Booking Trains within Italy
 

Will be in Italy in August and I am wondering if I should make train reservations in advance.

Looking to get from:
Torino to Monterossa (Cinque Terre)
Monterossa to Florence
Florence to Venice - with a stop in Pisa

If so, can I book them now? I am located in Canada.

You can book the fast trains (AV,IC) 120 days out on Trenitalia. The slow trains (R) you don't want to book online.

Pisa is not on the train route between Florence and Venice. It's between Monterosso and Florence. Most of the trains around Monterosso will be R trains including part of the route from Turin and probably all the route to Florence. Buy when you get there except for Florence/Venice. You only need to book it in advance if you want to get some discounts.

http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/inde...0080a3e90aRCRD

In August, especially in the latter half of August or traveling on any weekend, you most certainly need to book your train tickets in advance where you can. You can book online with a credit card at the Trenitalia website. It has an English language option.

August is an extremely busy month for train travel in Italy because it is the traditional vacation month for not only Italy but most of Europe. So you could be making a big mistake to wait until you arrive to buy tickets. Failure to book in advance in August can result in the newer fast trains being sold out and you being forced to crowd into the old slower regional trains. These older trains often have faulty air conditioning, unusable toilets and standing room only. Not a fun ride.

You should be able to book in advance good inter city trains from Torino to a station close to le Cinque Terre, although you may need to switch twice. I would try to keep the rides on the R trains to the minimum number of stops. Likewise leaving le Cinque Terre to Pisa.

By the way, the name of the train station you need in le Cinque Terre is spelled Monterosso al Mare.

A great many people who regularly post on Fodor's about Italy never travel there in August. You should take that into account when asking for advice about your trip. They have no experience of what they are talking about.

(Most of them have never set foot in Torino, either, or taken a train from there.)

>>>So you could be making a big mistake to wait until you arrive to buy tickets. Failure to book in advance in August can result in the newer fast trains being sold out and you being forced to crowd into the old slower regional trains.<<<

There are no newer, fast trains on the OP's routes except for Florence/Venice.

>>>These older trains often have faulty air conditioning, unusable toilets and standing room only. Not a fun ride.<<<

Much of the route is old R trains and you can't reserve seats on R trains so yes, you might be standing even if you were to buy tickets online in advance (which have more restrictions on the ticket than if you buy in Italy).

>>>A great many people who regularly post on Fodor's about Italy never travel there in August. You should take that into account when asking for advice about your trip. They have no experience of what they are talking about.<<<

Not true. Many of us have and do travel in August.

>>>You should be able to book in advance good inter city trains from Torino to a station close to le Cinque Terre, although you may need to switch twice. I would try to keep the rides on the R trains to the minimum number of stops. <<<

This would only make sense if you can find IC trains that don't have a lot of time hanging out in station waiting for the next IC train when there are several regional train departures.

>>>Likewise leaving le Cinque Terre to Pisa.<<<

There are very few IC trains from Monterosso to Pisa. It really doesn't make sense on vacation when you have a limited amount of time to waste 1/2 day waiting for an IC train when you could hop on a regional train and be at your destination before the IC train even arrives.

I think that you can nearly always book trains like those on the spot - even in August which could even be a slacker season for many trains since many Italians are at the seaside or staying put some place for their August vacations - so unless you want to save money of the Florence ro Venice train and are find with putting your train choice in concrete as it can be hard to change - the discounted tickets that is -

Like Fodor's resident Italian train expert says above the trains from Turin to Cinque Terre are or can be largely regional trains and you can always board - ditto for 5 Terre to Florence (this is when you should stop in Pisa as it is right on that route - not when going between Florence and Venice - anyway for lots of great info on Italian trains check out these superb IMO sites - www.seat61.com; www.ricksteves.com and www.budgeteuropetravel.com.

Using trenitalia.com can be frustrating for many novices and even though folks like ky bourbon will help you with ii if asked I<ME you can always or nearly always book a Florence to Venice train once in Italy and in August trains are IME no busier than other months.

Thank you for everyone`s advice! I now have a clearer understanding of how the trains work in Italy.

Trains between Florence and Pisa used to run about once an hour and were mostly second class; I honestly don't think you'll need to make a reservation, if you even can make one, in either direction.

And if you have lots of trouble trouble booking using the Trenitalia site try using the Italiarail site; they book the same trains as Trenitalia with a very small booking fee

Sorry..one more question. Having difficulty figuring out my train from Torino to Monterossa. Which station should I be leaving from in Torino?

What's your starting point in Turin? Are you arriving at the airport? Staying in a hotel somewhere? Hard to advise which station to use without knowing your departure point, but you would most likely use the main station which is Porta Nuova.

http://www.grandistazioni.it/cms/v/i...003f16f90aRCRD

I am actually arriving into Porta Susa from Paris on Aug 13 at 1:25pm and was looking to head to Monterossa that same afternoon.

Does Porta Susa have rail or metro connections to Turin's main train station? Or are there trains from there to Genoa - gateway by rail to Monterosso.