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I'm planning a trip for four people in Italy this upcoming June 2016. I'm trying to book tickets on a sleeper train from Florence to Tropea and then Tropea to Rome. Going through ACPRail.com and www.lefrecce.it (Trenialia) when I try to search/purchase tickets, I get stuff like "Could not request product"

I was under the impression that bookings would be available three months before the travel date - are sleepers something different?

Alternatively, is there something like a train travel agent that I could correspond with in English that would provide guaranteed tickets - as opposed to a purchasing agent who would be free to take my money and then go "oops, sorry, tickets are not available, best of luck!"

Update:

I tried the apps.italiarail.com site as recommended in one of the comments. I got a "607: not all trains have a specified service" message. Going to the site's help section seems to suggest that means that the schedule has not been released yet.

http://answers.italiarail.com/1954002/141-607-not-all-trains-have-a-specified-service-error

Does this seem reasonable? Does appear to be reasonable after following Relaxed's link in the comments - though a firmer date of when I can buy tickets would be welcome.

Update 2:

I was finally able to make the reservation on May 20, 2016. No explanations or comments, so it does in fact appear to be related to the summer schedule change.

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  • Are day trains for the same dates available through the same site? It could be related to the summer timetable change. Also, some sleeper trains are run by another company, which has its own rules as to when they open bookings (admittedly the ones I know are trains to France, don't know if there are any trains like that entirely within Italy).
    – Relaxed
    Apr 19, 2016 at 19:51
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    See help.loco2.com/article/496-summer-timetable-change for a gentle introduction to European train timetable changes.
    – Relaxed
    Apr 19, 2016 at 19:51
  • Try app.italiarail.com, it uses the same backend as trenitalia.com, but is in actual english, the station names etc. It will by default put some kind of EUR 15 Pass in your shopping cart, but you could safely delete it. Also it will charge you EUR 3.50 booking fees, and you can send an email to seat61@italiarail.com to get it refunded. Check seat61.com for more info. I wanted a Thello ticket from Rome to Paris, trenitalia said all cheap ones sold, only EUR 150+ available. Got one at Italiarail for 60..
    – DavChana
    Apr 19, 2016 at 20:58
  • huh... @Relaxed, yes, I was able to go a bit further when trying to book a day train, so you may have a point there. I'll look at your reference
    – paulluap
    Apr 19, 2016 at 21:26

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Going to the official TrenItalia site as of today (end of April) for mid June: enter image description here

I see there is essentially one travel solution where you first take a fast train from Florence to Rome and then a sleeper to Tropea (so I didn't bother checking for the return). You have to choose your type of seats/beds so make sure you get to this page by clicking on the price. Under "Service" choose either "cucette" (which I think is a shared compartment, either mixed "promiscuo", women ("donna") or the whole compartment "compart. intero") or "compartimento 3 letti" (a 3-bed compartment, "uomo" is men and the rest as above).

However, as you correctly point out, currently the next step produces "Error code: 439 Reservation not available. The train is temporary unavailable" and it is not possible to purchase tickets. As of 02 May 2016 I can proceed to the next booking step for dates up to 13 June 2016 but not on later dates I tried.
This is very likely related to the upcoming change of train schedules and TrenItalia is not particularly good in updating all of it's train schedules that much in advance. The man in seat61 says:

Booking may open only 30-60 days ahead for travel immediately after the two annual timetable changes, on the 2nd Sunday in June and 2nd Sunday in December. Trenitalia is always late loading the data for a new timetable period, especially for regional, InterCity and international trains. ...

Similar info can be found on this website (in Italian).

I suggest you keep trying on a daily basis until you are able to book the ticket. Alternatively you could try with a travel agent that has more direct access to the TrenItalia system (but not sure they could do more).

(credits to @JoErNanO)

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    Thanks. In the solution you found, im actually trying to get the #795 train. It does (supposedly) have a stop at firezine campo di marte. In your solution, if you actually procreed one step further and add the ticket to the cart, youll get an error message. Im hoping that just means that trentialia is just holding up the reservation process and will release it shortly
    – paulluap
    May 1, 2016 at 16:41
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    Cuccette means sleep berths. Promiscuo means promiscuous i.e. mixed. Donna means woman, so I'd assume that means a women-only compartment. By induction, uomo (man) would be a man-only compartment. Intero is whole compartment. Now, the "comfort" offer is, as the name suggests, supposed to be more comfortable. See trenitalia (in italian) for more details.
    – JoErNanO ♦
    May 2, 2016 at 12:07
  • @JoErNanO thanks for answering but my point is rather about the last paragraph in my A. Do you know of any restrictions on booking these trains too far in advance? (I read Italian.)
    – mts
    May 2, 2016 at 12:10
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    Ah. In that case, my google search says that the train unavailability might be due to the the fact that trenitalia changes its train timetable on the 11th June 2016 and thus it would be hard to know if that train will effectively be running, and at which time, before then.
    – JoErNanO ♦
    May 2, 2016 at 12:24
  • @JoErNanO thanks, looks like you found it! Want to make that your own answer or should I implement into mine? Strange though that the error does not show up when I try to purchase for 13 June.
    – mts
    May 2, 2016 at 12:27

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