ira

Hi chip,

From where to where and when?

GeoffHamer

The easiest and simplest way to get Italian train tickets is to do what 99% of train travellers do, and buy your tickets at the station. I've been all over Italy by train and have always just bought tickets at the station, only booking a day or two in advance if I want a sleeper or couchette on an overnight train.

suze

Just walk into the train station and buy point-to-point 2nd class tickets when you are ready to go from Florence to Venice.

Neopolitan

I'm not so sure about the lines in Florence, but I've seen frequent lines of at least a half hour wait and more to buy tickets in Venice. That place is often a zoo. What's more US credit cards don't seem to work in the machines since our cards don't have a "chip". While of course, you can just arrive and buy your tickets at the station, I've known many people who have missed their planned trains because they were still waiting in line to buy their tickets.

We did most of our tickets in Italy in advance at trenitalia.com -- using the printed "ticketless" option for the ES trains. It was fine. And in a couple cases we were able to get special deals of limited sales for advance purchase of ES tickets.