Why can't I make reservation on trenitalia?

Because trenitalia doesn't accept reservations more than two months in
advance, I waited until today to surf to the trenitalia website and
tried to make a reservation for the Venezia-Firenze train and couldn't
seem to get it done.

I surfed to: http://www.trenitalia.it , clicked on ENGLISH in the top
right corner, and then entered:

Departure station: Venezia S. Lucia
Arrival station: Firenze
When do you want to leave?
day: 9
month: 8
year: 2008
hour: 8
minutes: 00

and then clicked the SEARCH button.

That gave me a page displaying an 8:43 AM train from Venezia S. Lucia
to Firenze S. Maria Novella which I then clicked on the Buy icon to
reserve.

On the following page, I chose:

Fa Amica
Adults: 3
Class: 2

That computed to e77.40.

I didn't know what "Mandatory reservation" meant as opposed to
"Seats salottino business" so I just left it as "Mandatory
reservation".

At the following question, I responded with "Window".
Please indicate your prefererences for the place to assign to you:
Window

Under "SEAT NEAR TO...", I had no idea what to put for

Coach:
Seats:

so I tried both leaving it blank and also entering (just guesses):

Coach: 8
Seats: 4

How could anybody possibly know the coach and seat number is beyond
me. A search of the website gave me no clue as well.

Under TICKET DELIVERY, I chose:

Ticket solution with payment receipt delivered by email

I left the remaining three questions blank.

However, when I clicked the Next button, the website returned me
to the same page with all of my input removed. This happened several
times.

I searched the website and consulted the "Help" button for assistance
with "Coach:" and "Seat:" but nothing even mentions it much less
instructing you what it's asking for.

If you have any ideas about all of this, I'd much appreciate your
help.
Thanks a bunch.

trenitalia.com has got to be one of the worst websites ever created.
I guess that they just aren't in the business of making money. I have
logged in first and repeated the scenario above countless times now
and I guess I just have to come to the conclusion that their website,
probably created and maintained by idiots, is just permanently
broken. Even two years ago, potential customers had problems with the
trenitalia reservation system -- check out this page:

http://tinyurl.com/4nz47s

What a way to run a business!

Try these posts for some info.
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...2&tid=35116239
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...2&tid=35138313
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...2&tid=35138545
Good Luck, Walter



...And Paradise Was Lost...like teardrops in the rain...