my Italian travel agt. says I should purchase my Eurostar tickets In Italy - make a reservation when I am ready to travel to the next location & ask for the senior discount...that I didn't need the Flexipass, Eurailpass. Any other advice? Do you find trains overcrowded on Fri. and Sun. as I've read? I did experience that last year in and around Rome when I went to Antica Ostia on Sunday. Makes sense - people are visiting family/friends for the weekend, etc.

Seems like you are getting good advice - - and you have experienced Italian train travel before. Not sure what other advice should/could be offered.

Best wishes,

Rex

Hi pws,

Check www.railsaver.com to see if a railpass will save you money.

PS,

Remember that with the railpass you still have to purchase seat reservations, required on ES* trains and otional on others.

I would agree. I would never purchase Trenitalia tickets in NA. Something to consider would be to plan you trip a little-say the next three stops. Then do that three stop transaction at a travel agent. It will cost you slightly more but the line ups in the train stations can be long in summertime. They also have self service terminals but I have never used them. Fewer and fewer travel agents are selling train tickets because they do not generate enough commission to offset the bother. In Rome try the Amex office at the Spanish Steps. They were very helpful to me last year when I booked three weeks of train travel including overnight trains and a kilometric pass through them. We did not find the trains overcrowded as such and never really had a problem with reservations. We always used the Eurostar class on busy days. You will find that on non Eurostar routes, reserved seats may not have much meaning!

If you do travel on an Italian Eurostar train when you buy the ticket you automatically get a seat reservation as part of the deal so no worries there.
I would suggest you plan your route and days in advance and try to buy all the tickets at once just after you arrive in Italy.
The "economy" of any pass usually depends on the number of trips you are going to take since the more you use it the more economical it becomes. For just a couple of trips I think passes probably aren't worth the extra money.
Whereas it is true that except for certain trains on which seat reservations are mandatory (such as the Eurostars) and on routes/trains that might be packed with people and having a guaranteed seat is more optimal, having a pass allows you to simply get on and ride without standing in lines, etc. But I'm not sure that aspect alone justifies buying one...it is a matter of convenience for some people.
In terms of "overcrowding" on weekends that may sometimes depend on the route involved and the time of day as well as the time of year..but you seem to have already figured that part out given your example of riding to Antica. My general experience has been that 2nd Class tends to be more crowded than 1st since the majority of folks don't wish to pay the additional money that 1st requires.
My only other advice would be that if you are boarding at an origination point it can be helpful to get onto the platform early and into position so you can be one of the first to board, especially if you do not have a seat reservation. I would also keep an eye out for tour groups. Once, when we were traveling from Budapest to Prague we arrived at the station at our usual early hour and nobody seemed to be waiting. Just before the train rolled in a tour group descended onto the platform and it was a real "stampede" situation into 1st Class and there were enough of them that they occupied most of the seats. That is one of several times I was happy that we did have seat reservations.

All in all I'd say you've got a handle on these issues already and have a great trip!

Your travel agent is giving you sound advice. If you want to read about "Eurostar Italia", check out GAC's thread on this topic -- it pretty much covers all aspects of train travel on the Eurostar in Italy.

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http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34419647

Thanks everyone for your response...great to have other opinions!