venice trip

Venice is not a good day trip from Rome. Reason is: it's about 11 hours of seeing the inside of trains and train stations, 4 and 1/2 hours of station to station train time x 2, plus the time to get to the train station and wait for the train on both ends of the trip.Most travelers on this forum give Venice a minimum of 2 nights.

Thanks Kent...If I leave Rome on a Monday morning as early as possible to travel to Venice and check out of Venice and head back to Rome on Wednesday late morning or early afternoon, does that sound like enough time? It sounds like the trains run often enough? Do you think i need to buy those tickets in advance or when i get to Rome is fine...a week before going to vemice?

I can't say it any better than Kent did. What I can say is, please, please, please try to stay at least two nights. Otherwise all you are doing is saying you've been to Venice.

Venice is definitely worth at least 2 nights. However, if you only have 1 night - then that's much better than only having a few hours!

How long is your stay in Italy? Do you really want to use up a whole day of it just travelling?

I am totally in love with Venice, but unless you really have a lot of vacation time or you can't fly open jaw, save it for another trip. There are other beautiful places in Italy that are much faster and easier to get to from Rome.

great! What is open-jaw?

Open jaw is flying into one city/airport and flying out of a different one. It's different than round-trip ticketing.To decide which is better, you compare:1) cost of round-trip airfare versus open jaw2) Sometimes the open jaw airfare is more3) But then you factor in the transportation cost saved by not having to back-track to the airport you flew into4) and the time saved by not having to back-track.An example would be: flying into Rome and out of Venice (if your last destination were Venice).

I spent 4 days in Venice on a 15 day trip to Italy a couple of years ago and it wasn't enough. I flew into Venice and out of Rome, trained from Venice to Florence and from Florence to Rome a few days later. Second class from Venice to Florence was abyssmal. First class from Florence to Rome was worth the extra cost. I purchased my tickets on Trenitalia using a US credit card with absolutely no problem. I reserved my seats, and when the conductor came around, he had my ticket information on his handheld machine. All that said, I wouldn't think of going from Rome to Venice as a day trip or even a one-night trip.

Ahhh Peter: I've made the same mistake, many times, that you're making: spending too much time in one place. To see how traveling in Europe is done these days by many of Rick's Disciples, click here.

We just took the Marco Polo night train from Venice to Rome. It was nice, and cheap $75 USD for a4 person couhcette (per person). It could be warm when stopped at stations, but over all was very pleasant.

It departs Venice at 11:30ish, and arrives Rome, Tiburtina Station at 6:56.

Was worth it! :)

Chris