Itinerary and Train advice for Oct '10 trip

While Mike's comments are accurate, in all fairness to Americans, at one time a rail pass was a no-brainer. paid for itself in about three trips but today it is a brain beater. You have add up all the point to point. My rough guess from your trip in Italy is that a pass would not pay.

Thanks, everyone. Chani, I took your advice and changed that portion of our itinerary, so now we are doing Venice-Florence-Rome-CT-Milan. And doing Naples/Pompeii as a day trip from Rome.

Agreed, the rail pass used to be a no-brainer. Last time I was in Italy I was just out of college, and I had a 3-week rail pass which I used like crazy and I don't recall all the hassles of reservations and extra charges.

I will definitely take a closer look at point-to-point tickets! If the rail pass isn't going to buy me any convenience, I may as well buy my tickets there as I go along.

Consider taking the train from the north only as far as Rome and going to Pompeii as a day trip. Okay, it will be a long day, but you won't have to change hotels.

Another option would be Venice to Florence to Rome to CT. The local trains through CT run from La Spezia to Monterosso. You can take the train from either place to Milan - whichever is more convenient from where you are staying in the CT.

Check the train prices on the Trenitalia website. The Eurail pass may not save you money. Also check if you have to pay for reservations with the pass and take that into account. I believe you need reservations for all except the regional trains (which are generally much slower, so you probably won't want to use them).

As it says on the site about train travel seat61.com "You should always assume that point-to-point tickets will be cheaper than a railpass, unless you can show otherwise. Many overseas visitors, especially (if you'll forgive me for saying so) Americans, appear genetically programmed to ask for a $500 Eurail pass just for one or two $50 train rides."

I suggest you read thru the information at http://www.seat61.com/Railpass.htm#Where%20do%20I%20start

Furthermore the pass isn't buying convenience. On the longer runs or faster trains, you'll still need to make a seat reservation (and pay an additional charge).

The routes you mention have plenty of trains each day. With the exception of the night train (if it still runs) you are better off buying your tickets once in Italy.

Hey Steve! I already have our tix and they are SEA-JFK-MXP and back the same way. Unfortunately using air miles doesn't allow for flying back out of a different airport, at least not on American Airlines. But I can't complain since I'm flying to Europe for only 40K miles!

Myriam,

One more thing to consider is what time of day to travel by train. Of course this depends partly on your style of touring.

I am going in February, when days are short and evenings are pretty dull. I plan to take trains after dark. On the longer legs I will probably dine picnic-style on the train. While this means skipping a leisurely dinner, I will be in my hotel the night before I start visiting the "new" place, so I can use the whole morning for exploring. I hope it also means I avoid possible crowded early morning trains, though maybe I am just trading the morning and evening rush hours.

I called Alaska/American and they have no mileage seats for a ROME-JFK flight. Oh well. We'll stick with the MXP-JFK one then.

Hopefully our itinerary will work so there won't be much backtracking.