I know that people on this board have recommended buying tickets in Europe since it is cheaper there, than online from the US. So, we are planning on buying our tickets point to point for Naples - Rome, Rome - Florence, Florence-Pisa, Florence-Venice there - since they are all short distance train travels. Do you think this would be a problem? Do these trains ever get totally booked - we can't risk not catching the train since it will through our entire itinerary off.

Also - we are going to be taking the overnight from Venice to Nice. Is this something you need reservations for before we to Italy? We wouldn't want that 1 train to be booked.

Aside from the night train, there are virtually hourly departures along all the routes you mention. Once in Italy, you can buy ALL you tickets at the same time. Unless you need to get on a train the moment you land in Italy, you should be fine.

Even on these popular routes, buying the tickets a day or two in advance should be fine. (Weekend travels fill up sooner.) If you know exactly the dates you want to travel, I suggest stopping at a travel agency in your first destination city. There, you can have the agent reserve ALL your tickets, and sit at ease while you do so--no pressure of a busy train station.

Can't advise on the night train--sorry.

You might want to check with All Europe Rail, Rail-Europe, etc. For a 4 or 5 day Italy Pass. Prices, data, etc. follow:

Days Adult1st Class Adult2nd Class Saver1st Class Saver2nd Class Child1st Class Child2nd Clas Youth2nd Class
4 $239 $191 $203 $163 $101.50 $81.50 $160
5 $263 $210 $223 $179 $111.50 $89.50 $176
http://www.alleuroperail.com/italy-eurail.htm

All Europe Rail

Hi HH,

If you wish you can buy your tickets online for the same price as in italy at www.trenitalia.com.

See Trenitalia Tickets Online
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34465647

You will not need a railpass.

If you are flying into Naples, you can buy all of your tickets at the train station there or from any Italian travel agent.

You will definitely want to reserve a compartment for two for the Venice-Nice train.

It will be easier to do that online at http://www.voyages-sncf.com/dynamic.

We used the Italy trains in March and never made reservations. We never had any problems getting on any of the trains we wanted. However, I think it will probably depend on when you are going. We were there during off-peak season so there were less tourists using the trains. If you will be there in the summer, reservations will probably be a must. You have to make reservations ahead of time for an overnight sleeper cabin, if that is how you are planning on getting from Venice to Nice.

As allenem said, all the routes that you will be taking are popular and therefore you will find trains run almost hourly. Trains to Pisa from Florence ran almost twice an hour when we were there.

Tracy

Yes i checked the trenitalia site and their prices are definitely cheaper. I just can never get the English version to work and I don't trust myself ordering through the italian version. Getting the eurorail pass is out of the question, because if you break it down, it comes out to more money than doing it point to point.

I would suggest going to a travel agency (once you're in Italy) to purchase the tickets. We used the American Express travel agency to purchase all of our train tickets and weren't charged a fee for their service. And the lady spoke fluent English so there was no problem with something getting lost in the translation.

We traveled the Florence-Pisa and Florence-Venice route. You don't need reservations for the Florence-Pisa route and had no problem with getting reservations for the Florence-Venice. One word of caution, we didn't know that some of the seats on the Eurostar were facing each other when we purchased the tickets so we got stuck sitting across from strangers (with barely any legroom). Now that I know better, I would request for non-facing seats so I can be sure of how much legroom I'll have (although I'm not sure if they honor seat requests).

If you get your tickets through the trenitalia website, link for directions given above, you can choose your seats.