Rene

Hi, <BR>will be in tuscany 2 weeks (2 couples), next June. 2 of us will take train to Venice. Other 2 will take train to Rome for 2 days then train to Venice. From what I can tell, there doesnt seem to be any advantage to purchase tickets in the U.S. Will we have any problems buying tickets at Florence train station? Im assuming point-point tickets are what we need. <BR>thank you

mimi

We always buy tickets while in Europe and have never had a problem. If you do not want to wait at each station buy your tickets at the first station you leave from. Make sure you write down the dates, the class, smoking or non, and the number of people traveling together. We have traveled a number of times in Oct., Nov., April, and May and have not had to reserve seats. We travel point to point and find it cheaper than buying a pass in the U.S. If you want to check the prices and time for trains you can use www.raileurope.com. They also give you the distance and time for each journey but we find their prices inflated.

cristina

I know the previous poster didn't reserve seats, but I reccomend you do. I remember going from Rome to Florence with no seat. It was awful, I had a cold ,a bum knee and had to carry mine and my grandmothers luggage. We had to change seats three times and ended up sitting apart in a smoker car, which is awful if you are a nonsmoker. I will never travel without a seat reservation again.

jane

I second the above poster's recommend on seat reservations. Although many on this board will disagree, we were very grateful for them as all of the trains that we were on in September were very croweded. On our return from Venice to Rome, they were not letting persons without reservations on the train as it was full. If we did not have a reservation we wouldn't have gotten back to Rome in time for our return flight.

Marilyn Ham

You can buy the tickets in the train stations or through American Express and travel agencies (that works well too). Usually in the train stations they can tell you which trains you would need reservations for. Usually on the "milk runs" reservations are not necessary, but from the larger city to city trains you do. We've done it both ways. We reserved one time from Rome to Florence and were certainly glad we did because the train was so full that people were sitting on their luggage in the aisles. Marilyn

Rene

Thanks everyone for the suggestions, being as anal retentive as I am I will probably make reservations! one more question......first or second class?

Katherine

The problem with reservations is that you are tied to the timetable of the trains you are taking. We go without reservations, except in a few instances so that we have more flexibility regarding when we come and go. We also have only gotten second class tickets except in a couple of instances; when no second class reservations were available for a specific train we wanted to take from Naples to Rome. Also, it depends on what day you travel. On Friday from Venice to Florence, for example, you must have a reserved seat.