Italian train reservations online

Note:  the new URL for this page is http://staff.missouriwestern.edu/~mcgarrel/travel/trenitalia.htm . 
Please update any bookmarks.

--Andrew McGarrell

(June 24, 2008):  Reportedly Trenitalia has ended its absolute block on non-Italian credit cards that it had for a few months.  It's still hit-or-miss whether you can complete a purchase.

Warning (June 29, 2005):  Reports are coming in of people using the Trenitalia site to reserve seats but not getting confirmations, so they aren't sure that the reservation has gone through.  In some cases, multiple charges on their credit cards have turned up but they don't have the needed information to get their tickets.  I advise people first that you shouldn't have a problem getting seats within a day of the trip; the main advantage of using the Trenitalia site is convenience.  Until there's general evidence that the problems have been sorted out, I advise people to be careful about booking on the Trenitalia site.  If you've given a credit card number and get a "retry"  message, wait a few days to see if you're charged, if possible. 

Addendum (July 5, 2005):  I'm finding out that the problem may be that people are signing up after getting a fare quoted, but not waiting for the e-mail with their temporary password.  In this case, the system can ask for your credit card information but won't send you a confirmation.  Please wait to be sure you're registered, and don't give credit card information unless you see your seat assignments.

(March 14, 2007):  There are many reports about the Trenitalia site refusing credit cards.  Advise the credit card issuer that you'll be making foreign charges; this still may not work.  It might help to disable any pop-up blockers.  If you get a refusal, don't keep trying; in most cases it's no problem to reserve once you're in Italy.  If you feel that you really need to reserve, you can try www.italiarail.com .  The main difference between their fares and Trenitalia's is the shipping fee; they send you tickets.

(June 12, 2007):  Trenitalia is starting an Amica fare, subject to capacity controls, which gives you a 20% discount off the Standard fare.  This gives some incentive to book online, but the warning remains that the site may have some problems, and don't try so much that your credit card gets blocked.

Also, for trains marked R (Regionale) or IR (Interregionale), the regional trains that don't take reservations, tickets can be printed from personal computers.  These may cause confusion:  you select a specific train but don't get an assigned seat or guarantee of having a seat on that train (you may have to stand).  These tickets are valid for any train of that category on that route leaving within three hours after the train you designate; they have your name on them, so that conductors can check the tickets against your identification.  Regular tickets for these trains can easily be bought from station vending machines or newsstands (usually), so it's rare that there's much point in buying these tickets online, but the option is out there.

Fares are shown only for tickets that can be purchased online at that time, so within 60 days for reservable trains, 7 days for non-reservable trains where the tickets can be printed as described above.  Do not search for today's date; they won't quote a fare for a train that's already departed.

(January 2008):  Fares have gone up for the faster trains, but there's a 5% discount for online ticketing on these trains (Alta Velocità, Eurostar, Eurostar City, Tbiz).

Note added January 19, 2005 (updated July 6, 2005):  There have been several changes on the Trenitalia site; for now I'm not rewriting this document; it may still be useful.  The highlights are:  1) reservations can be made on the English-language site.  One misleading thing about the site in English is that, in booking an Intercity train, where reservations are available but not mandatory, you might see the words Mandatory reservations, but it's a pull-down menu that can be changed to say Seats.  These should really say Reserved seats and Unreserved seats (which could mean standing in the aisle).  On Intercity trains, it's increasingly desirable to reserve, even if not required, because of point 2) It used to be that reservations when not required were closed before the train left its point of origin.  That is, if you wanted to take a train from Rome to Naples in the afternoon, you could reserve it the same morning if it originated in Rome, but not if it was already on the way from Milan.  This is because they would put markings near the seats or outside the compartments showing that the seats were reserved.  Now seats can be reserved right up to departure time, but the seats are not marked.  You could then take a seat and have someone come later showing a reservation for that seat.  The new policy is that seats 71 through 86 in each car will not be reserved.  [Deleted section about reduced fares abolished in December 2006.]

As of October 2005, Eurostar and IC Plus trains require reservations.

Now, here's what I first put together in spring 2004, with a few edits:

Italian trains can now be reserved online, at this writing only on the Italian language site.  Here's a procedure for those who don't read Italian.  It may take an act of faith to enter credit card information on a site you can't read based on a stranger's explanations, but I assure you, I'm making my best effort to give an accurate explanation, and any payment goes to Trenitalia for your rail travel.

One consideration in booking in advance is that train service is sometimes shut down by a strike; here is a page linking to sites that list upcoming scheduled strikes. Strikes are announced with at least two weeks notice.

Open www.trenitalia.com .  Since 2007, that links in turn to http://www.trenitalia.com/it/index.htmlin Italian or http://www.trenitalia.com/en/index.html in English.

July 2005:  Since it's important to be registered before booking a trip, I'm doing these instructions based on the English site.  Select English.  Select Customers area.  In the Restricted Access Area on the right, towards the bottom select Do you want to register? 

The registration screen comes up; fill in the fields Name (first) Surname ; E-mail; User-ID: the User-ID of your choosing; Conferma E-mail: re-enter your e-mail address.  Read the disclosure information; you can decline to get advertising from partners.

There should be a screen saying that your confirmation is being e-mailed to you.  The e-mail should be prompt.  If your registration is successful, the e-mail should show your User-ID and the password that they have assigned.  Note added July 2005:  be sure not to try to reserve until you get your User-ID and password.  Now I'll return to my old instructions based on the site being Italian.  Even on the English site, sometimes you get into screens in Italian.

If you want to change to a password of your choosing, on the Italian Trenitalia home page, click on Area Clienti towards the top.  The sign-in screen should come up; fill in your current User-ID and password.  Click Entra. 

Next screen, select the Cambio Password button.  Click Invia.

The fields on the next screen are:  Inserisci la tua password attuale: Enter your current password; Scegli la tua nuova password:  Choose your new password; Digita e conferma la tua nuova password: re-enter your new password.  Click Avanti.  If you were successful, the next screen should say La password è stata inserita con successo.

Now, to book a trip, either go Home or to Orario-Acquisto Biglietti.  In either case, the boxes say Da dove vuoi partire?: Departure city; Dove vuoi arrivare?: Arrival city; Quando vuoi partire?: the date of the trip in the DDMMYYYY format; to go June 9, 2004, you would fill in 09/06/2004.  A che ora?: the earliest time of departure you want to see, in the 24-hour clock.  If you enter 08:00, it won't show a train at 7.50, except possibly for the next morning on the last screen.  Click Invia.

If everything goes well, you'll get a list of trains.  Online booking, as of November 2004, can be done 24 hours a day.   Also, booking can be done no more than two months in advance.  International trains (note added June 2005):  Trenitalia recently started allowing international booking by letting you select the International tab on the home page.  It's new and sometimes shows odd results.  It does appear to allow you to pay only the 3-euro reservation fee and wait to buy the ticket at the station just before you take the train.  Important things to note are that, for trains out of Italy, you can only pick up the tickets (including, I'll say in the interest of caution, the reservation ticket) on the RailBest list (larger stations only) or, for a fee, have them mailed to an Italian address.  It allows quoting and booking of tickets from other countries into Italy, but you should not do this on the Trenitalia site if you won't be in Italy first.  To my knowledge, there's no way of going ticketless or retrieving the tickets before you're in Italy.

Here’s some of what the results might look like when you request a Roma-Perugia trip: