Any experience with tranitalia?

I'm going to Venice for a couple of days, and in mean time I would like to visit Verona, Firenze and Bologna so I heard about tranitalia and I would like to know your experience with these trains and how many days/months before you need to book the tickets or you can buy the ticket at the time on the train station?

Thanks in advance

I think it would help if you spell it trenitalia. For short rides like that you can buy the ticket the day you want to go - but some trains do have advance purchase discounts.

Check out the site.

www.trenitalia.com

You can IME always buy train tickets right up to the time of the train usually - there are so so many trains - zillions but as nytraveler says you can nab some discounted but limited in number tickets on www.trenitalia.com but note that these to guarantee should be booked weeks early and are in practice non-changeable non-refundable so be sure of your times.

For flexibility just buy tickets as you go along once there - if you wish to have flexibility - others like to have tickets already in hand before leaving and just have to show up for the train.

For good info on Italian trains I always spotlight these IMO fantastic sites - www.seat61.com; www.rickstves.com and http://www.budgeteuropetravel.com/id12.html. If not on a low budget consider first class for a more leisurely ride and note that trenitalia.com can be flummoxing for novice users so you may end up spending a lot of time to save a few euros.

We saved a lot of money by buying tickets in advance, and it was also reassuring to know we had guaranteed seats. That being said, dealing with their website was not easy, and I had a huge hassle in one case with entering in my credit card number, having a charge go through, but no receipt or e-ticket. This was after I had successfully bought two other tickets for different trips. Eventually I got it worked out; the Visa signature people were extremely helpful.

There is a US run site - Italiarail - where you can also buy the discounted tickets. I found it easy to use - it saved me quite a bit of money but the tickets are not exchangeable / refundable. But I got a very nice deal on tickets from Milan to Venice - I bought them about 45 days ahead of time. But for shorter trips or R trains, no need to pre-purchase IMO.

Two things since you're new to this:

1) The fast trains ("Le Frecce" which means "arrows", named with a color like Frecciarossa - red - or Frecciargento - silver - and InterCity trains) come with automatic seat reservation, it's included with the ticket. The good: You know you'll have a seat number in a given carriage number. The bad: You're locked into taking that particular train, and you have to find the carriage number and seat number.

Regional trains don't require or don't even have seat numbers. As long as you have a valid ticket you can take an earlier or later one, so you're more flexible. Before you board those trains, you need to validate the ticket by sticking it into the yellow box you see near the platform access - it timestamps the ticket so you can't use it twice.

As michel pointed out, the faster Trenitalia train tickets come with a reserved seat which is mandatory. The slower regional trains do not have reserved seating at all. Trenitalia is the Italian national train system that actually operates these trains. You can buy tickets for the faster trains online from Trenitalia 120 days in advance.

Italiarail is a reseller in the US that charges a fee to book and adds their own restrictions about refunds/changes to the tickets.

There is another rail company in Italy called Italo which right now only operates fast trains between the major cities. You can purchase their tickets through the end of the scheduling period (6 months). Winter schedules start 2nd weekend in Dec. and end 2nd weekend in June. Summer schedules June/Dec.

http://www.italotreno.it/EN/timetabl.../overview.aspx

Venice to Verona say could be done on regional trains I think at perhaps not that much longer time (have not checked) but if so forget the hassle of trenitalia.com that many novice users seem to have and just buy the ticket the day of the train in Venice - regional trains are dirt cheap so you'll also save a lot of money.

Regional trains stop at every little station but to me that is sweet - seeing these sleepy stations that higher-speed trains blast thru.

Florence to Bologna regional trains don't take that long nor do Verona to Bologna - not sure how you are doing this though - Venice to Florence say by regional train would be hours slower than direct high-speed train and perhaps involve a couple of changes so the longer the distance the less appealing regional trains are in spite of being dirt cheap (and they are not nearly as comfy either IME).

Timetables for regionale trains are sometimes not released that far in advance so if you want to compare tickets for regionale trains with frecce trains and you're not seeing them both for your chosen dates, pick a date not too far out from today.

I prefer to buy from the automated ticket machines at the stations as it's easy for me to see what trains are running, how long they take and how much they cost. It's not out of the question that by taking a train 10 minutes later, you can save a lot of money. Some take cards only and some cash. Often if you go to the ticket window, they'll just sell you a ticket for the next train, especially if you don't speak Italian and they don't speak English.

>>>Timetables for regionale trains are sometimes not released that far in advance<<<

Regional train timetables are entered in the system for six months, just like for the fast trains. You can see the timetable (just click the i next to the train you are interested in), just not the price because they can only be purchased online 7 days in advance.

kybourbon, you're right but we had problems because we were checking trains just around the time of the timetable updates. Sorry if I was confusing.

there is NO reason to buy regional train tickets ahead of time - if you suddenly have to cancel your trip too bad you're out the euros. Or if Italian trains are on strike the day you planned your regional train trip (not so unusual IME -- there have been a spate of train strikes in Italy the past few years - buy the regional train ticket just before the train - automatic machines make it so so easy.

and yes validate the ticket yourself before boarding the train as required.

I just used Trenitalia -- yesterday -- to buy tickets from Rome to Florence, and used the Italo site to the return. (All the cheap seats were gone on Trenitalia, and Italo did not have a convenient time for the outbound trip.)

Trenitalia is a little complicated...though somewhere online -- I forget where -- is a really good step-by-step run-through.

You do not need to have a user ID/login, but you need to indicate that you want to purchase without logging in at some point in the process. I believe that right after you have picked your trains and seats, there is a checkbox next to the place where you are asked to login.

Also, be VERY careful entering your email address, because that is where they will send the email with the PNR code -- which is your ticket. Print out your screen when your tickets are confirmed, because there is another number -- called a retrieval code -- that you can use to go online and retrieve your PNR code if the email doesn't get through.

My biggest problem yesterday was -- and always has been -- getting my charge to go through.

Even though I had called my card company and alerted them ten minutes before making the purchase, it was declined! I had to have them on the phone with me when I clicked the button to pay for the tickets...and if you don't get that done within ten minutes, your temporarily-assigned tickets are released to the public and you'll have to start from scratch.

SS

>>>You do not need to have a user ID/login, but you need to indicate that you want to purchase without logging in at some point in the processYou do not need to have a user ID/login, but you need to indicate that you want to purchase without logging in at some point in the process<<<

While you don't have to register to purchase, if you don't, you can't log into your tickets and make changes (changes are allowed on certain tickets).

>>>Even though I had called my card company and alerted them ten minutes before making the purchase, it was declined! <<<

Sometimes it takes 24 hours for credit card companies to flag your account with the info. I notify them and then check back with them to make sure the info is on the account before attempting the purchase.

>>>and yes validate the ticket yourself before boarding the train as required.<<<

PQ - You don't have to validate regional tickets purchased online as you use the PNR code to show the conductor.

http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/inde...008916f90aRCRD

OK thanks for that - I was talking about buying them at stations which IMO you should for the reasons I gave - or do you get a discount if buying online as I think not?