You can buy your train tickets from station ticket desks during opening times, or from automatic ticket dispensers and self-service ATMs in many stations. You can also buy season tickets and tickets on-line, at Trenitalia's website.

Normally, tickets expire two months after the issue date, except for the distance-validity tickets and those with voucher stickers, which do not expire, and the tickets bought and printed on-line, which can be bought with 7 days before the departure date.

The time-length validity of your ticket starts from validation by stamping them in the dedicated machines ("obliteratrici") at the stations.

The journey must be completed within 24 hours from validation (in Trentino, by midnight of the day of issue). For distances longer than 200 km, the trip must be completed within 6 hours from validation (in Lombardy within 3 hours, for distances of up to 50 km).Tickets for journeys on regional trains with departure and destination stations in different regions are valid for 6 hours from stamping.

From 1 October 2004 you can only board trains in Italy with a valid ticket, which is stamped if so required. You can no longer buy or stamp tickets on board.

If you don't have a ticket - or have one that you ought to have stamped before getting on at the station - you will be liable to pay the full ticket price plus a 25 euro fine. If you produce a ticket that is not valid for the train or service you're using (i.e. one issued for a different train category at a different price, etc.) you will be asked to pay the difference with respect to the full ticket price, plus an 8 euro surcharge.

You can ask to purchase, stamp or be assigned a seat on board without paying fines or surcharges in the following cases:


The "Bassanini" Law (No. 59 of 1997) conferred the regional administrations with responsibility for planning and funding all local public transport services to achieve an integration among Italy's different transport modes and eliminate overlappings and the incongruous fares.
In view of this objective, all of Trenitalia's Regional/Provincial Head Offices introduced distinct fares for single fares and season tickets valid for travel on regional and express trains in their respective areas, comparable to those in the reference market.

There are different national fares, which are distinguished by type of train, which are applied to all cross-regional journeys, made without using regional trains.
For journeys on regional trains that take in more than one region, the fares applied by the related Regionswill be applied, in proportions of the related sections.