milan to verona and venice

cheri, The trips you mention are all very simple and straight forward. You can buy all your tickets at the station at MXP. You'll be issued separate tickets for each leg of your trip. Take the Malpensa Express (train) from MXP to Milano Centrale. I assume you're arriving at Terminal 1? NOTE that there are two destinations, so be sure to board the train for Centrale and NOT Cadorna. You MUST validate your ticket prior to boarding the train, or you'll risk hefty fines which are usually collected on the spot! At Milano Centrale, you'll transfer to the next train to Verona. Note that your destination station will be Verona Porta Nuova. Your trip to Venice will be the same. Your destination station will be Venezia Santa Lucia. You can use the Trenitalia or bahn.de websites to research your rail journeys. Note that your latter two trips may be via "premium" trains such as the high speed (300 kmH) Freccia trains. Tickets for those include compulsory reservations which are specific to each train, date and departure time. You MUST only use the train specified on your ticket, or again you'll face hefty fines. You can NOT just board any train heading in the direction you want to travel. Happy travels!

Easy. www.trenitalia.com
Buy a fast Freccia from Milan to Verona. Online prices will go on sale 120 days before your departure date. These are nonrefundable, nable. Right now, they are showing 9 euro super economy fare for early December. That is less than the cost of the train from the airport into Milan! From Verona to Venice just buy a ticket at the station on a regional train for 7.50 euro. They have no advance purchase requirements, just remember to validate your tickets. If you can get a 9 euro fare, leave a couple of hours of leeway at Milano Centrale from when you arrive from the airport (guess 2 hours after your scheduled landing) so if your flight is delayed you can still get your nonrefundable train. If you do miss it, just shrug your shoulders and buy a full fare ticket FOR 21.50 euro. I'd also add that you can also take a regional train from Milan to Verona for 11.55 euro. The fast trains do it in 1 hr 20 minutes, the regional trains take 2 hours. Again, regional trains just walk up to the window and buy a ticket and board the next regional train (after you validate your ticket).

I would think carefully about buying a low-cost ticket in advance because planes can be delayed. If you are optimistic and can get a €9 ticket from Milan to Verona, and don't mind having to replace it if your flight is delayed, it may be worth it. You will find many train departures from Milan to Verona throughout the day. As posted, you can't buy a ticket with stopovers, they will be separate tickets.

The more I think about it, regional train is the way to go. Regional trains run hourly at 25 past the hour from Centrale. No pressure. And as always, don't forget to validate your ticket.

Do keep in mind that the Regionale trains as a rule aren't as nice as the Freccia trains. They're more like a commuter train. The A/C is less likely to work, the bathrooms are more likely to be filthy, etc. If I were you, I would get the super cheap Freccia tickets in advance. If you miss those, then I would consider doing the Regionale as Plan B, depending on how tired you are.

thanks for all your tips! cheri

how do you find out about the schedules for the regional trains and prices?? thanks

This website is easy to use for train schedules and costs: http://www.italiarail.com/

At trenitalia.com, (the Italian language version) hit the button that says "Tutti I Treni" (all trains). Enter a date within 7 days and you will see all the trains and prices. Since regional trains do not need to be bought in advance (they don't sell out and the price doesn't change), you won't see the price if it is more than 7 days from today.

cheri,

The Regionale trains will be shown on the Trenitalia website along with the premium trains (Freccia, Inter City). The train number will be preceded by an "R" (ie: R 2097) indicating Regionale. Assuming your starting point is MXP, you can easily buy your tickets at the rail station there. As the previous reply mentioned, there's no advantage to buying Regionale tickets in advance (and it's not easy to do), so just buy them when you arrive in Italy. Before using them, DON'T forget to validate prior to boarding the train on the day of travel!

It's probably not a good idea to pre-purchase your tickets for the Milano - Verona segment, as if your flight is late and you miss the train, the tickets will be worthless and you'll have to buy more at full price. Just buy them on the day of travel. If you're willing to commit to a specific departure time on the leg from Verona to Venice, you could purchase those in advance which would save some money.

Just to reiterate, the stations you'll be using are Milano Centrale, Verona Porta Nuova and Venezia Santa Lucia.

Happy travels!

I only see Euro city and the fast trains on the train site? are there more trains that aren't on their website , ones that say regional? thanks, cheri

me again- our plane arrives at 7;20 am ...do you think that is enough time to catch the 9:30am train?

cheri,

Are you using the Tutti i Treni (gray) tab as mentioned in the reply from Sam? I have no trouble seeing all the trains. You could also use the DB (German rail) website, as it should have much the same information (although you won't be able to buy tickets there).

A departure from Milano Centrale at 09:30 is possible, but keep in mind that there's no way to predict how much time it will take to de-plane, get through Passport control, walk to the station, wait for the train etc. If you get one of the direct trains to Milano Centrale (rather than one with a change at Cadorna), the travel time will be about 46 minutes, so you'll have to allow for that as well. I generally find it much safer just to pay more and buy tickets when I arrive in Italy.

Cheers!