After reading all there is to know about Trenitalia in Fodor's forums, I still can't make a reservation - I get as far as entering credit card info and the payment is denied - doesn't Trenitalia like American Express? Please help!

I have never found it necessary to make a train reservation in advance. We have shown up at the station at the time we want to leave and have always found available second class seating within the hour.

We have travelled to Italy in August/September of 2003, May of 2005 and in May/June of 2007. These are popular travel times so if your trip is upcoming soon I don't think you will have a problem.

Buon viaggio,

Susan

Hi C,

>..I get as far as entering credit card info and the payment is denied - ...<

Did you notify Amex that you would be buying the tickets?

Their computer might be rejecting a strange purchase.

Ah yes - the Trenitalia site. I never did get any credit card to work on this site. Even with talking to two different credit card companies. I got locked out so many times that I had to get e-mail addresses in several different places just to try and get the site to work. Bottom line - was there in May - didn't need to make any advanced reservations. You can buy tickets ahead of time if you need to when you get there. Was there in May and had no problems whatsoever.

ira - I will call amex later and see. I know I can buy in Italy, but I thought it would be nice to arrange whatever I can at home - just crossing stuff off the list!

I bought tickets for the first time this morning. Everything went fine ( registered and got my user name and password a day in advance of making the reservation), including payment, I used a MasterCard. My card co. did call me later to verify the purchase...
I'll bet AMEX denied the charge,that happened to me with them two weeks ago when i tried to purchase intra-europe airline tickets online.
Most posters agree that you don't have to make your reservation in advance. However, I wanted a specific train time, so I booked early

We just returned from Italy and other countries. The trains are very easy to reserve once you are there. No need to plan that before hand because you may change your mind as to which train you want to take (time and date)

Enjoy!

Try another credit card. This also happened to me but it accepted mu mastercard.