Rome to Venice by train

First of all, you do not want "Eurail." You will take a high speed train with either Trenitalia or Italo. Use www.trainline.eu to explore routes and fares as they display both companies. Buying in advance can give you a discount, but it is risky as if your flight is late you might miss your train and lose the money you paid out on non-ref tickets. Sooo, either buy full-price refundable/changeable tickets for a few hours after your scheduled arrival or wait until you are in Italy to buy them.

You can take a train called the Leonardo Express from FCO to Rome's Termini Station where you can board a high-speed train to Venice. There are high-speed trains AT LEAST once per hour so you will find one without too long a wait.

For VRBO-type why not just search VRBO or Booking.com? There are MANY apartments in Venice.

What month are you traveling?

Eurail is the name of the rail discount pass company. I hope you don't mean that you bought Eurail passes for a stay in Italy. That's not necessary.

There is a train station at Fiumicino airport. Depending on date and time of arrival, there are options. There is at least one direct train per day to Venice ( you'll want the Santa Lucia station if you are staying in Venice proper). Otherwise you would go into Rome itself ( Rome termini) and take a separate train to Venice.

Since advance tickets are for specific trains at a specific date and time, an advance purchase is not recommended. If your flight arrived late or you had problems on arrival and missed that train, you'd have to pay for new tickets on the next train. But trains are frequent and rarely sell out, so you shouldn't have a problem buying them at the train station.

If you aren't used to European trains, reading up on the man in seat 61 website would be a very good idea.

Can't help you with VRBO.

Try the website www.trainline.eu to check Italian trains. There are two companies: Trenitalia and Italo. Trainline gives you options for both of them.

Trenitalia has a phone app - Trainline has one too I think. If you want to wait til you land in Rome, you can buy tickets on your phone as soon as you hit the runway (though you have to guess how long to get through immigration and wait for baggage, etc.). But you will be paying top price most likely for last minute tickets. Another option to save money is to book tickets early for several hours after you land and just assume you have a 3-4 hour layover in Rome - but that guarantees you won't get into Venice until later if you arrive right on time. It's a trade-off between saving money vs. convenience.

I know you say you plan to take the train, and I like trains, but in this case, why not look for a flight? There seems to be a 5:40 out of Rome. Would that work? Fewer connections means less stress to me.

Since there seem to be multiple threads related to this one, I may have overlooked something. D

RE: train vs. plane. Since the trip to Venice would be on a separate ticket, the OP's party, upon arrival in Rome, would have to collect any checked luggage, go through immigration, and then re-check any baggage and re-clear security. Even if their transatlantic flight is on time, an under 3 hour connection under these circumstances is considered tight, and if they miss their flight they're out the ticket cost--and the next flight is hours later, while there are trains at least hourly. Plus, once in Venice, they'd have to get from the airport to Venice proper, while the train drops you off right in the historic center. If all went perfectly, this might save them some time, but for me, I would be too risk-averse to try this.

Back to the OP's questions--the train station at the Rome airport is easy to find. After you clear immigration/collect checked bags you'll head out some glass doors. Walk through the scrum of people waiting to pick up other passengers and just follow the signs that say "Treni" or, well, "Train" and show a picture of a train--they are difficult to miss. It's about a 10 minute walk, maybe a little less, and you'll be using some escalators for part of the walk. As far as total time between landing and getting on the train, there are just too many variables to give an accurate answer. I did this exact trip in October. I was travelling solo, was towards the front of the plane so I was one of the first off, the immigration lines were relatively short and the booths were well-staffed, and I had no checked bags. I was at the train station buying my ticket less than an hour after my flight had arrived at the gate, which is about as good as it gets. As an aside, I was able to use a chip and signature card to buy my train ticket from the automated machine--no problem at all.

Hard to recommend a place to stay in Venice without knowing your budget. I hear the Gritti Palace is nice...

diana,

As you're connecting from an inbound flight, the best policy is to buy your tickets when you arrive in Rome even though this will be more expensive. There are both staffed ticket offices and Kiosks at FCO so you won't have any trouble buying tickets. You can check the Trenitalia website to see the rail schedules and ticket costs. Note that your destination station will be Venezia Santa Lucia.

There are two direct trains from FCO to Venice at 11:08 and 15:08, but you won't be able to connect with those. If you take one of the trains which uses a Regionale to either Termini or Tiburtina, one important point to note is that the ticket for the Regionale train (the first segment) MUST be validated prior to boarding the train or you'll risk hefty fines which will be collected on the spot. The Freccia train comes with compulsory seat reservations, and the ticket does not need to be validated.

One other important point to note is that the FCO rail station is served by two different trains, the Leonardo Express and the FM/FR1. Be sure to board the correct train or things will get complicated (and perhaps expensive).

The most likely options would be to connect with either the 15:57 or 16:57 departure from FCO. There's another departure at 16:38 but that has three changes so that wouldn't be the most pleasant while travelling in a jet lagged state.

I wouldn't use a flight on that route as it will likely take longer, when waiting times and all the other usual airport hassles are included. The high speed trains travel at up to 300 km/h so that's a very efficient way to travel.

To summarize then.....

• deplane and collect your checked luggage
• go through Passport control for your "stamp"
• walk to the airport rail station and buy tickets on the next departure
• once you're on the direct train to Venice, you can have a rest but be sure to keep an eye on your luggage

If you'll be using a Vaporetto when you arrive in Venice, note that the electronic tickets for that have to be validated too. All you have to do is touch the ticket to the front of the reader, and if you get a green light you're good to go. You can buy Vaporetto tickets just outside the front entrance to Venezia S. Lucia.

Buon Viaggio!