Luggage On Trains? Size limit?

There is no charge, but there's also no help getting your luggage on and off the trains. I strongly suggest two small suitcases rather than a large one, for several reasons.

The stairs on the trains are narrow and steep, the stops at stations can be very short so you don't have much time to get your luggage on and off, most stations require you to go downstairs through a passageway and back upstairs to get to and from tracks, transfer time between trains can be short so you need to be able to move quickly, there are often last minute track changes which also require quick movement, and finally, you need to be able to lift the luggage onto the storage racks.

So unless you are young, athletic, tall, fast moving, and strong, I can almost guarantee that you will be happier with two small pieces of luggage.

Sherry makes complete and totally perfect sense--two small is the best way to preserve your and everyone else's sanity. I prefer to have my suitcase on the rack overhead instead of so big that it has to go in the big luggage racks at the ends of the train car.

The 25 inch rolling luggage will fit in the overhead shelves of both the Trenitalia and Italo high speed trains. I don't know about the regional trains.

2 small suitcases are most definitely the way to go. You are going to be hauling luggage up and down stairs, in and out of trains, and across all sorts of interesting surfaces so the less weight, the better. Even if a 25" case will fit in an overhead rack (many racks are smaller), you want to avoid lifting a very heavy bag over your head if you can help it.

Your previous posts discussed visiting Venice, Florence, Sorrento, and Rome. In addition to train stations, other "obstacles" in those cities make it important to be able to handle your bag easily. I'm thinking of boats and bridges with stairs in Venice, cobblestones, and hotels with elevators that may be very small or old and temperamental.

Oh, please listen to the people that recommend 2 smaller bags. Stay in carry on size...22". Big bags, big problems. You will not enjoy getting big bags on and off trains ---even the smaller ones are a bit of a hassle. The large bags are difficult to store on the trains, but not impossible. Smaller 22" will go on the rack over your head.

Easier if you each have a small rolling bag rather than one large one. your hubby will be the one dragging that thing around and lifting it up and down stairs. Take pity on the poor guy.

Pack LIGHT. You don't need a month's worth of clothing for vacation!

LOL. From my point of view, as the husband (and still reasonably fit), it is a heck of a lot easier for me to handle one 25" piece of luggage for two people than to have to deal with two 22" pieces of luggage for two people. I would not let my wife lift or pull her luggage up any steps by herself. Even just pulling the luggage down a level street or sidewalk, if I handle the one big piece, my wife will have hands free and will be grateful that she has a sherpa for a husband..

My feeling is if you can't handle your own luggage, you need to pack lighter. It would be a cold day in H___ when I would ask my husband to carry my luggage. We're a team. We are equal. I am not a weak little woman. One of us is not the beast of burden. My feminism appears to be surfacing again… LOL That being said, we have packed a 22" roller bag and a shoulder bag as being our 'carryon' bags with each of us having a personal item as well, but I could lift and handle either bag. Wray

That may work for funpig but not for most people. Even if it is not problem to handle, it still takes up a lot of room. I have never seen a 25" fit on an overhead rack securely. And I would not want to sitting under a 25" bag half resting on an overhead.

For Danielle - you do not check luggage on trains nor does the train worry about your luggage. It is your job to get it off and on. In Spain your luggage will be x-rayed. With the recent shooting, I would expect to see more of that.

Danielle inquired about a "big" suitcase. Several of you then mentioned a 25-inch suitcase, not sure if that is what she had in mind. In another recent thread on this or another RS forum, someone was planning on taking a 32-inch bag, now THAT was a BIG idea. I myself have downsized to a 20-inch carry-on plus a tote, and my big walking shoes become the biggest items in my baggage. Smaller is better, IMHO.

My husband and I are in the "you packed it, you carry/roll/lift it yourself" group. So yes, my vote would be for 2 smaller bags assuming that you each would handle your own.

We always carry on unless required to check our bags for some reason. We keep our carry-ons to a maximum of 20 pounds. Those are our "big" bags.

I use a 22" (including the wheels and handle) Lipault spinner. My husband uses an RS convertible backpack. My "personal item" is a tote. His is a CPAP bag. We use this combination on both foreign and domestic trips.

Our European trips are typically 4+ weeks. We pack for a week and a day, and do laundry weekly. So far that's worked for 5 trips to Europe totalling about 26 weeks.

He's 67 and I'm 69. If we can't manage those bags in all the situations needed on our trips, we need to get smaller "big" bags and take less, or step up our twice weekly weight training.

There are many times when I travel by myself, without any BOB (beast of burden). I believe that if I can't handle my two pieces of luggage on my own, I shouldn't be going. Knock wood, so far I'm still able to do the most challenging luggage maneuver -- putting the 20 pound bag in a bin over the seats -- regardless of the mode of transportation.

If you're destinations are Venice, Florence, Sorrento, and Rome, you can easily manage with a 25". There are no stairs in Rome or Florence stations. In Venice, the only stairs are from the street up to the station. There is a side entrance that you can use that has an easy incline. From Naples to Sorrento, you have elevators and/or escalators (can't remember which) to the Circumvesuviana train. There is one flight down to the train platform. Going up on the return, there's an escalator. In Sorrento there are about half a dozen steps from the train to the ticket agent level. From there, you can take the elevator to street level.

So, Danielle, how big is big? Personally I like smaller and less (for 89 days I pack for a week in addition to what I wear) in a 20" rolling carryon and a Civita daybag. I can't lift the carryon over my head but it fits in the space between back-to-back seats and on some trains under the seat.

You could pack heavier things in one of the 22" suitcases, lighter things in the other.

Chani, we've run into stations where the lifts or escalators were out of order, and we've had to carry bags up stairs at a fair amount of hotels which didn't have lifts.

We traveled quite a bit by train this summer and were shocked at the size of suitcases people were trying to get on and off the train. It didn't seem to work well for many of the big bags. Quite honestly, the rest of us had to wait significantly at times to get on or off because people struggled so with these monsters. My favorite was the "Sherpa" husband who insisted on carrying both bags and keep walking back against the flow of people trying to get off the train.

We were glad we could easily manage our carryon size bags. I think the test for any bag should be can you lift it up over your head to put it on a rack? If not, try for something different.

I pack less and less each trip. As I get older, have "back aches", etc., lol, I don't want to be struggling with a large suitcase. Carry on is the way to go. And, I would NEVER expect my husband to schlep my bags!

Just to add on to Kathy's comment, I remember that when I traveled by Circumvesuviana train from Sorrento to Napoli in 2014, the very long escalator going up from one line to the other was broken, and everyone had to struggle up with their baggage. I had short time to make a connection and found going up maybe 50 or 60 steps to be very challenging, even with a small bag plus tote.

The reality is that a lot of people cannot handle their own carry-on luggage. On every flight, i have had to help at least one stranger lift his or her carry-on into the overhead bin. Otherwise, the aisle is blocked.

I am burly enough to handle a 40 lb luggage. My wife appeciates not having to deal with a 20 lb luggage on her own. YMMV.

I've seen YMMV a few times on this forum. What does it mean?

Your Mileage May Vary