I just purchased tickets from Villach to Venice on the Austrian Rail website. The online ticket that I printed out states the following (translation follows):

Wichtige Hinweise:
Bitte verlangen Sie vom Zugbegleiter in Österreich die Durchführung je einer Kontrollprägung für die Hinfahrt und die Rückfahrt. Ausserhalb Österreichs ist der Internet-Ausdruck nur in Verbindung mit der Kontrollprägung gültig.
Für Online-Tickets besteht kein Anspruch auf Erstattung.

Wir empfehlen für Online-Tickets den Abschluss des Ticket-Storno-Schutz der Europäischen Reiseversicherung.
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Using an online translator, I deciphered this to:

Important tips:
Please, require from the guard in Austria the realization a control coinage for the driving and the return journey. Beyond Austria the Internet expression is valid only in conjunction with the control coinage.
For on-line tickets no claim to allowance exists.

We recommend the conclusion of the ticket cancelation protection of the European trip assurance for on-line tickets.
_____________________________________

What does this mean? What is the "realization a control coinage..."? Does this simply mean we need to present our ticket to a conductor?

Thank you, in advance!

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Please help.

This means that you must get the conductor in Austria to stamp your online ticket. The Italian railroad will not consider the online ticket to be valid unless it has this validation stamp of the Austrian railroad from which you purchased it.

Thank you SO much for the reply! This is the first time I've purchased train tickets online and I don't want any surprises when we get there! Thanks again!

Hi Mary,

In case your Austrian conductor doesn't speak English, you need the Kontrollprägung.