Hello all!

I will be traveling to italy with a friend in october. I plan on staying in rome for 4 nites, florence for 4 nites, venice for 3 nites and back to rome for 2 nites. Can I please get some suggestions on what train schedule i should take? should i book tickets ahead of time or should i just buy tickets at the train station. Are there many time slots that the trains or eurostar run, so i have flexible time schedule, or are there limited times the train runs from each of these cities.. please advise..thanks!!

We recently took the train from Florence to Venice and bought our tickets once we arrived Florence. We went to the Eurostar Club (down track 16) and had no problems purchasing a couple days before our departure.

We took the 8:38 a.m that arrived Venice at 11:30 a.m. There were several departures that day, and Eurostar isn't the only train, so that provides even more departures.

Hi fluke,

You can find the train schedules at www.trenitalia.com.

You should have no trouble buying your tickets at the train stations. You can get them all at once if you wish.

The most flexible, and least expensive way, is to take the IC trains without reserved seats. Then you can get on any train.

You will be traveling on popular routes, so you will have options almost hourly. Personally, I like to get an early start and reach my next destination around noon. Then I have lunch and a full afternoon to see the new city. From Rome to Florence and Florence to Venice this is quite feasible. The Venice-Rome leg is longer, but you will be returnig to a familiar city, so a later arrival is fine.

Since you seem to have set plans, book train tickets for all your trips once you arrive in Rome. You can go to the train station, where you can use the ticket windows or machines, or stop at a travel agent. You could even buy all your tickets at the train station at the airport before you head into Rome.

In any case, for these popular routes, I would book tickets a day or two ahead just to be safe.

thanks all for you help!! i found all of your suggestions very helpful!