Numerical models are being used increasingly to simulate water and solute movement in the subsurface for a variety of applications in research and soil/water management. Although a large number of models of varying degrees of complexity have been developed over the years, relatively few have been tested under field conditions. We tested the performance of the HYDRUS-1D computer model to simulate variably saturated water flow and chloride transport in a fine-textured Italian soil subject to a fluctuating saline groundwater table. The model was also used for estimating solute transport parameters using an inverse optimization scheme. Our results indicate that including the effects of immobile water produced better predictions of chloride transport compared with the traditional convection-dispersion transport approach. Including anion exclusion as well did not improve the model predictions appreciably. Occasional deviations between model prediction and field observation were attributed to unrepresented lateral groundwater flow processes and to preferential flow through macropores or other structural voids. The HYDRUS-1D model was found to be very useful for analyzing the relatively complex flow and solute transport processes at our field site and for estimating model parameters using inverse procedures.