We're flying into Bologna in July, but our destination is Florence, so we'll need to take the train. Should I take a reservation on Trentitalia and take my chances that the plane will be on time, or just go to the station when we land? What happens if we have reservations and miss the train? I'm finding the website VERY confusing, and really appreciate all the advice I'm finding on this site.

I flew into Rome and bought my ticket to Florence without a problem. I presume you can do the same thing in Bologna.

Since there are numerous trains every day between these two cities and you have a choice between a train taking 59 minutes vs. 70 minutes I would NOT hassle myself about trying to figu5re out the Trenitalia site OR worry about whether or not the plane is on time, much less about whether or not you will arrive at the station in tiem, etc., etc.

I have no idea how much, if any, money you could save by booking ahead but I would want it to be a considerable amount to offset any potential worry you might have.

Go to the train station, buy tickets on the next train, and go.

ditto

PS,

If you have a ticket for an IC train, you can use it on any other IC, but you will not have a seat reservation. A new reservation will cost about 3e.

If you have a ticket on an ES* train you will have to pay about 15E to get a seat on another train.

I would simply go to the train station and purchase a ticket from an agent at the booth.

Suze is right, there are many trains running between Bologna and Florence and unless there is a football match or something of the sort, its never a problem to get a seat, I wouldn't book on-line, just use the Trenitalia site as a reference as its not always correct and get your tickets at the station, you may have to wait an hour for the next train, so grab a glass of wine and a pannini. Cheers

Bologna Centrale is a fairly large station. The Eurostar trains usually uses track 1, not requiring any stair maneuvering. But Eurostar also uses higher number tracks requiring you go down the stairs and up the stairs again (since it is not a deadend station like Florence.) All this and buying tickets would take you some time.

There are eateries in the station to pass time, including, hmm, Big M.

Also, across the station on the other side of the busy road, at the ground floor level of the Hotel Sofitel facing the station, there are several deli shops selling cheap Prosciutto sandwiches.