I am looking at booking point to point tickets for the train during my trip to Italy this June/July. I have found two websites: www.trenitalia.com and www.italiarail.com. What is the difference between the two companies? I can't even find any English on trenitalia.com.
Thanks for your help.

In the upper right hand corner of the trenitalia page you can change the language to english.
I don't know the italiarail site but my guess is that they are a third party vendor that will make a small fee to book you on the same trains that you can do yourself on trenitalia --- but I could be wrong.

Torile is right. The Trenitalia site charges the same as you would pay in person in Italy, while Italiarail has a markup. You can search old messages on this board and read the Trains in Italy section of SlowTrav to find lots of information; especially, that you don't need to book much in advance.

Thanks very much for the advice. I keep hearing conflicting info on whether or not to book the trains ahead of time. We will be there 6/23-7/7, so it will be high season. Can I wait and get reservation assistance at my hotels when I get there or is that not advised?

I am not sure that hotels will do train reservations for you, but almost all travel agencies (look for a Trenitalia logo on the window) will sell train tickets and reservation with no extra charge.

It's been said a thousand times by people who have been to Italy hundreds of times ... so it must be true ...

99% of the time there is no need to book in advance. For the other 1%, you might have to wait for the next train if all reserved seats are full and you wanted, for example, 1st Class Eurostar tickets. In that case, go shop, eat, see, small ... you get the idea!



There is also a 30% (or so) change fee (refund fee) if you do reserve and have to change a ticket. Keep that in mind if you're thinking of reserving but your schedule is tight.

Late june and early July is not really high season trainwise. Reserving your seats a couple of days in advance will be enough.

My experience with booking ahead!

For our trip last October, we were starting in Bologna and had 5 train trips scheduled. As our first leg left early in the AM we decided to book all our tickets ahead. So I did. I spent a lot of time - made all the reservations - if applicable - Had everything printed out (e tickets). And then the unbelievable happened and we had to cancel the entire trip.

I will have to say that Trenitalia was very helpful. I had to give them certain numbers and information and then they refunded all the money, less some percentage. I can't remember now how much it was, but it wasn't that high.

But now I probably will listen to the advice and NOT book ahead, unless I absolutely need to (high summer season - very close schedule etc)

Good luck with your decision.

Carol