Last Minute Questions

1. The train conductor will definitely want to see your son's ID unless he looks obviously younger than 18.
2. Regional trains are not train specific. You can hop on any train on the day specified in the ticket. Validating a ticket means date stamp it at the machine before boarding. From that moment on the ticket is valid for 4 hours, within which you must complete your travels. This step is necessary otherwise people could use the same ticket over and over for multiple trips. This step is not necessary for high speed trains, since those tickets are specific to a train.
3. You can do it on your own for 4€ per person with the Circumvesuviana commuter train from Naples. It goes from Naples to Sorrento in one hour and stops at Pompei midway.
4. You can choose whichever solutions you want. Some are faster than others. You can buy the entire tickets in Italy or online on Trenitalia or SBB website if available for sale. The Swiss portions in the SBB website. I wouldn't buy online regional tickets, like the one to Varenna and back. If there is no discount when purchased online, I don't bother. Regional trains offer no discounts.

1. You you show your family pass to the conductor, he will also want to see all the passports so he can verify the ages, so the family pass is a no-go. You'll get fined plus have to pay the fare difference ay a minumum. More likely have to buy full fare tickets for everyone.

2. If you buy the Venice-Varenna ticket on-line, it will include "pre-validated" tickets from Milan to Varenna that don't need to be validated, since they have a date and 4-hour window of validity. and the 8 1/2 by 11 ticket won''t fit in the stamping machine.

3. Your vacation. If you think it is worth it, then it is.

4. The EC train from Milan to Spiez will have fewer stops. also travel time will vary according to the connection times at Milan, Spiez, Interlaken Ost, and Lauterbrunnen. You can buy the Milan-Muerren ticket at www.sbb.ch/en and the Varenna-Milan as a separate ticket. This is a Regionale. Buy a pre-validated ticket on line, or buy ahead of time at any Italian railway station tickets that do need to be validated, or at a travel agency or tabac in Varenna. There is no ticket facility at Varenna-Esino station

FYI, to validate your tickets look for the yellow boxes marked "CONVALIDA". If possible allow yourself sometime because it has happened to me often that the box didn't work and I had to find one that did. The ticket checkers won't care if the box worked or not, they can be strict if your ticket is not validated.

FYI, to validate your tickets look for the yellow boxes marked
"CONVALIDA".

Maybe some of the validation machines are yellow but others for the Trenitalia system look like this:
https://www.seat61.com/images/Italy-ticket-validation2.jpg

It looks like you have only 4 nights in Rome? I personally consider that the minimum just for the city as there's so much to see so I'd save Pompeii/Sorrento for another trip when you can explore some of Naples and the Amalfi as well. Consider also that you're going to be dealing with August heat so cramming a lot into a little time could be especially wearing.

If wanting to see an excavation in addition to what's available in Rome, Ostia Antica is a much easier and less costly day trip.

Malpensa Express, whichever ticket you buy make sure you do NOT get on a train heading to Milano Cadorna. This may be very central but it isn't where the train to Rome will be! Presumably you have some schedules for those, usually they go from Centrale but odd trains might not.

Validation, if needed, is simply feeding the ticket into a time stamping machine. Long distance tickets and most passes don't need it (maybe for a 24 hour pass you need to stamp it the first time to start the 24hours). The machines are usually all around access to platforms. In some places there may be seperate machines for local transport authority tickets which work exactly the same way but they don't recognise each others tickets even though you use the same train.

Travel to Murren. Buy that as a through ticket from Milano to Murren - save time and do it online now through https://www.sbb.ch/en/ . And get a local ticket from Varenna to Milano Centrale on the day.

The obvious way is to use the direct express train from Milano to Spiez. This is the fastest way because they have tunnelled under all the scenery! These trains tend to leave Milano Centrale at 23 minutes past SOME Hours. At other hours the 23minutes past train will go to Geneve and you have to change at the first Swiss station Brig (and at some hours there is no express on this route at all - there is a regional train to Domodossala with a connection to Brig but this isn't recommended). The fast trains take around 2 hours to Brig and another 40 minutes to Spiez. If you have to change at Brig there is about 30 minutes wait. Either way, your journey time from Varenna to Murren wil be between 6 and 7 hours, was your estimate just for Milano to Spiez?

Best departure from Varenna are 08:37 which gives you a wait of 1hr43mins at Milano for the 11:23 direct to Spiez
or the 10:37 which gives 43mins wait for the 12:23 to Brig where you have to change again - but this is still fastest.

But the scenic line is still open, if slower. You change at Brig and take the old route and see much more of Switzerland. Sit on the left departing Brig. These trains take longer but only have a 20 minute connection at Brig so you get a head start on the fast train if you had to change anyway. To see this schedule do an enquiry and add Via Kandersteg. Will add up 30-60 minutes to the journey.

I would recommend a day trip to Pompeii which cannot be done as a 'quick detour' if you want to see the place. Sorrento -- meh.

I like Sorrento a good deal, but more as a gateway town to the Amalfi Coast.
If you said do you recommend going to and staying in Sorrento for a couple of night or longer I and I think most on this forum would support that fully.
I don't think it makes a good day trip location from Rome though, too far and seeing Sorrento for a couple of hours is not going to do much for you.
Pompeii works well as a day trip and takes the whole day, leave it at that.

The whole validation thing sounds difficult and scary but you get the hang of it quickly. It is in my opinion an old system that should be overhauled but something that is not going to affect your vacation.
You knowing in advance of this rule will be one of the educated tourists and figure it out much faster than those that didn't ask questions first and may experience vacation ruining fines for not following the rules.

For #4 I have always found the Swiss website easier to follow and you can purchase tickets for your journeys in Italy on that site as well.
Took a train from Switzerland to Como area and back and the border crossings are rather uneventful.

Thank you everyone for all of the information! You have answered my questions thoroughly. The only new question is now which train to take! I would love to get more scenery of Switzerland rather than a tunnel, especially if it only really requires a somewhat longer journey. I am researching trains now. Thanks again!

Steve B, I'm now in Venice and leaving for Varenna tomorrow. I've already purchased my tickets for Domodossola to Murren on Sbb with half fare card. So now I only need tickets Milan to Varenna and back to Milan, then Milan to Domodossola. These are all regional trains, correct? So I plan on buying the tickets tomorrow morning while waiting for the fast train from Venice to Milan. Thinking I should also buy my Milan to Domodossola tickets too. Considering I'd love to make the early train you mentioned, but with family the 10:37 is most likely. It won't matter if I buy tomorrow because I won't be validating until I actually start the trip, on Thursday, right? You mention a scenic train, that will be a bit slower but, shorter layovers. Not seeing how to choose which train. You mentioned searching via Kandersteg. I'm probably an idiot but I don't quite understand your directions.....

OK, see if I get this right. You are traveling from Varenna-Esino on Thursday August 17 to Muerren. You already have tickets from Domodossola to Muerren for that day. Now you want to buy tickets for the Varenna-Esino to Domodossola section, preferring the 10:37 departure. You can buy these tickets at any Italian railway station. Make sure they are for your date of travel and you must validate these before boarding the train. Now the tickets from Milan to Domodossola will be an EC train that leaves Milano Centrale at 12:23. That train has seat reservations so does not need validating. You could ride that train all the way to Brig. You already have tickets for the section from Domodossola to Brig. It arrives in Brig at 14:16 and get off there. The next train that will connect to Muerren is an RE train at 14:36. This train uses the more scenic route over the mountain and through the old Loetschberg to Spiez. Go from there with the next train to Interlaken Ost, then Lauterbrunnen, then Muerren.

Thank you Sam! You have been very helpful with your precise routing instructions! I am forever gracious!

I agree that Sorrento is not a bad stop as a base in the region to both the Amalfi coast and to Pompeii. It is meh as a day trip and Pompeii needs a day.