Hi all, Now that we have decided to travel via the trains, I have another question. If I book 2 first class tickets Rome to Milan, are they good only for that train or are they good all day? I don't want to get stuck in the Rome terminal waiting for the train too long but I also want a buffer incase of airport delays. I used to have my travel agent book the trains but we are going it alone this time so I'm not sure of the regulations.
Any assistance is greatly appreciated.
Take care, LisaS

It depends on the type of trin you book. Tickets on ES and ICplus trains, the two fastest, give you assigined seats on specific trains. Regular IC and slower trains require no reservations, so you can take any train of that type.

If you are coming from the airport, when you buy your tickets for the airport shuttle to Roma Termini, you will know what train you can make and so can buy the appropriate ticket.

It is my understanding that the ticket is only good for that time/train.

We actually took a first class train from Milan to Rome and it was wonderful. Faster than getting through airports and the scenary was wonderful.

Lisa, DH and I recently arrived at the Naples train station well in advance of our reserved time on an ES train. At the stations Trenitalia office I was able to use their phone to move our reservation to an earlier train.

Rhethorical question followed by answer:

How do you know which train requires a seat reservation as a part of the ticket (which then locks you into taking that particular train)?

After you request a timetable for a certain point-to-point itinerary on a given date beginning with a given time at www.trenitalia.it, when it shows you trains, click on the details link (left column) and look in the far right column. If a letter R is boxed in, then seats will be automatically reserved when you buy a ticket. If the R is not boxed in, you can choose to reserve a seat, or not, the train costs a bit less and you can hop on any such train (but there are far fewer of those, so be sure you are ok with that). If there is no letter R (on local and regional trains), then you cannot reserve a seat even if you wanted to.

Hi L,

>I don't want to get stuck in the Rome terminal waiting for the train too long but I also want a buffer incase of airport delays.<

There is a nice self-serve cafeteria at Rome TE where you can have a cuppa, people watch and get into the Italian rhythm if you get to there too early.