The "New Venice" Cruises--Ravenna, Italy

I worry about Ravenna being overrun

I am pretty sure you DO have to change trains in Bologna coming from Milan and you DO have to change at Milano Centrale coming from Malpensa

( you may want to edit above -Ravenna not Varenna)

Or they can fly into Milan Malpensa (directly from the U.S.) and take a train straight into Ravenna without transfers.

There are no direct trains from Milan Malpensa airport to Ravenna. There is direct local departing from Milano Centrale at 18:15 and calling at Ravenna at 22:20. I would not take a local all the way from Milan to Ravenna only to avoid a train change in Bologna. Not least because cruise passengers are known for travelling with many suitcases. More, local trains' seats are not meant for long journeys.

There is a 2.5 hour train to Venice after a transfer at Ferrera.

If you change in Bologna instead of Ferrara and take advantage of the high speed rails, the train ride between Venezia Mestre and Ravenna is 2hours and 12 minutes long. On the other hand while Ferrara is a small, quite, nice town, Bologna is a nice, liberal, crowded University City.

I have a hard time believing that the cruise lines or enterprising local businesses have not set up transfers via bus directly from the cruise port. Have your investigated this? Sometimes it is nice just to walk off the boat, grab your luggage and get on a bus that whisks you to the airport or to your next destination (Venice).

I need to take a mid-trip intra-European flight to northeastern Italy later this year and plan to visit Ravenna. I can see I need to investigate flights into Bologna, something I hadn't considered before. I really appreciate the heads-up on that possibility.

The Milan option could be useful for folks coming from North American origins that don't have good connections/fares into Venice. However, there seem to be very, very few routings that don't require a transfer. I only found one, a 6:15 PM departure from Milano Centrale, which I think would be much later in the day than most travelers would want.

The other issue is that Malpensa Airport is quite far from the city. Adding the additional time to get from the airport into the city and make a connection at Milano Centrale drives the minimum total travel time above 4 hours with only one exception I could find: a 3 hr. 50 min. trip departing at 9:26 AM and requiring 3 changes--which would be a lot for me when jetlagged.

Fares from Milan Malpensa to Ravenna seem to run from 33 to 76 euros, and the cheap trains I looked at for early June had travel times well over 4 hours--more like 5-1/2 and up.

By comparison, bus service between Venice-Marco Polo and the Venice-Mestre train station is relatively frequent (4/hour), fast (17 to 25 min.) and not grotesquely expensive (8 euros). Once you're at Mestre you have a trip to Ravenna that generally takes 3 to 3-1/2 hours with a single change. The fares I saw for my random day in June ranged from 14.40 to 28 euros. The 14.40-euro fare is for an all-regional trip via Ferrara. An all-regional trip via Bologna (additional miles and a bit slower) costs 18.20 euros. Those all-regional routings can simply be purchased on the day of travel, so those fares are always available. Overally, traveling from Venice-Marco Polo to Ravenna seems to be cheaper and not much slower (potentially faster) than from Milano-Malpensa.

Edited to add:

For my own purposes I just looked at what is involved in getting from the Bologna Airport to Ravenna. The answer is: not much. It looks really great. From the airport to the city there's a little driver-less train (similar to what airports use). It runs 4 to 8 times per hour and takes about 8 minutes. The fare is 9.20 euros.

Then from Bologna Centrale to Ravenna you have direct trains taking 62 to 92 minutes; most are 70 minutes. Even on Sundays there's at least one train per hour. The fastest options are all regional trains with never-changing fares. Tickets are 7.35 euros.

This looks like a great option for cruisers whose origin airports have good connections and fares to Bologna. (I have no idea how common that might be.)

“Or they can fly into Milan Malpensa (directly from the U.S.) and take a train straight into Ravenna without transfers.“

From Malpensa airport, you will need a train just to reach Milano Centrale. Then transfer to a train going to Bologna Centrale. And finally transferring to a train to Ravenna. Or beginning with Malpensa to Milano Porta Garibaldi. Either way, it’s three trains taking between 4-6 hours total.

I hope this isn’t going to ruin the charm of Ravenna with a lot of people, tired & probably less patient, trying to reach their cruise ship! And I’m picturing people trying to manage their huge suitcases through the multiple levels of the Bologna train station and out to the Regionale section. Certainly hope the cruise line has a better plan!

I'm worried about Ravenna, too. I had hoped to get there last year, but it didn't happen. Now I'm shoehorning it into this year's trip. I need to see those mosaics again, and I've learned about a few additional points of interest since my 2015 trip.