Getting to Venice by train, which Euro city should I fly to?

I assume when you say direct flight that you mean nonstop flight? Well your options are limited to most of the basic airports....Frankfurt, Paris, London, Amsterdam...perhaps a few more....Munich, Zurich (?). You can also go nonstop to Oslo and/or Stockholm on Norwegian....they are inexpensive but they don't always fly each route every day. They fly out of Oakland.

None of those would be a great train connection to Venice as they're far. But how long do you have on the ground in Italy? If you've got time to spare, pick one of the above locations and then check the low cost European carriers for connections to Venice.

Also, you can save time by arriving in Venice but departing Italy from wherever you end up at the end of your travels. If you don't have a lot of travel time, you might consider just going straight to Venice. You can also do with through the US - SFO to Philadelphia then nonstop to Venice on American.

Milan has probably the best flight connections for you. It is 2,5 to 3 hrs from Venice on frequent high-speed Frecce trains.
Advance reservation makes a considerable difference in the ticket price. For schedules and reservation use this website of the Italian railways www.trenitalia.com/tcom-en (fill out »Milano Centrale« and »Venezia S Lucia«). Payment is by credit card; tickets are pdf for printing at home.

Simple, the best train service to Venice is either Rome or Milan. So if you want to visit Milan, then fly into Milan. Getting from the west coast non-stop to somewhere in Europe is difficult because the distances involved.

No non stop options from SFO or SJC to Italy.
Since you live in Sunnyvale you could fly to VCE from SJC via Frankfurt FRA with Lufthansa.
From SFO there are more options to European hubs and from there to VCE or Milan ( MXP or LIN).
Lufthansa/United via FRA
Lufthansa via MUC
Swiss via ZRH
SAS via CPH
KLM via AMS
AIR France via CDG
and maybe I forgot some.

I'd suggest not flying out of Venice because the flights are early morning flights if flying back to the US the same day. I avoid these at all costs as I find rushing in the morning to make a plane unpleasant when it is to an airport with which I am not familiar. I would tend, against other's recommendations to either start in Venice and fly out of Milan, or roundtrip to/from Milan and have it at the beginning and end of your trip.

No non stop options from SFO or SJC to Italy

Wow, so there's one desirable thing Minneapolis has the Bay Area doesn't. And affordable housing.

Also not sure your ducking the heat strategy will be 100% successful.

Paris is always a good idea, but I would focus on the locations you really want to see and then select the flight that will get you there. We've flown to Venice through Paris (Air France/KLM/Delta partners). You could be exactly where you want to be within a few hours of your first flight instead of settling for another location. If you want to see Milan, fly into Venice and fly out of Milan or the opposite route.

Sandi,

You could fly into London or Paris and pick up the Venice-Simplon Orient Express to Venice...

BTW - You CAN catch a noon-ish flight out of VCE and make it back the USA same-day - if you are willing to connect through London.

Good Luck.

Hi Sandi,

If you haven't finalized all of your locations, yet, I definitely recommend heading to the Dolomites while you're in northern Italy! You can beat the heat and have some fantastic views & hiking!

I just returned and would recommend the itinerary I decided on: fly in to Milan. Train to Varenna (Lake Como) takes 1 hour. Train to Venice takes you back through Milan, but its a total of under 4 hours). Leaving from Venice is not that hard, but don't take a flight at 7 a.m., you want to leave at 11 or 12. We left our hotel at 7:27 on the vaporetto, transferred to a bus to the airport and it took 2 hours from boarding the vap to our departure gate at the airport for a 10:55 flight.