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-   -   Help Booking Trenitalia tickets: Venice - Florence - Rome (https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/help-booking-trenitalia-tickets-venice-florence-rome-927426/)

spinnerex Mar 12th, 2012 12:27 PM

Help Booking Trenitalia tickets: Venice - Florence - Rome
 
I am trying to figure out buying train tickets on the lefrecce website so I can take advantage of the cheaper Mini fares.

I am going from Venice to Florence on May 12
From what I am seeing on that website, the best option seems to be:
Venezia S. Lucia 08:27 - Firenze S. M. Novella 10:35 FRECCIARGENTO 9411 = 58 Euros
For those that have traveled this route before, does this seem like a good MINI fare? Should I book this now? Can the prices go lower?

I am also going from Florence to Rome on May 16
I have no idea which Rome station to choose? there are about 10 listed ( Tutte Le Stazioni, Aurelia, Balduina, Casilina, Monte Mario, etc)
I’m staying near Piazza Navona.

Also, what is the difference between the lefrecce website and the trenitalia website?

Thanks so much for your help!

kybourbon Mar 12th, 2012 12:49 PM

Use the Le Frecce link on Trenitalia which is for the faster trains. It shows more discounts/choices at a glance. Le Frecce is not for the slow R trains. Le Frecce will also have a seat diagram to select seats like booking on an airplane. You must check the box to select seats or it will select. There will be a few trains on the Le Frecce that won't allow you to select, but most will.
http://www.fsitaliane.it/cms/v/index...003f16f90aRCRD

Your Rome station is Termini, Florence is SML, Venice is SL. On the Le Frecce link, you must use the Italian spelling of the cities. It will start autofilling as you type so then you can just select which one.

kybourbon Mar 12th, 2012 12:54 PM

The cheapest Mini Fare is 9€, but doesn't mean you will ever find that available for your dates.

iowamom Mar 12th, 2012 03:12 PM

We purchased the same set of tickets (Venice - Florence and then Florence - Rome) on the Trenitalia site for later this month. We paid 90Euros for 2 adults and 1 child (one a family rate - 20% discount I think) for Venice to Florence and 95Euros for the Florence to Rome leg. Not cheapest but we picked the fast trains.

spinnerex Mar 13th, 2012 04:16 AM

I dont see a Roma Termini option in the choices. Is that the same thing as Tutte Le Stazioni?

Do you know if the mini fares ever change in price once it has been posted? Like does it ever go lower? or does it only go higher as time goes on?

Thanks iowamom for sharing your fares. Thanks kybourbon for your help!

spinnerex Mar 13th, 2012 04:26 AM

Never mind - I found the Roma Termini option. I restarted the website and it was there.

ellenem Mar 13th, 2012 04:29 AM

It might read "Roma TE." Most fastest trains will arrive at Roma TE only, not at the smaller stations you have mentioned.

"Tutti Le Stazioni" means "all the stations" and will continue to give you you many options you do not want.

Venezia SL (Santa Lucia)
Firenze SMN (Santa Maria Novella)
Roma TE (Termini)

spinnerex Mar 13th, 2012 04:41 AM

Thanks!
So from what I'm seeing, on the fast train for 2 people from Venice to Florence is 58Euros.
Florence to Rome is either 58 or 78Euros depending on just a 30 min departure difference.

Based on iowamom's rates, these seem decent, right? Is it ever worth waiting till closer to the dates?

kybourbon Mar 13th, 2012 07:05 AM

Yes, they are good rates for two. Since your first date is a Saturday, I doubt you will find the cheapest rates. The Mini Fares may sell out the longer you wait. You can try to see if a train is filling up by doing a walk through to select seats, but not buying. If the train is filling up, you will be given a screen with a high number car to select seats(typically first is the first couple cars and 2nd is the next five or so depending on train/route). It would be a gamble waiting.

Walk-up base price for Florence/Rome is 45€ and 43€ for Venice/Florence.

GAC Mar 13th, 2012 07:33 AM

The 78 Euro "MINI" rate for TWO adults from Florence to Rome is LOUSY. Don't buy it! It represents a discount of only 13% over the regular, undiscounted "base" fare. The RISKS of taking a "MINI" fare don't justify a mere savings of 13%

BY CONTRAST, the other "MINI" fares you noted above are pretty good (not great, buy pretty good), so it makes sense to choose them as long as you can live with a fixed departure date and time.

NOTE: I see LOWER "MINI" fares for your travel dates and city pairs (BOTH Venice/Florence and Florence/Rome). Perhaps the departure times don't attract you?

HINT: When searching and booking the "MINI" fares (or indeed even the "base" fares), USE the LE FRECCE website and NOT the www.fsitaliane.it website. The former is better and quicker to use.

More importantly, Trenitalia points out that you can MANAGE your online reservations IF you use the LE FRECCE website, but NOT the "other" website.

The LE FRECCE website has a more powerful and advanced search/booking engine, and is the preferred site when booking the fast "national" trains such as Frecciarossa/Frecciargento/Frecciabianca and Intercity trains. At some point in teh future, it's quite possible that the older search engine will be "folded" into the newer one.

spinnerex Mar 13th, 2012 08:58 AM

GAC, You are right - there were cheaper fairs for 7am -ish time frame but I don't think I can get my husband to wake up that early. :) That's why I was looking at the 8-9ish time frame. I wanted to leave then so that I can get to each city by lunch to maximize time at each one. Thanks for your advice!

PalenQ Mar 13th, 2012 10:03 AM

The 78 Euro "MINI" rate for TWO adults from Florence to Rome is LOUSY. Don't buy it! It represents a discount of only 13% over the regular, undiscounted "base" fare. The RISKS of taking a "MINI" fare don't justify a mere savings of 13%

BY CONTRAST, the other "MINI" fares you noted above are pretty good (not great, buy pretty good), so it makes sense to choose them as long as you can live with a fixed departure date and time.>

Great point by GAC IMO - some folks blindly look at the Mini fare price and do not compare it to a full fare and fully flexible (can be changed until the train I believe or even after perhaps?) whereas MIMI fares are train-specific and in practice hard to change and must be changed some time before the train.

So GAC's advice to see what is the difference in fares and whether the mini fare with its severe restrictions is worth the risk - if late to the train you then have to buy a full fare replacement ticket.

So compare mimi fares with full fare and if not much difference take the full fare - kind of like an insurance policy,

kybourbon Mar 13th, 2012 01:38 PM

>>>HINT: When searching and booking the "MINI" fares (or indeed even the "base" fares), USE the LE FRECCE website and NOT the www.fsitaliane.it website. The former is better and quicker to use.<<<

FYI - The Le Frecce link (above) has www.fsitaliane at the start of the url.

lenc Mar 13th, 2012 02:24 PM

This thread is very helpful. I had been under the impression I could wait until I was in each city---Venice to Florence, either Lucca or Florence to Rome, before buying train tickets. I obviously had not done enough research. Do I understand that not only will the prices be higher, but they may fill? Thanks

lenc Mar 13th, 2012 02:26 PM

Another question. When I went on the Le Frecce site and looked for 1 person, they gave a price. When I put 2 people, no price was available. Am I missing something?

kybourbon Mar 13th, 2012 02:40 PM

No, the base prices will remain the same as the base price now listed on Trenitalia unless there is a summer increase. The summer schedules won't start until the second week of June and probably won't be entirely loaded until late May/early June. Trains between Rome/Florence/Venice are frequent so you will find a train unless it's a holiday weekend.

Mini Fares are discount advanced purchase tickets and can sell out. You do not want to buy an advance ticket for Lucca as it's served by the slow R trains, not the fast trains. There are lots of restrictions if you purchase R tickets in advance. There are no discounts and no reserved seating on R trains so there is no need to buy those in advance.

>>>Another question. When I went on the Le Frecce site and looked for 1 person, they gave a price. When I put 2 people, no price was available. Am I missing something?<<<

Date? Cities?

GAC Mar 13th, 2012 05:54 PM

"FYI - The Le Frecce link (above) has www.fsitaliane at the start of the url."

Yes, that is true. You can also reach the LE FRECCE website directly by entering www.lefrecce.it instead of www.fsitaliane.it, and then clicking on the red "Frecciarossa" (or the "Lefrecce" tab on the Italian site). I suspect that many who log on to www.fsitaliane.it don't proceed to the LE FRECCE webpages, and thereby don't have the benefit of the superior search/booking engine of LE FRECCE.

PalenQ Mar 14th, 2012 08:13 AM

. Do I understand that not only will the prices be higher, but they may fill? Thanks>

Wrong - trains rarely rarely fill and there are so so many trains - never a problem IME - and on trains to Lucca those are regional trains that do not require seat reservations so you can always board. Full fare tickets always available IME. So unless saving a lot on discounted tickets just buy as you go along and save the hassle of pre-booking a train-specific train that cannot be changed nor refunded weeks in advance - unless as GAC says you can save enough to warrant the severe restrictions. Saving a few euros is not IMO worth it for the potential problems so always compare the discounted prices to full fare.

spinnerex Mar 14th, 2012 06:10 PM

So I was about to buy the train tickets for my May trip on those Mini fares (58 Euros). I messed up to wear I had to start over again and in that time, the price for the same time I was about to book went up to 78 Euros! Does the price fluctuate that much like that usually??

One the price goes up, does that mean it won't come back down?

I was a minute away from booking! ugh

kybourbon Mar 14th, 2012 06:23 PM

They have seemed to be fluctuating so I would try again tomorrow. Perhaps clear cookies first.

GAC - The lefrecce.it shows in the url as fsitaliane when you click it. I think some people will be confused when it doesn't show as lefrecce and will think they aren't on the right url. It actually shows as the link I posted in my first post on the thread.


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