Thanks Susan. I did try that but no luck. I join the thousands who cannot buy tickets on this website :(

Oh, sorry that didn't help! I guess I'm one of the few who has never had a problem buying them ahead of time on trenitalia!

what bank card did you use? I wonder if only certain credit cards work with trenitalia.com?

I think I used by CapitalOne card a few years ago. They are much stricter now about fraud overseas, so last July I used my Keybank card with no problems.

ssc2229 - Trenitalia's website says not to use American AmEx.

I know. I tried a visa - actually 3 different bank of america Visas. I even called my bank to get temporary online virtual cards with new numbers for online transactions. No luck..

Well you may check with BETS 800-441-2387 if you really want to have a ticket and reserved seat in your hands before leaving - a natural desire for many. Though they work thru RailEurope i've noticed RE has some seemingly not bad fares for Italian trains and the extra few dollars could be priceless for folks who like to have everything pegged down and just have to board the train.

This was a LONG time ago, but I do remember booking sleeper train tickets through STA Travel.

I just checked their site and it looks like you can book train tickets and reservations through them if you're within 60 days of your travel date.

Btw, I wasn't a student when I booked those tickets, so don't be thrown off by the "Student" in STA Travel.

PalenQ - thanks for the tip to call BETS. They helped me arrange my trip from Amsterdam to Paris. They found a good price and explained everything to me. Much less painful and much more informative than navigating a web site that kept changing languages. Thanks again.

May I revive this useful thread with a question more tailored to our own interest in finding discounted train travel.

Father (63) and son (25) traveling for a week across Italy south to north. This time we don't care for 1st class seat reservations, would like to get on / off as we please as it suits our fancy.

On a previous trip we were able to buy a 50% discount (promozioni, tariffe speciali), tied to age and to two traveling together. And cheaper than a Eurail Pass. But it had to be purchased in Italy 3 days before the trip, for specific days known in advance.

I don't see any option to do this on the web before arrival.
Any precedents would be appreciated.

Trenitalia is always changing the type of promotions they offer. Here's the latest ones.

http://www.trenitalia.it/en/promozio...rte/index.html

Ellenem, thanks for your reply. I was aware of this website: Amica, Argento; I didn't know that getting off a reserved train now requires a FlexiFare premium.
Unfortunately it doesn't offer anywhere near the discount level from 2 years ago.
I suspect that such fares may still be available once in the country. That's what I am fishing for.

On my visit to Italy this past March the promotions available within the country were the very same ones as one the Trenitalia web site. The promotions change all the time. In fact my Italian friend I was visiting had no idea about the Amica fare until I told her about it. On my previous visit with her a few years before, there had been a much deeper discounts available--no longer.