I've been trying for 2 days to purchase train tickets from fs-on-line.com, the Trenitalia web site. I'm able to make my selection, etc. but when I try to register, which you have to do before making a purchase, I always get the message: 'The service is supended.' Any ideas about what the problem could be? According to their posted hours (6:30 to 23:30 Italy time), I am attempting access at an accepted time. Would appreciate any help or else I'll have to go through a travel agent and pay an extra fee.

Ginger, <BR> There's another website, in fact I think there's probably many, where you can purchase train tickets on-line. I know I've purchased them on www.raileurope.com which is much easier to use and had no problems. I think the prices vary slightly, so you might want to check. Good luck.

Some people find the "peace of mind" of buying from www.raileurope.com worth the price. It's hefty. On low cost tickets, once you add the "shipping and handling" it can double the cost of the ticket. <BR> <BR>If you're buying tickets of $100 or more, the mark-up will likely be in the 20-40% range. <BR> <BR>I would simply wait until you arrive in Italy, Ginger. <BR> <BR>Best wishes, <BR> <BR>Rex <BR>

Ginger, <BR>I just bought my tickets through www.raileurope.com, traveling from Venice to Florence then on to Naples and then back to Rome. I bought 1st class tickets, there is always an additional fee for reservations, which I strongly suggest and the shipping and handling charge was only $10.00. It is an easy site to use and there is always an 800# if you have any questions. I had my tickets withing 3 days.

Hi! <BR>This summer my wife and I took overnight sleepers from Prague to Paris and Paris to Barcelona, and Ben Haines e-mailed us a wonderful explanation of the European train system. We saved hundreds of $$$ because we did not buy from RailEurope. If you want the info, e-mail me and I will e-mail it to you. I don't think that Ben Haines would mind, as he was a really nice chap.

Rex: <BR>We considered waiting until we were in Italy to buy the tickets, but our Rome to Venice trip is on Nov. 1, which is a state holiday. Didn't want to risk not getting the time, 4 seats together, etc.

I recently had the same problem. I e-mailed the webmaster who confirmed the suspension but he told me to fax him the required registration info and he would register me. I did, he e-mailed me back that I was registered and when I went through the on-line process again everything worked fine.

RailEurope is often impossible to reach, get put on hold long time. i usually wait to buy tickets in Europe but if i want to have a reservation in hand i buy here - i've found Budget Europe in Ann Arbor MI to be efficient and experts in european rail info and tickets of any kind with prompt service. 800-441-2387 i think, ask for their free European rail guide that has lots of practical info not only for rail but general European travel.

For whatever it's worth, we found that some itineraries couldn't be purchased on the Trenitalia website and we also wanted to purchase ahead of time to ensure seats together for our family of four traveling at Eastertime. We bought from CIT Tours over the phone. They are in New York and are an official rep of the Italian train system. I know we paid a slight premium but were pleased to have our train tickets mailed to us in advance of our US departure.

I, too, used CIT-Tours out of NYC to buy my first and second train trip tickets in Italy as we were travelling in high tourist season (July-August this year) and din't want to risk problems getting what we wanted. The service was fast and efficient and the admin. & shipping charges were about $20. We were very pleased. All other train tickets we purchased in Italy at a travel agency. Lower prices and we got exactly what we wanted.

Rex (see message above) is full of shit. We sell tickets through Rail Europe and though they tack on a fee and often charge more than in Europe it's not nearly 20-40%! Price discrepencies depend on the value of the dollar as Rail Europe pegs their prices for a year ahead of time. Thus if dollar rises, tickets in Europe become a better deal, if it falls it could be and it has been in the past cheaper actually to buy here. Generally though you probably pay no more than 10%. Current fares for Rail europe tickets in Germany in fact are about the same as what you would buy there. All this is for unrestricted tickets, in europe if you can meet advance purchase deadlines or buy an often expensive card or put up with restrictions on times to travel, etc., then you may save significantly more. But to say blanket statement you pay 20-40% is balderdash - if you don't know don't spout off! Tickets bought through Rail Europe (owned by the French and Swiss railways) carry the words they are good for two months with unrestricted stopovers en route - something restricted tickets bought in Europe may not allow.

For train tickets in Italy, I would suggest buying tickets by telephone through CIT if you are planning to take a train immediately upon arrival in Italy. I would not buy tickets in advance if you are not taking a train until the next day or later. CIT charged us the price of the ticket ($68) plus a $10 seat reservation, $10 postage, and $15 handling fee for 1st class tickets from Milan to Rome. We did this only because we were taking the train immediately upon arriving in Milan and didn't want to take any chances. For the subsequent train trips we just popped into a local travel agency the day before we were leaving and they sold us the tickets at no extra charge. There is no charge for seat reservations if booked 5 or more hours ahead.

Retardo: I just did a Rome to Venice 1st Class Eurostar ticket on RailEurope for Oct.26 thru RailEurope. <BR> RE will sell an *open* ticket from Rome to Venice *Mestre* (on the mainland which requires another train into Venice proper) for $69USD without a seat reservation. Plus a $10 shipping charge. <BR> Buying the ticket in Italy *actually* into Venice (S. Lucia) would cost $62 *with* a seat reservation. <BR> Now if I'm not mistaken wouldn't RE charge me another $10 (commission) plus/maybe the small cost of the seat reservation (5,800L/$2.75US?) if it was doable? <BR> On this journey they are selling me a ticket to a place I don't want to go (Mestre) for more money without a seat reservation. I could buy a ticket for a particular train with a seat reservation in Italy cheaper and if I didn't take that particular train I would still have the same *open* ticket that RE wants to sell me but to my real destination for less money. <BR>Retarto: Seeing you sell RE tickets why don't you give a price on a 4-day Naples-Rome-Florence-Venice-Rome trip on the Eurostar 1st or 2nd class with seat reservation costs and S/H included. We can then compare that to buying them in Italy and see actually what the mark-up/percentage is, I'm curious. Regards, Walter <BR>

The point is that a blanket statement about RE charging 20%-40% more is not nearly always the case though it may be in Italy especially if you need reservations or to pay the TAV (formerly called Eurostar Italia) trains because those charges from RE are a bit excessive. yes $10 for each seat reservation required whereas in Italy just a few bucks. TAV supplements likewise are inflated - RE charges $15 for each TAV reservation/supplement and in Italy these vary as to distances but may be $5-10. Plus RE charges $11 order fee, and shipping charges (which we don't charge so they are not always the cheapest source. Prices through RE for point-point tickets : Naples-Rome-Florence-Venice ticket is $86 first class, $56 second class, with stopoffs allowed anywhere en route so for convenience whether here or in Italy buy one ticket then stopoff - though this may not be the case if bought in Italy probably is but ask first. Venice (SLucia)-Rome $69/$45 in both classes one way. By the way the $69 ticket from RE Venice-Rome is from SLucia not Mestre, anyway their manual says $69 Rome-Venice S Lucia. Note these are point-point fares for use on any train but if taking TAV trains you must make a reservation and pay a supplement as noted above - making the purchase in Italy much cheaper but the point-point ticket price may not be a whole lot cheaper - it may be. But i've compared fares on the German Railways site (www.bahn.de), an excellent site with schedules for all of Europe and these fares currently are about the same as those indicated on their site in Deutsche Marks. A few years ago French tickets were actually cheaper here than there - this was due to the dollar slipping during the year after prices in dollars had been pegged for the year. (RE sets prices once a year and doesn't change them until the next year. (Again we're talking about unrestricted point-point tickets that can be used on any train.) The cheapest way to go in Italy is the Chilometric ticket sold at stations there - can be used by up to five people for a total of 20 trips - sold in either class but again you must pay supplements to ride InterCity of TAV trains and have to wait in line to get it endorsed prior to travel. Treinitalia.com web site may have prices and conditions. Cao Cao!

yeah you can save money by buying tickets in Italy but those who don't like waiting in long lines at stations like Rome Termini may find the convenience of advance purchase a good investment. I waited over an hour last year to make a reservation. Things are much more relaxed at Tiburtina station, a few metro stops from Termini so next time I'll head there. Except for Eurostar Italias which require reservations, first class tickets can usually find empty seats just by boarding.

I just did a 3-leg journey on both the www.trenitalia.com & www.raileurope.com website. Naples-Rome-Florence-Venice on the Eurostar trains with seat reservations. <BR>So *total* cost if you buy them in Italy is (USD-today's rate) $105/1st & $72/2nd. <BR> Thru www.RailEurope.com just the train tickets (no seat res) are $120/1st & $81/2nd. A seat reservation costs $15 X 3-legs =$45 plus shipping-$10 and handling-$10 =$20. <BR>www.RailEurope.com's total cost for this journey is $185/1st & $146/2nd. That's quite a "mark-up"! <BR> I haven't done it but others have and that is purchase tickets & reservations at an Italian Travel Agency or an American Express Office (Spanish Steps in Rome). The names and addresses for these TA's is on the trenitalia website click-on "Agencies". Regards, Walter <BR>

I will be traveling from Switzerland into Italy. Can I buy ticket valid all the way to my final destination in Switzerland or when I change in Milan for Venice will I thin need to buy ticket for this leg from the Italian RR? Also...will be skiing in Interlaken; is there some kind of a combo ticket good for the ski trains/lifts that can also be used for my journey to Venice (skiing 6 days + 1 day to go to Venice)? Thanks

I had a similar post. Rex's advice about buying tickets in Italy was, for the most, good.<BR><BR>He's right about buying tickets on arrival in Italy vs. buying a reserved seat on line. If you buy a reserved seat on line and you arrive late and miss your train, you're SOL. Conversely, if you get in early, you might be able to get an earlier train (as we were able to do). We got to Milano Centrale at about 9:15 a.m. on a Saturday morning, and were able to get first class seats on the 10:00 a.m. Eurostar train to Florence S.M.N., which surpised me since everyone said we wouldn't likely make it from Malpensa to the station in time to catch a 10:20 train that I had thought about buying reserved seats on.<BR><BR>And while I won't go far as to say or even imply that Rail Europe is a rip-off (everyone is entitled to a fee for their service after all), Rex is also right about the costs associated with on-line purchases. We saved a lot of money (about 30%) by not buying on line through Rail Europe, but instead buying point-to-point tickets in Italy at the stations we went to. I had no problem getting the tickets at either Milano Centrale or Florence S.M.L. (where I bought tickets to Venice, and from Venice to Milan), even though I speak virtually no Italian. One thing that did help was to print off the day's schedule of trains from one point to another (which I down loaded and printed from Trenitalia's site), and handing them to the clerk at Florence S.M.N. when I was asking her about available seats on particular trains at particular times on a specific day day.<BR><BR>The one downside to not buying on line and getting a reservation is that we were unable to get non-smoking first class seats for the ES from Milno Centrale to Florence S.M.N. on the date we arrived, which was a Saturday, or from Florence to Venice S.L. on November 1, which was a national holiday. And if smoking bothers you, you won't want to be in a smoking car or smoking section of an IC car.<BR><BR>Hope this helps anyone considering buying on line vs. at the station in Italy.