Overnight train from Rome to Venice

Sharlene, there are night trains from Rome to Venice but unfortunately, they are not truly overnight. During the day, the high-speed can get you from Rome to Venice in 3hrs 48min. At night, the journey time increases to 6.0-6.5hrs. Same tracks. A couple of issues. The 19:05 train arrives in Venezia Mestre at 1:02am. Mestre is not Santa Lucia (the one you want) and you will still have to catch a train to go 11 minutes to Venezia S.L. Then, what do you do at 1:30am in the morning?

The 22:36 train from Rome does go to Venezia Santa Lucia but it does not depart from Rome Termini (the main train station). It departs from Rome Tiburtina. This train arrives at 5:26am. Journey time is 6hrs 50min. 5:26am isn't too bad as the city will shortly come to life.

Just to add a little to what Larry posted, the train also makes many stops. I don't know how much rest you will be able to get on the train and if you can't it'll ruin your next day in Venice.

Donna

Would not take an overnight train for that short of distance. You won't get any sleep anyway.

Dear Sharlene,

Relax and slow down for a minute. You really need to look at a good map.

" to Venice then to Vernazza then to Florence "

You pass through Florence going to the CT region. Try to make some basic geographic plans so you don't overlap your travel.

Actually, there is a direct Rome-Venice night train. ICN 774 leaves Roma Tiburtina at 22:36 and arrives at Venezia Santa Lucia at 05:26. However, the Trenitalia site does not accept US credit cards for online booking. And you cannot book this particular train on either raileurope.com or italiarail.com.

You could book it by phoning the German Rail call center. Dial 011 (US international access code) + 44 (country code for Germany) + 8718 80 80 66.

Night trains often sell out weeks in advance; but if you're willing to take your chances, you could buy your tickets when you first arrive in Rome.

I got a really cheap flight $36 US from Rome to Venice with EasyJet. That will save us 7 hours.

I don't understand Lisa's posting: How will flying from Rome to Venice save someone 7 hours when the train takes less than 4?

Lisa,

Your trip by budget air will most likely be LONGER than if you had travelled by train, and will be more expensive. Keep in mind that you have to include the times to and from each airport, check-in, security and waiting times.

There are numerous trips on that route every day via EuroStar Italia / Alta Velocita and the travel time direct from Roma Termini to Venezia Santa Lucia is 3H:48M.

My flight is costing $36 US dollars. The train is 42 euros, which is about $55 US dollars. According to
the day that I wanted to leave, the only train
from Rome to Venice was leaving at 1905 and arriving
at 102. Not the best time of day to arrive.

That really sounds odd. There are so many trains that leave every day from Rome to Venice. Oh, well. Lisa, I hope you come back to the bulletin board after your flight to let us know how it went.

Best of luck.

Thank you for sharing your knowledge and input! I've decided to take a train during the day, so that we can enjoy a relaxing evening and dinner in Venice! That gives us 3 nights in Venice. Gracie!

I think Lisa must be looking at a date past June 8. Trenitalia's schedules are incomplete after that date, so they show only one train when in fact there will be many when they finally get the schedule up. And then prices will start at either 9 or 19 euros for the fast ES train. Flying from Rome to Venice costs more than that 36€ ticket. You have to get yourself to and from each airport. I don't know what the land bus plus vaporetto costs these days, but I believe the Alilaguna is up around 14 €. With the train, you have just the cost of the vaporetto.

We are going from Rome to Venice (May,2013) and Trenitalia now has night train service from Roma/Rome Termini station to Venice/Venezia Santa Lucia station. It departs 22:35 (10:35pm) from Rome and arrives Venice at 05:20 (5:20am). I have taken night trains many times in Spain and Germany, and I would highly recommend it. These trains, the very few that still exist, are much more modern than those of my past experiences and they are a part of nostalgia that may not always be around to enjoy. Yes, they do stop quite a bit, but after a hard day's touring in Rome, I believe my wife, my best friend, my 85 year old mother and I will sleep through all of the train stops and probable squeeking of the brakes on the rails. I absolutely cannot wait to do this as it's been many years since I've taken such an adventure on a night train (not "to Georgia"...as the song goes but from Rome to beautiful Venice). This will be a highlight of our Spain/Italy/Mediterranean Cruise trip.

Tim, a month ago I bought a ticket on the Trenitalia site and paid with a U.S. credit card.

By the time you factor in the cost to/from the airports the "savings" of flying will be gone. Be sure to stay within the weight allowance on Easyjet or you will be hit with surcharges.

I was forced to take the night train leaving Tiburtina at 10 ish at night a couple of years ago. My flight was delayed and I was too late to catch the last high speed train. It was an interesting experience which reminded me of backpacking in Europe a few decades ago. I had a reserved seat - good thing - the platform and the train were both packed with people. The train had those 6 seater compartments and it was a bit of a hassle finding the right car and the right compartment with so many people getting on and with my suitcase. I couldn't get my suitcase into the overhead rack. My compartment was full but the people in it were accommodating when I left my suitcase basically blocking their access to the door. It was not conducive to sleep because the compartment was full. There were a lot of young people on the train - many doing the Rome to Venice overnight thing judging from the conversations I was hearing while waiting for the train on the platform. My whole compartment emptied out in Florence, including me, but that doesn't mean others weren't also going to be joining the train in Florence. My suggestion is to take a high speed train. It's much more comfortable and much faster. If you thinking about sleeping on the train, I would re-think this. It may not be possible, the train does make a lot of stops and you may not arrive refreshed enough to enjoy Venice.