We will be traveling from Varenna Lake Como area to Salzburg, but would like to do the trip in one day without an overnight stopover. I am looking at possibly Varenna/Milan/Verona/Innsbruck/Salzburg as the most direct route, but is this a scenic route as well? Are there better routes than this? My father has always dreamed of taking a train through the swiss alps, and I am trying to avoid a stay overnight, as our total trip is 9 days, including travel to and from US. Would also like to know if I need to buy tickets before we leave the country or can we just wait to get there?
Posted by
Seattle, WA
16392 posts
That is the Brenner Pass route and is indeed the most direct. From Milan to Salzburg it takes a minimum of 8 hours, so I wouldn't go by a longer route in the attempt to get something more scenic. (The most scenic would be the Bernina Pass route; for that you would go from Varenna north to Tirano, where you pick up the Swiss train heading to Chur. That route would take about 11 hours or more, depending on the connection time at Tirano.)
To 8+ hours from Milan to Salzburg by the Brenner route, you need to add the travel from Varenna to Milan (1 hour) plus time to change trains (15 minutes minimum, I would say).
The 8-hour journeys depart Milan at 9:05 and 12:05. To make the first you would have to depart Varenna at 7:37, arriving Milan at 8:38. For the noon train from Milan you could depart Varenna on the 10:37, arriving Milan at 11:40. This option will not get you to Salzburg until around 8 pm.
In between, there are departures from Milan that take longer but may have fewer train changes. There is an 8:37 train from Varenna to Milan that would connect with these.
Here is the schedule for Varenna to Milan:
http://www.trenord.it/en/timetable/timetable.aspx
Make sure you take a train to Milano Centrale, NOT Milano Porta Garibaldi.
I would definitely buy the tickets in advance because the Milan train station is huge and lines can be long, even at the ticket machines. You may have to buy from several websites---Trenitalia, TreNord (for Varenna to Milano Central) and OeBB for the Austrian portion. Or maybe Trenitalia can sell you the entire journey from Milan to Salzburg.
Posted by
Toledo, Ohio, US
11613 posts
You can buy a ticket from Milano to Salzburg from Trenitalia, but only a night train shows on the schedule, arriving in Salzburg at 4:09am.
Posted by
Rick Steves' Europe
16894 posts
Trenitalia.com cannot sell the connection from Innsbruck to Salzburg. For that portion, you have to switch to booking through Oebb.at, or you can buy it in an Italian train station
The train route through Zurich is slower at 9.5 hours but requires only one connection, and is also scenic.