Does anyone know a way to reserve or buy train tickets for travel in Italy w/o going thru the Trentalia web site. I have not been able to get that site to work. Will be taking a train from Milan to Venice and then from Venice to Florence. Thanks for any help or advise anyone can provide.

I just tried RailEurope (www.raileurope.com) and was able to pull up the the Eurostar Italia schedule from Milan to Venice.

Everyone has opinions on where to get your train tickets. I actaully used RailEurope.com last year and had no problems with any of my tickets. In the end, I found out that it is much cheaper to get your tickets at the train station on your day of departure.

However, I am sure you are like me. You feel more confident with the tickets in hand before your leave.

If you do use RailEurope, go to their website and click on "Fares and Schedules" on the top, left hand side. Or just use the link below.

http://www.raileurope.com/us/rail/fa...ules/index.htm

Then type if the departure city, arrival city, as well as the desired date. RailEurope will then provide a list of schedules and fares. If you want the EuroStar Italia, make sure you select a train schedule that has the EuroStar Italia Code "EUI." If you don't, then your train will not be the EuroStar Italia.

RailEurope will then send you the tickets and then you validate them at the train station. In the end, I would simply just get them at the train station before you leave.

I usually just print all of the schedule information I need before I leave from Trenitalia. When I get to Italy I go to the train station and just purchase all the tickets I need for the whole trip and make reservations. We saved a lot of money doing it this way. We had no trouble last May getting any of the schedules we wanted. We will do it this way again in September. You can also buy the tickets as mentioned on Rail Europe website. The reservation fees they charge are expensive. The problem is, it is best to have reservations in my opinion - especially if you travel on the weekend or if you are a non-smoker. Some trains are very full and it can be hard to find a seat - especially in non-smoking cars. We had no problem on trains where we had a reservation, but when we missed a train connection because it was late arriving, we had to get on another train without reservations. We had to cart all of our luggage through multiple train cars until we could find seats. We wound up in a smoking car for 2 hours...painful! This has happend to me in other countries too.

My advice...if money is not object and you want them before you go - do it thru rail europe WITH reserved seats. Otherwise, do it when you get there....you will save some money.

Good luck!

I booked all my train reservations and bought my tickets from AAA. They didn't charge me anything extra and the prices were the same as online.

traceann01 reports:
>I booked all my train reservations and bought my tickets from AAA. They didn't charge me anything extra and the prices were the same as online. <

The prices were the same as at the Trenitalia website or the same as RailEurope?

Hi frank,

Were you using the English or Italian language part of www.trenitalia.com?

The English part doesn't work.

Have you seen this link?

Trenitalia Tickets Online
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34465647

I agree with recommendations to purchase your tickets at the train station, it is much cheaper. Additionally, seat reservations are not always necessary. The ticket agent knows how full the train will be and can advise you on the necessity of reservations. If you don't have one, you just pick any seat that doesn't have the reservation tag.
Keep in mind, however, that Italian trains are notoriously crowded during the peak season, and you may want to pay the several dollars extra to reserve seats. If thats the case, then
on the first day of your arrival in Italy, go to the train station and buy tickets and/or reserved seats for Milano-Venezia and Venezia-Firenze. Each trip has a duration of a little under 3 hours on the InterCity trains. You can use your credit card to pay.
I can tell you that any fare posted on the RailEurope site will be MUCH cheaper if purchased at the train station.

Thank you all very much for your help. It really makes a difference. I will check out the italian version of Trentalia and contcat AAA.