My husband and I will be taking the train from Venice to Rome in October; we already know the date. We assumed we'd use Raileurope to book online in advance (closer to the date; can't do it yet), but now I'm reading all of these posts about Trenitalia, which we didn't know about. I visited the site, but since I don't read Italian I didn't get very far. My actual question is this: Is the cost of a Trenitalia cost signficantly less than the Raileurope price would be? For a May Venice-Rome trip, Raileurope says $144. Anyone have any idea how much we'd save by using Trenitalia?

The last time we took this ride we bought our tickets at the station, but we'd rather get them in advance just to be safe. (I do realize we have lots of time here.)

Thanks, thanks, thanks.

http://www.trenitalia.com/en/index.html

They just changed the homepage. This is the english site. It is best price.

Trenitalia is almost certainly the best price and for an October visit, there is no need to book now. You can do it so much more easily when you are there.

Oh, thanks to both of you so much for your prompt and useful advice. TravMimi, you're so right: a 40 Euro difference in price (for 2nd class) is a big difference. And LJ, you're saying that we can just wait to buy our tickets when we get to Venice without fear of being shut out?

RailEurope is in the business of selling rail passes although they do sell point-to-point tickets for trains in multiple countries. They mark up the tickets to make money and state that the tickets must be mailed (also to make money).Each country owns their own rail companies and buying through them will save money. Trenitalia is the actual Italian train company. You can book your tickets online with Trenitalia within 60 days of travel and print them yourself. They do not have to be mailed. To determine a price, just enter a date within 60 days. It will be the same price in October. It's also simple to buy your tickets when you arrive in Venice at a travel agency/train station.

Kagoo - being in October the low season. I don't think you would have trouble. Now with so many people booking direct online I think there will be more disappointed people waiting for the next train in the future.

You won't have a problem purchasing tickets in Italy in October: if you are terribly keen you can go to a station (any station) and buy them a day or week in advance, but the train system in Italy is accustomed to a much higher degree of business travel as well as centuries of tourism and it is no more difficult finding a train to take you from Venice to Rome on the day you want to travel than grabbing a subway in NYC to go uptown.

Hi K,

If you look at the train schedule for next week, you will see how many trains fit your requirements.

If you need a particular train, you can buy your tickets as early as 60 days in advance.

Thanks, everyone! I don't know where I'd be without the wonderful people in this Forum. (Yes, I do: I'd be where I was 10 years ago, when trip planning was *so* much more difficult than it is today.) Your kind and expert advice helps me (and so many others) in so many ways.

Don't worry about RailEurope, book through me and I'll charge you even more!!

Seriously, the closer to you get to the source, usually the cheaper.

Wait until October is good advice, take it.

I'm very anal about traveling, but you might be trying to out-anal me!