of course, wait until you are in Italy and purchase tickets for the bus/train route or any all-train routes from Venice to Salzburg. They just don't take American credit cards for online purchases.

If you go to the Austrian Rail website, www.oebb.at, you can find advance purchase Sparschiene fares on that bus/train route for as low as €29.

There are also routes from Venice via Verona to Innsbruck by way of Brenner Pass, then on to Rosenheim, Germany, to Salzburg. I don't see Austrian Rail Sparschiene fares for this route. That doesn't mean there might not be those fares; I just didn't see them.

German Rail offers discounted Europa-Spezial fares for connections with one end outside of Germany, but usually not with a complete connection outside of Germany. There used to be trains directly from Venice to Germany, but not any more (except for the night train). The best you can do is Verona to Germany. You can get an advance purchase ticket from Verona to Freilassing, Germany, for as little as €49 pP. Freilassing is right across the river from Salzburg, an 8 min, €2,10 trip. You still have to get from Venice to Verona. That would be a point-point Trenitalia ticket purchased at the time in Venice for as low as €18,50 for an Italian Eurostar, half that for a regional train.

Lee and Nigel are correct. You can purchase the bus/train tickets from Venice to Salzburg (via Villach) online through www.oebb.at using an American credit card. I took Lee's advice in June and by purchasing as early as possible I was able to get the 29 euro fare. Our bus left Venice at 11:20 a.m, but there was an earlier one at 9:00ish, as I recall.

Don't be afraid of the bus -- double decker, air conditioned, very comfortable, great scenery; it was much more pleasant than the hot, overcrowded train.

Sorry about all caps and thank you for your help. Very informative. I have enough information to make a decision.