Hello Everyone,

I'm a retired US Army soldier living in Germany, and I'm having trouble using the ItaliaRail site. My mailing address for my credit cards includes the state "AE," which stands for Armed Forces Europe.

Unfortunately, this site doesn't recognize that address, and it won't process my ticket. This is very frustrating.

I tried buying my ticket through Trenitalia -- but oddly enough, the train I want to take isn't showing up there (Verona to Perugia, leaving at 10.30 on 7 May).

I tried using Eurocard issued by my German bank, but it doesn't have the 3-digit security code on the back.

I've emailed the folks at the site, and I hope they respond soon. In the meantime, I'm hoping that Man in Seat 61 might read this and may be able to contact the site and get this changed.

Thanks --

s

Have you checked whether it might be too early to book on Trenitalia? I'm no expert on Italian trains, but train tickets for the countries I normally travel to in Europe often aren't available more than 92-120 days out from the day of travel.

I have looked at the Trenitalia site, the sbb.ch site and the bahn.com site at the train you refer to does not seem to exist.

Try booking through the bahn site - http://www.bahn.com/i/view/GBR/en/

Being a German site if your card does not work on this site then you need to use another card.

Thanks StCirq!

Well, there were other trains available at Trenitalia, just not the one that departed at 10.30.

But I did get a great response from ItaliaRail which solved the problem.

They replied very quickly to my email and told me I could select either "US" or "Germany" as my country. Selecting "US" wouldn't work because the "state" field was required. However, I selected "Germany" as the country, and the address was accepted and the payment went through.

So, another good result with ItaliaRail, and I can be another one to recommend them!

Man/Seat61 -- I'm grateful you're there to help all of us when we encounter problems; but I'm really grateful that you don't need to bother with this one!

s

Assuming your Eurocard is a Mastercard too I don't understand why it wouldn't have the CVC code on the back. Maybe you should check with your German bank about it, just in case you are unable to proceed with your normal credit cards. I assume the German bank has a normal German address for you?

Ah you posted while I was posting. Glad you were able to solve it!

yes - but was ItaliaRail offering the same price as Trenitalia?

Italiarail charges a small surcharge and IMO it is worth it rather than trying to de-code what used to be a problematic Trenitalia website.

Glad you sorted it - I was just about to flag this up to them when I saw it was solved!

Actually, since there are no direct trains between Verona and Perugia, both sites show "routings" rather than "trains". The 10:30 routing isn't shown on Trenitalia for a very good reason. Italiarail's routing goes from Verona to Venice, then to Florence, and finally by regional train, arriving in Perugia at 18:23, almost an 8-hour journey. Italiarail shows a 12 o'clock departure that gets to Perugia at the same time. The 10:30 departure makes no sense at all.

Trenitalia shows much better routings for Verona to Perugia. There's an 11 o'clock departure that gets to Perugia at 16:25, leaving Verona half an hour later and getting to Perugia two hours earlier than the 10:30 departure shown on Italiarail. Trenitalia even shows a 13:26 departure that gets to Perugia at 18:23, the same time as the 10:30 departure on Italiarail. The difference is in which stations the connections are made.

Yes, bvlenci, I saw the differences in the routing.

One reason I didn't like the routing by Trenitalia is that the first train only offers 2nd class, and the trip is more than 2h. I'm one who enjoys travelling 1st class when I'm going long distances. I believe this will be a heavy-traffic time (Saturday), and I just will be more comfortable in 1st class.

Another reason I prefer the routing via Venice is that the connection times are long, like 45 minutes for one and 1h45 for another. I regularly take trains in Germany, France, and Switzerland, but this is my first train trip in Italy. I'm comfortable with a 15-minute change in those first 3 countries, but I'm not as happy with that for Italy, especially considering it is a Saturday.

Plus, I just enjoy train rides, and a7-hour trip is no problem. I'll get some wine, some food, and relax and enjoy the countryside.

Thanks for your input!

s

If you want to put together something like that, you need to do it on your own on Trenitalia. Nothing would prevent you from buying a ticket from Verona to Venice and from Venice to Florence. Then you could just jump on the next Regional train leaving Florence for the last leg of the trip. I think Trenitalia is right not to propose the itinerary you chose, when there's a train leaving half an hour later and arriving at your destination two hours earlier.

My own preference for your trip would have been to take the 8:52 direct Frecciargento train to Florence, followed by the Regionale Veloce direct from Florence to Perugia. The travel time is three hours less and (something that I appreciate more than first class) only one change of train. Anyway, if that's what you want, both of these trains have first class.

You may be disappointed by the trip from Venice to Florence, which is mostly in tunnels after Bologna.

>>>One reason I didn't like the routing by Trenitalia is that the first train only offers 2nd class, and the trip is more than 2h<<<

I don't see that. Every train I looked at still has 1st class available. Trenitalia's search engines (or Bahn.de) will never return a routing such as you booked because it goes so far out of the way (east and then back southwest) and is so much longer.

Additionally, Italo Treno (not Italiarail) also runs Verona/Florence and travel time is 1:28 (without changes) and has 1st class for your dates. It probably would have been more efficient to book it and then catch the next Trenitalia train from Florence to Perugia (no reservations needed as it's regional trains for Florence/Perugia). Connection time would not be an issue since you could just hop the next train. 1st class on regional trains really has no amenities (nor does 2nd).

http://www.italotreno.it/?sc_lang=it

I thank you again, bvlenci, for your input! However, I am actually leaving from Malcesine on Lake Garda, and I think it might take 1h or 1h30 for the transfer (offered by my hosts) from there to Verona. I really don't want to start travelling at 06.00!!

And I thank you, too, kybourbon, for your ideas, and they are good ones also! However, as I noted above -- my address was accepted by the site, and the tickets have been booked.

For my next train travel in Italy, I'll know to ask farther in advance of my purchase, so I'll have the time to look at all the options.

Thanks again!

s

Well, things are not always as they seem, eh?

Even though the site said that the mailing address was accepted and the ticket was booked & confirmed . . . I got an email about a day later saying that there was a problem with the purchase, that my credit card wasn't charged, and that I needed to call ItaliaRail.

As it happened, my internet went down for 4 days at the same time, so I couldn't call the USA. In that time, I was able to tether my computer to my cell phone's data, and I looked at the better connections listed by both bvlenci and kybourbon. I thought those really did make more sense!

So I bought the connection leaving Verona at 08.52 with direct service to Florence and the regional train onward to Perugia. I thought that the direct routing and a 4-hour-earlier arrival was certainly worth getting up one hour early.

When my internet came back on, I called ItaliaRail and just told them to cancel my ticket.

So, I really truly appreciate your help and your input!! Thank you so much for thinking outloud with me and helping me out with this problem!

And, as always, I had fun with the planning!

s