How to reserve Train tickets? (Italy)

[kingz]

Hi guys,

I have already purchased my Eurail passes and I have plans to travel from city to city in Italy. However those periods are during the peak season and I wish to reserve the seats (not the tickets).
I tried to book from http://www.trenitalia.com/ but they have many different types of fares and I want to make sure it is booking the seats and not purchasing the train tickets. How can I confirm this??
I have also been to STA for help but their help with train bookings is really terrible (their supply agent service is too slow and drag for too long) so I decide to do it myself.

Hope to have some advice. Thanks!

[mrtboy]

Hi kingz

I just came back from Italy.

For the reservation of tickets, it is cheaper and easy to do it in Italy. You just have to go to any train station in Italy, find the reservation counter and then do it there. Each reservation will cost a few euros depending on the train type. You can reserve your seats for all the upcoming train rides all at one go then.

Upon payment, you will receive train reservation tickets (different from your Eurail pass) for each ride.

When departing, remember to time "stamp" the tickets by sticking them into the yellow boxes in the train station before you get on the train, if not will get fined by the conductor when he checks on the train.

Find the correct cabin and seat on the train by seeing the cabin numbers on the outside of the train. The seat numbers are clearly labelled.

Hope this is clear enough. If you need more info, feel free to ask.

Have fun!

[kingz]

yes. i understand but i have a train trip on the 31st december which I'm afraid will be fully booked and eventually affect my travel plan. Is there assurance that I am able to reserve seats on that day???

[jarvis]

there is no way to get any assurance, but check out how many trains there are daily for that route. If there are a lot of trains running that route (including slow trains which are less popular), you should be able to get something.

then make the seat reservation as soon as you get to italy. you may even be able to do it from other train stations in continental europe.

[mrtboy]

Yup as what Jarvis mentioned above, check the timetable and plan ahead if you are not able to make your first choice train time then, in case

[defn]

there is no way to get any assurance, but check out how many trains there are daily for that route. If there are a lot of trains running that route (including slow trains which are less popular), you should be able to get something.

then make the seat reservation as soon as you get to italy. you may even be able to do it from other train stations in continental europe.
Hi jarvis, how about overnight trains?

[jarvis]

it's more or less the same. I didn't have problems with seat reservations (overnight or normal) when I last went travelling by train around europe. of course, you will probably have to consider how popular the period you are travelling is. being an overnight train, there are less of them so if it's a popular route at a popular time then try to reserve as far in advance as possible.

Also, if you are thinking of reserving the rooms or the sleepers then again, there are limited rooms and sleepers.

The only thing about making the reservation from singapore is the cost is very very much higher. i cannot recall how much i paid when i did it in singapore, but i recalled it being 5-10x more ex than if i had made the reservations there.