Buying Italian Train Tickers
 

I am looking ahead to our Spring travel. On the Trenitalia site, looking at ES and ESAV trains a few months from now (just to see the situation), tickets from Milan to Florence and from Florence to Venice include the notation "reservation must be made in Italy." Does that mean (1) we cannot even buy the tickets from the USA, using a VISA credit card, or (2) we can buy the tickets a few months in advance but cannot obtain seat reservations until we arrive in Milan?

Also, some specific trains are notated Frecciarossa, some Frecciargento, and some have no notation except the train number. Do those names mean anything we would want/need to know about in selecting a particular train to travel on?

Easier to buy the tickets at the train stations in Italy. Multilingual vending machines accept credit cards and Euro bank notes.

It used to be you couldn't purchase online from Trenitalia more than 60 days in advance, but that was supposed to have been extended by a month or two (I think it's supposed to be no more than 4 months in advance now).

Usually Trenitalia does not accept US credit cards and in the past Trenitalia has posted that on their website. Sometimes a lucky Fodorite is able to get a card to go through, but that is rare.

It really doesn't matter whether if Frecciarossa or Frecciargento because you will be taking what ever is available at the time you need it. The picture on the right of the link zeppole gave is of people sitting in 2nd class. It will be similar whether you take an AV or ES train.

You don't need to buy tickets in advance unless you are booking night trains or traveling on a major holiday.

all passengers on ES or AV trains require a seat reservation - it's included in the price of a ticket. You cannot buy a ticket for those trains without the seat reservation.


There are several super long threads here on Fodors about success and troubles buying tickets on trenitalia.com. Many US credit card holders report problems buying tickets online - I've had success using my Citibank virtual card number. Trenitalia.com is reportedly working on a better system.

The link zeppole posted describes the Frecciarossa (ETR-500) train. Simply pick the train that departs / arrives at the time you want - no need to care about the exact rolling stock it uses.

There are trains every 1-2hrs between all of those destinations you cite all day long, so unless you're traveling right around Easter there should be no concern about getting seats. You can buy all your tickets when you arrive in Milan, or if you have success you can purchase them online and maybe get a discount a month or so in advance.

Good advice above.

Thank you all.

Peter_S_Aus (or others): You wrote "Multilingual vending machines accept credit cards and Euro bank notes." Our US credit cards do not have the "chip" that many European cards have. Will non-chip ("swipe-type") US credit cards work in the ticketing machines at Italian train stations?

Yes, your non-chip US credit cards will work at ticketing machines in Italy - at least mine did.

J62--Thank you. That's encouraging. When we were in Paris (May 08) you could not use them in machines in the RER/Metro/Train stations, although the people working in the staffed booths could swipe them with no trouble.

Would you be willing to tell me what kind of US card you used?

A few clarifications:

1. Trenitalia now sells tickets with AUTOMATIC seat reservations on ALL long-distance trains (AV, ES-Fast, ES, ES-City, IC, ICN, EC, ECN, EXP) up to 4 months in advance. As noted above, it is nearly impossible to do this on the Trenitalia website by using a U.S. credit card, which leaves many travellers no option but to wait to buy tickets in Italy, as soon as they arrive.

2. All long-distance trains in Italy now have automatic seat reservations contemporaneous with ticket purchase. This means all trains EXCEPT the local "regionale" ("R") trains (for which seat reservation are not allowed). The last train categories to be added to the "automatic seat reservations" were the IC, ICN and EXP trains, which occured last month. It is therefore no longer necessary to "remember" to request seat reservations for any of these long-distance trains.

3. On MOST routes, it is not necessary to secure tickets more than a couple of days in advance, or even the day beforehand, unless travelling on a major holiday weekend or during weekends in the summer.

4. Travellers seeking to get the discounted "AMICA" fare tickets for ES-City, IC, ICN and EXP trains will likely be disappointed unless these are booked well in advance. Ditto the promotional fares for the AV and ES trains.

GAC--Thank you for the info. We will be arriving at Malpensa in the early morning on a Thursday after a flight from the US west coast, taking the shuttle bus to the main train station, and then needing tickets for train travel that day to Florence. I am hopeful we will be able to get tickets on one of the departures that day. Because we cannot anticipate flight delays, I doubt getting tickets in advance would be a good idea, even if we could. From what you and others have written, Thursday travel in mid-April should not pose a ticketing problem.

I strongly believe that you will have no problem at all securing seats on trains from Milano to Firenze on a Thursday late-morning in mid-April. Trains run every hour (or less) during that timeframe.

Some ticket machines are cash only. Many times there will be a selection of machines (a row of cash only and a row that accepts credit cards). I've had no trouble using a regular US Mastercard in the machines.

GAC--We will expect to get train tickets to Florence from the Milan train station.

kybourbon--Thank you. The Italy situation sounds different from what we have experienced in Paris. We try to use our CapitalOne No Hassle VISA credit card when in Europe, as it has no additional fee for "curtency conversion," apart from a generally fair market rate for the Euro-to-Dollar. We also have a MasterCard to use if that proves necessary.

My Mastercard is issued by my credit union and gives me the daily interbank rate. They don't charge the fees other credit cards do which is why I use it (and I earn travel points).

To answer the original question, 'Reservations must be made in Italy' is a classic case of why a native speaker (not an Italian who speaks English) should always be used to do translations!

It means, 'seat reservation is compulsory for that part of the journey whilst the train is in Italy', i.e. you can't just hop on, you need a reservation (whether made minutes or months before the train goes), and (if it's an international train) this requirement applies in Italy but may not apply whilst the train is in Germany, Switzerland etc.