I am signed up to go on Rick Steve’s tour of Italy starting at lake Como. I land in Milan and need to catch a train to Varanna and get to my hotel.
Can you give me directions to getting my train ticket and which train I take.
Thanks so much
Posted by
Placentia, CA
1059 posts
You will receive detailed instructions on catching the train as part of your Rick Steve’s tour package. Trains leave quite frequently to Varenna from the Milan station. They have ticket machines in the station that are easy to use, but I recommend you just go to the ticket window and buy the ticket directly from a person. I tried to buy a ticket from the machine and was immediately surrounded by people who want to help me. I am sure they would have asked for money for helping me. Be sure to validate your ticket before getting on the train. Also make sure you tell the person at the ticket window that you are going to Varenna and not Verona. I have heard stories of people purchasing the wrong ticket or getting on the wrong train because they were not clear on the pronouncing the town. I would strong recommend you arrive a day early for your tour. I assume you are going on RS 17 Day Best of Italy Tour. We stayed in Milan for one night and an extra night in Varenna so we were well rested for the tour to begin. If you are going on that tour and have any questions, you can send me a personal message and I will try and answer them for you. We had a fantastic tour. I put together two 10 minute videos of our tour that you might enjoy.
Posted by
1 posts
I am also signed up for that tour. I’m flying in on May 5 from Frankfurt and going to spend the night in Varenna. Since there is a train terminal at the airport, I’m taking the train from MXP Aeroportoti-T2 to Milano Centrale (takes about 50 minutes), and then changing trains from Milano Centrale to Varenna-Esino (takes about an hour). I went online to the Trenitalia.com website and was able to get tickets (6.70 euro and 13.00 euro) The tickets were CartaFeccia so they are pre-validated. The trains go about every hour or so. The tickets say “Valid for 6 hours from the time of departure; so I figure if I miss one train, I’ll only have an hour or so to wait for the next one. The website was very easy to handle, and now I have my tickets printed and ready to go and don’t have to deal with the machines or “helpers”.