Rail Europe is more expensive. I found out the hard way....

I'm not sure why the schedules aren't posted on Trenitalia yet, but RailEurope is a marketing company that exists to resell European train tickets at higher prices. And actually, it's usually RailEurope that doesn't list all the trains.. You could try looking at schedules and prices on www.bahn.de and see if they're listed there (prices should be the same as Trenitalia on that site).

Rail Europe can't really be selling tickets that aren't available yet. I would think they will let you pay, e-mail some reservation code that you would have to change out later when the trains are actually loaded.

Can't wrap my brain around wanting to buy from Rail Europe. What's the point? They don't show all the trains available, make up train numbers that don't even exist (at least for Trenitalia), don't have most of the discounts (in the past no discounted tickets although they claim to now) and charge you a fee.

The routes you are looking at are walk up price of about 43€
for Florence/Rome and 80€ for Rome/Venice without the family discount which you might qualify for depending on age of child.

I would just keep checking Trenitalia every day until they get the schedules loaded (sometime between now and 2nd Sunday in June).

I agree - periodically check Trenitalia until they get the schedules loaded.

Those ridiculous price differences between Trenitalia and Rail Europe are normal.

I can't understand how Rail Europe even stays in business with their outrageous mark-ups!

Hi SD,

Raileurope is the marketing arm of the European train systems. It was once useful to Americans. Today it is used by those who know no better.

For the high-speed trains RE will sell you an "open" ticket for which you will have to purchase a seat reservation, at a higher price than if you wait for Trenitalia.

The online ticket will come with a reservation.

Enjoy your visit.

Is there a "typical" window when Trenitalia publishes the new schedule? 60, 90 days or is it just random?