Hello,

I will be in Italy this summer and will be traveling by train for a few of the legs. Specifically:

Venice - Verona
Verona - Varenna

Do I need to book my train tickets ahead of time? Or can I decide that morning which train to take and buy my ticket at the station?

I am getting mixed messaging on which is the better way to go. I’d rather go with the flow and decide that day but at the same time my trip is so tightly scheduled that I would hate to miss the train I want to take.

Thank you!

Venice to Verona is served by direct trains (no transfers) several times an hour, all day long.

At 10min past each hour, the train takes 1hr 28min, and the price is about $10. I looked up prices for tomorrow and for a month from now and it's the same price. There are slightly faster trains that leave at 18min past the hour, nearly every hour of the day. Those take 1hr 12min, and the price for tomorrow is about $30. A month ahead you can get tickets for half that.

Verona to Varenna requires one or two connections, and there are tickets available for tomorrow on the fastest trains. The best connections are a fast train from Verona to Milan, then a regional train to Varenna that leaves hourly at 20min past the hour.

Based on this info, I'd say you are safe to go with the flow. You could save a little money by booking ahead, but then you don't have the spontaneity you want. To give your self maximum flexibility, decide your plans based on the schedules for the Verona to Milan leg separately. Any ticket you buy on to Varenna will be good on any of the hourly regional trains.

Thank you so much for this. What a huge help! And I appreciate you doing some research for me. I’m going to go with the flow on this, which my husband will appreciate since every other second of true trip is planned thanks again! Holly

There is pro and con in each method you choose.

If you want to buy tickets at the station, the queue may be long to buy from a human. If you were to buy from a machine, the machine only takes credit cards with PIN. Without a PIN, you'll need to feed cash into the machine, so make sure you have enough cash for the more expensive ride. Also, keep an eye on your valuables while fumbling with the ticket machine.

You may also wait until the night before to purchase ticket online. That way, it is still somewhat spontaneous.

good to know, Thanks! Do you buy tickets on trenitalia’s website?

Yes, on the Italian State Railways' website www.trenitalia.com to search schedule and purchase train tickets. One must enter stations' names in Italian-language spelling. If there are more than one station in a city, research beforehand to know which station name you should use.

There is another train company called Italo which has different ticket machines in the station, but I did not try to ride Italo train. Sticking with just one company works for me.

sooo helpful. Thank you!!!

Just there 3 weeks ago, EXTREMELY easy to buy tickets at the station. I aboslutely, positively need to plan ahead but the trains to those cities are so frequent, I would definitely wait till I got to the station

thank you for this! I will wait till we are there to buy tickets. Hope you had a great trip!

My US Amex and Visa cards have always worked in the Trenitalia machines without a PIN (most recently this past April). They work just fine, no PIN.

Whether you need a PIN or not probably depends on the value of the transaction and the policy of your bank, like any card transaction.

OP, you can wing it buying train tickets but you may pay more if you take one of the faster Frecce or Intercity trains.

If you buy from the ticket office and you don't speak Italian it is possible that they will sell you a ticket for the next train or the next fast train, whatever they think you may want. If you buy from the multi-lingual kiosks you can see the next few trains and choose which one suits you best based on price and time.

If you buy a ticket at the station without a seat reservation (i.e. regionale services) you must validate your ticket in the stamping machines near the platforms before boarding. You may otherwise be fined.

You have several options: use Trenitalia the state railways site; use www.italiarail.com which can be easier to use but it tacks on a surcharge of a couple of dollars; BOTH can be used and you can print out the tickets at home. You can use the ticket machines at the stations as has been said. Do you care about being in First or Second or Business class? If you do and you KNOW that dates and times, I would use the online methods because you will have a better seat selection. I just purchased tickets for trips from Venice to Verona and from Verona to Milan on line. Couldn't be easier.

If you want to be flexible, you could buy full-price tickets in advance. These can be exchanged for a different time.

If you wait until the day of travel, some trains may only have business class tickets left, which are considerably more expensive.