Booking Italian Trains

[Fletch]

We will be in Venice in October and finish our trip with a tour in Bologna, then a flight home from Milan.

Are Italian trains like the French railway, book 90 days out for cheaper fares, or can I book once in Venice for the same price as I see now?

 

[Andrew]

The lower fares could sell out on the reservable trains.

 

[Ian Sutton]

Yes on the faster trains tickets can be booked in advance and are invariably cheaper doing so. It can feel like robbery occasionally, especially when they have specials e.g. 2 for 1 or set offer prices for certain routes. Those offers can be little intimidating, but the advance purchase tickets easy to find.

Also worth noting that the rival Italotreno also run the Venice-Bologna route (discovered here last week), so you've got double the chance of a good price.

It's only the slower trains 'Regionale' and a few variants, where the trains can't be booked and the price is the same price whenever bought, so juts buy those at the train station.

 

[Fletch]

Thank you Andrew and Ian. Will start looking at the prices and book.
I noticed 2 different companies when I looked on Trainline and Man in seat 61 didn’t help me decide between the 2. I think I’ll just look for the best price.

 

[Andrew]

You can also make sure you know the restrictions of the cheaper fares. On Trenitalia, basically Super Economy can't be changed, and Economy allows paying the difference to the Base (full) fare if you change the train you want.

 

[BryanS]

I have frequently used Tenitalia and Italotreno on the Roma - Salerno route. When Italotreno started they were several levels above Trenitalia on service and quality of carriages. Since then Trenitalia has been trying to catch-up with Italotreno on service. Italotreno only operates high speed (300 km/hr) trains with even an executive service including on-board entertainment. Both have connecting bus services to serve areas without trains (more common in our part of the country).