Last minute Europe trip-Venice, Florence, Tuscany, Rome- help?

Susan is very correct. I forgot your London/Paris leg. You can get good discounts by purchase the Eurostar early. You do need to purchase that ticket as soon as possible. The walkup fare is not good.

Just saw that Chris posted the same question under transportation so we now to independent conversations running. You might want to review the other responses before continuing this one.

There is little advantage to booking trains in advance other than to take advantage of some discounts on prepurchase but that then locks you into a set schedule. Night trains are the exception for advance reservations but, personally, I think night train travel is oversold as an advantage unless it is critical that you save that night's lodging. Because of distance and time you might consider flying between Paris and Venice. Personally I would take the train and enjoy a relaxing ride.

You schedule is OK but it does involve a lot of travel.

This sounds like the kind of trip I'd plan because I don't mind the travel. Make the most of your time, though, and consider easyJet or another discount airline to get out of Paris.

As for train schedules and pre-purchasing, my recommendation based on experience is to pre-purchase your train from London to Paris (especially if you're traveling on the Eurostar), and then buy the other tickets when you get there. I check the train schedules online and have a couple of options in mind, but just purchase the tickets a few minutes before time to board. If you're concerned about availability because of a national holiday or something, you can pick up your ticket the day before at the local train station, but it's nice to have flexibility when you're traveling.

It's hard to imagine that the France-Italy pass would be worth it for such a "short" trip as you have planned. Buy 2nd class point-to-point tickets.

Do keep in mind when you're buying train tickets at a station, that some of the machines won't accept US credit cards without a chip (and a PIN). You won't have a problem in Italy, but you may in France.

Have fun!

Have you bought the Rick Steves Italy 2010 book? If not, you really should. It contains loads of helpful information exactly like what you're asking.

Hi Michael,
I haven't yet. I've got Europe through the Backdoor and a Europe 2008 book, but not the Italy 2010 one. I might have to hop on Amazon and pick it up. The question will be whether I'll have time to read it and get some use out of it before we leave. Thanks for the recommendation though. Definitely a good idea.

The other one is more specifically directed to the Paris to Venice leg, and whether they should fly or take a night train or take regular trains with an overnight stop in Switzerland.

Yeah, sorry if it was confusing or looked like a double post. The other thread was specific to getting from Paris to Venice either via train or plane. This post is more or less me looking for general feed back and some confirmation that I'm not crazy trying to fit all of this into 3 weeks. Thanks again though to everyone who has chipped in with ideas and info.

Hi Chris. I think your proposed plan looks reasonable. However, I am wondering what you're planning to do while in Siena or Cortona for 3 days; this seems like a lot of time in either place in my opinion. Are you planning day trips from either place? I would recommend staying in Siena & the taking a day trip to San Gimignano. Volterra would also make a nice day trip although I'm not sure if it's possible using public transportation from Siena. Haven't been to Cortona so I can't comment on it but Siena is very interesting; I just can't see spending 3 days in Siena though. You might even consider visiting Siena as a day trip from Florence. It's very easy to do. If you definitely want to stay in Siena, I would shave a day off, add it to Rome & take a day trip to Orvieto. Just some ideas. As for your train travel in Italy, no need to pre-book. Firm up how many days you want to spend in each place & then book your hotels asap. The transportation issue is not a big deal & can be booked as you go. Have a wonderful trip.