I plan to book 1st class seats from Milan to Venice on the Frecciabianca soon, and Trenitalia allows you to select seats online. I'll be traveling with my sister, and the seat diagram shows a double row of seats on one side and a single row on the other. Some rows have this grey bar between seats. Does the grey bar designate a table, with seats facing each other? Does anyone have favorite seats on the Frecciabianca when traveling in two's?

Yes, the grey bars are tables that flip out. I try to get a bit from the ends (bathroom smell), but not all the way to the center. In 1st class, there are two facing two with table shared on one side and on the other side one facing one with table shared.

Here's what 2nd class on those trains is like. 1st has a bit wider seats and one less seat on one side.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ssainterno.jpg

Some seats at the ends of cars have flip down trays instead of tables.

Trenitalia defaults to automatic seat selection so be sure to change the box on that screen (below when you are selecting the train price).

When we were recently on Frecciarossa, we picked seats facing each other as I don't like to ride backwards. We picked 5A and 6 A I think it was. No one sat in the seats next to us, so we could easily switch and sit next to each other, both facing forward.

>>>When we were recently on Frecciarossa, we picked seats facing each other as I don't like to ride backwards.<<<

That's no guarantee as trains can and do switch direction at times. You don't really know which direction the car you selected online will be going.

Nor is there any guarantee that someone won't sit with you. The OP's route is one of the busiest in Italy, and if she and her sister want to sit alone, they need to book 1+1 seats.

Thanks for the help. I found the seat61 site. Saw the seats in 1st. I know what to reserve now. The single seats facing each other are perfect for us. I did know about Trenitalia's default settings.

I knew that there is no guarantee that no one would sit next to us, we can actually travel not sitting next to each other. However, I cannot ride backwards, so picking seats facing each other eliminated that possibility. And if someone had sat next to us, so be it, not a biggie. We did this on 3 train trips last month: Rome to Florence; Florence to Naples and Naples to Rome. Worked perfectly.

My wife and I are on the same basic route this summer - Milan to Bologna. Two train choices ... Trenitalia or Italo. I know Italo is a private company - has anyone had experience with both companies? Any comments? Thanks.

I was not criticizing. I was just preparing the OP for the fact that these are very, very busy trains. In September 2012, I can't honestly remember a single empty seat in our cars on the trains we took Rome-Florence and Florence-Verona.

Trenitalia and Italo are fairly equivalent, but Italo does not call at Milano Centrale station, only at Milano Porta Garibaldi or Milano Rogoredo stations.

In some cities, Italo uses different stations than Trenitalia. You could take Italo from Milan, but not from Centrale. It would depend on your start point whether Garibaldi is convenient or not. Both Garibaldi and Centrale are on the Milan metro line.

http://www.italotreno.it/EN/timetabl.../overview.aspx