We will be landing in Rome and taking the Eurostar to Florence in October. Friends have suggested we book train tickets in advance using the Trenitalia.com website. I have now tried to set up 3 separate accounts on the site. It accepts user I.D. and sends an email with a password. But when I attempt to input the password to make the reservations, the site says my password is invalid. Even worse, it instantly switches from English to Italian. I have looked at the American booking services and they charge approx. 50% premium for booking. Any help from you experienced Italy train travelers would be appreciated. TandC

Just buy your ticket upon arrival at Rome's airport if you can't get the very fickle trenitalia site to work. The price will be the same unless you got an elusive online discounted ticket and you'll have no problem getting seats on the about two trains an hour between Rome and Florence. No need in any case to buy in U.S. - none at all IMO.

Thanks. Our schedule is to depart Rome around noon on Sunday 10/15, and we weren't sure how full the coaches would be. To buy the ticket at the station, do you use one of the vending machines, or just go to the desk? T

At the airport station there may well be vending machines but i'm not sure but you may want to go to the ticket window anyway as machines can be a bit complexing at first encounter.

I would first print off the train schedules you want to reserve and give this to the ticket window so there is no language problem, which there probably won't be at the airport ticket window. You could wait literally hours in line at Rome Termini ticket windows however, so i'd do it at the airport.

Getting your ticket in Rome will probably work. But, if you prefer to have it in advance, try BudgetEuropeTravel.com. You can call the 800 number and they are very helpful.

I seem to remember having the same password problem. I think I finally got it to work by changing the assigned password to one I setup.

I don't remember seeing a ticket machine at the FCO station. However, across from the Trenitalia ticket counter is a "360" counter which can also sell you tickets (both for the Leonardo Express and the Eurostar) for the same price.

I'd wait until getting there. Because flights can be delayed you can't be sure what time you get to Rome.

Thanks for these excellent suggestions. I'm going to call the BudgetEurope site tomorrow (thanks Maureen). If that doesn't work, we may just wait and buy at the airport. Then have to decide whether to take the train or a cab from the Rome airport to the train station to pick up the Eurostar. Thanks again to all. T&C