Trenitalia US booking

People have reported success with booking on Trenitalia from the US this year. Apparently Trenitalia policy has changed. Be sure you call your bank and advise you will be making a purchase from Italy onnthe Internet so they don't reject it as fraud.

I was a little confused about the ticketless part of the instructions. There were about 3 ways of proving that you have a ticket. any suggestions on the best way. Also, does the ticket include the reservation ifvyou have a seat assigned? Thanks

All trains in Italy except for the Regional trains now require a seat reservation and that is automatically included and assigned in the ticket process for all purchases. Tickets for Regional trains cannot be purchases over the web simply because there is no need to purchases. Regional trains are not discounted nor do they sell out.

Ann, I can't answer your question about the "ticketless"option as we haven't actually purchased on Trenitalia this year. Hopefully some one can offer you some help.

Ann, this article has a fairly good explanation of the online and ticketless process: Booking on the Trenitalia Website, yet a picture is worth a 1,000 words, so take a look at this: Example of a PNR Email from Trenitalia, This is the email you get from Trenitalia when buying a ticket online (I've "change all the numbers and codes). This is for an upcoming trip I'm making from Venice to Florence. When you go through the online purchase process, this is exactly the email you get (in a PDF format). You can see the info near the red 1 tells you the route, date, and time of departure. The red 2 denotes the type of train and train #. The red 3 tells you the class of service (I chose 2nd class), the train car you'll be in and the seats where you'll be seating, I used the Le Frecce site when booking this and selected all my seats to be together. The yellow 4 is the most important piece of info on this sheet. It's the PNR code that you'll give to the conductor to prove you paid... so it's your ticket. I'd just print and carry the whole page, but you don't have to. You can just tell them the number (I still like carrying the page!). Many locals just send the email to their SmartPhones and then hold up the phone to the conductor. You could use this code and the name at the bottom of the page (Smith in this case) and print out an actual ticket at a train station kiosk, but that's not necessary. The PNR code is your ticket to ride!. The red 5 is by the CP code that you will need if you have to make changes to your ticket.

As you can see, I paid 22€ each for my tickets using the MINI discount. The BASE price is 43€ each so I saved almost 50% per ticket. If you can do the fixed schedule (we're heading to a late dinner in Florence), then you can certainly take advantage of the MINI discounts. Good luck in your booking!

Thanks Ron for the detailed info

I booked from Illinois this July from home for August 1st travel Rome to Venice. Got the mini price. As the previous responder you need to take the whole page with you as it gives you the car # and seat assignment. No problem with US CC

Ann, I am planning on taking the paper copy and as a backup, have copied the confirmation page from my email and saved it as a word document on my blackberry in case I lose the paper copy or it gets wet or something along those lines. While it Italy, I am disabling the browser on my phone because it will cost a bizillion dollars if I leave it open.

Ann, Ron is The Man! Spend as much time as possible on his entire site...you won't waste your time. And read that tutorial! On which type of ticket to buy (ticketless/print-at-home, etc.), the choices offered to you will depend on whether you're starting in Italy but training out of the country, or traveling within Italy, among other things. READ THE INFO GIVEN ON EACH OPTION CAREFULLY! I would go for a print-at-home option whenever possible. But that's me. And yes, the 'Trenitalia won't accept USA cc' is thankfully old news...for now. Things change; no promises...;-)