I've tried in vain to purchase reservations on the Trenitalia website at least a dozen times now and each time I get some sort of error message. I've tried different computers, etc. and the end result is always the same - no reservation! I'm starting to get nervous because we will be in Italy in May and need to book the following:
La Spezia (we are staying in Manarola) to Florence
Florence to Venice
Venice to Milan

If anyone has any tips or suggestions they would be greatly appreciated! Also, I'm assuming I need to book these in advance and not wait until we get there? Especially over May 1 holiday??

Thanks in advance for your help!

If you use "Search the Forums" function above for Trenitalia, you will find countless number of frustrated people trying to do the same. The problem is that Trenitalia rejects "foreign" credit card transactions.

People have come to term with this limitation and purchase the tickets after getting to Italy.

As Greg said, the site won't accept foreign cards anymore. I wanted to take advantage of the 30% discount by booking ahead, fortunately I had booked a private tour with someone and she agreed to purchase the tickets for me...even she had numerous problems and had to try several times to get them!

No, your assumption that you need to book these in advance is incorrect.

La Spezia to Florence is on a regional train with a connection in Pisa - you just buy your ticket at the station, validate the ticket at a yellow machine, and hop on a train. No reserved seats. Buying a ticket in advance gives you no advantage. If the train is full (unlikely) passengers will stand, regardless if they bought tickets 1mo or 1min ahead of the departure.

Florence to Venice there are trains every hour all day long at 1/2 past the hour. Plenty of capacity to handle the demand.

Venice to Milan - 1-2x trains per hour. Ditto - plenty of seats.

If it makes you feel better you can buy your Florence - Venice and Venice-Milan when you arrive in Florence or at La Spezia.

I find it handy to print out an itinerary showing the date/time of the train I want to take to hand to the ticket agent.

I have been able to book tickets on trenitalia.com using my Citibank Mastercard "virtual card number" from the Citibank website - you need to be logged in to your account online. I believe several other cc issuers have this service.

Regardless - you wouldn't be able to purchase the 1st leg until 1 week before anyway since it uses regional trains.

You do not need advance tickets.

Hi R,

You won't need to buy your tickets before you get to Italy.

If you fly into FCO, you can buy all of your tickets at FCO or Rome Termini.

Otherwise, get them all at La Spezia.

Enjoy your visit.

Great, one less thing to worry about!

Thanks Everyone!

Everyone here is right on. You do not need to buy tickets ahead of time. I fretted about this needlessly when my husband and I travelled to Sicily and took the train to all the destinations on the eastern part of the island. The trains are cheap and on time. It would be great if the train fares were as reasonable in other European countries. Enjoy your vacation.