I'm looking for any recommendations for traveling from Salzburg to Venice, Florence and Rome over a 10 day period in May. I was thinking of two nights in Venice, two nights in Florence and the remainder of the time in Rome before flying home. I haven't figured if it would be beneficial to get a Europass or purchase train tickets point-to-point. Also, any recommendations for lodging or activities would be greatly appreciated.
Posted by
Green Bay
20032 posts
A "Europass" (aka Eurail Pass), would not be beneficial. Buy advance purchase nonrefundable tickets to get good deals. Since you have your itinerary sketched out, you can commit to specific trains, and shop accordingly. Italian tickets can be bought as far out as 120 days. Usually, early morning trains are more expensive, or have fewer discount tickets because that's when business travelers like to get going. Late morning generally have more discount tickets in the bin.
www.italiarail.com is pretty user friendly and has the same prices as the main site, www.trenitalia.com, at least if you specify payment in euros. Your credit card co will take care of the exchange.
Salzburg-Venice may need to be bought from www.oebb.com (Austrian Railway). Their website is not real user friendly. One time Rail Europe might come in handy.
Posted by
Rick Steves' Europe
16893 posts
You can see an overview of sightseeing options for each city at http://www.ricksteves.com/europe/italy, but the meat of the info you need is all in Rick's guidebooks. For visiting those three cities, the separate city guides (not pocket version) have more museum and walking tour details than the bigger Italy book. Some of the walking tours are also available in free Audio Tour version; on the link above, follow "Listen."
Posted by
tulsa
203 posts
Once upon a time we took the recommendation from Nigel to stay at the Jesuit Monastery, Don Orion, in Venice. It was excellent, clean, great locations, free breakfast. Hopefully the will have availability during your visit. If not, maybe Nigel or Lola or many of the other regular travelers on here can make some other suggestions.