We will be in Italy in 1 week. After 2 days in Varenna, we will be going to Venice via Milano Centrale. I have already booked the Milan to Venice ticket a month ago . It leaves Milan at 12:45 pm. My options that morning for Varenna to Milan are 8:35 arriving at 9:40 or 10:35 arriving at 11:40. Can I safely take that 10:35 train or do I need to play it safe and take the earlier one?
Thank you in advance
Hello jsadoc, and welcome to the forum!
In general an hour is plenty of time to make a connection at any train station in Italy. If trains are late we are generally talking about 15 minutes give or take not an hour late. Milan is laid out like most Italian train stations where the tracks are next to one another and changing trains is as complicated as walking down to the track by number.
That being said the only time I've taken a train from Varenna to Milan it was late - about 40 minutes as I recall - and we missed our connection. Know that if you miss your connection due to the train being late Trenitalia is responsible for re-booking your tickets even if they are not tickets that are subject to change.
Get the Trenitalia app it will allow you to track trains in real time and if your connection has been assigned a track when you arrive you will already know where you are going when you exit the train.
Even given my single experience coming into Milan from Varenna I would still book the later train given all my experiences taking other trains around Italy for whatever that is worth.
Have a great trip,
=Tod
Of course, the trains are on time. Wny would they not be? Trains can always vary a few minutes but the over all on-time performance of Italian trains is the same as French, German, or English. Italian train service is excellent. Can a problem arise that makes a train late? Sure -- just like flight schedules but that is unusual. Be a little flexible and you will be fine.
Thirty plus years ago, when I first took Italian trains, I would have suggested taking the first train the day before. Italy was not known for its on-time trains.
Today, that's different. Unless something major happens, the trains run pretty much on time.
A 1h5 layover is awful enough already. I would not add another hour to it. Trenitalia spends billions of tax payers money to make trains faster, then wastes your time through horrible scheduling...
No, do not take an earlier train. I would wish for a 11:35, arriving at 12:40 :-) That would cut a whole hour of the trip, just through efficient scheduling :-)
If your train from Varenna to Milano ends up being so late that you miss your connection (unlikely) Trenitalia will just put you on the next available train to Venice.
One hour layover is more than plenty.
Italian trains have been running on time since Mussolini.
Thank you all for your help. Now my kids can sleep in and i can enjoy my cappucino!
I come to Italy for two months at a time and you never know when trains are going to be late.
an hour sounds like a good amount of time, but I tend to not like to worry about it so I get there early.
There are some good coffee places within a 10 minute walk of the Milan train station. Personally, I’d rather be sitting outside the Milan train station at a café for that extra time then sleeping in a little so I guess I’m a vote for taking the earlier train.
But I know most travelers don’t do that and they get to where they need to go so it’s just a personal option.
I do not know what decision I would make in your place. However two weeks ago we took the Frecciarosa train from Rome to Lecce and it was delayed almost 2 hours by the time we got to Lecce. (The return trip last week was smooth and on schedule). I noticed the train the day before ours was similarly delayed. We could have just been a statistical anomaly, but wanted to give some experience of a pretty significant delay that recently happened. We didn't have any connections to make so it was no big deal for us, but it might have been for you.....
Thanks to all. We just returned from Italy and had a great time. Ultimately we had no issues with any of the trains. That being said, all of them were 5-15 minutes late but not an issue for us. I am not sure if in other countries like Germany or France, you could reliably schedule a connection within 5-10 minutes of your arrival but not sure I would trust that in Italy. I also would advise that if anyone catching a train from Varenna down to Milan Centrale to arrive early as it will be very busy and make sure that you know which of the 2 tracks it could be arriving as it changes regardless of direction
