Train from Venice heading towards Florence (Orvieto)

Mestre is the first station on the mainland, after the bridge/ causeway that connects Venice with terra firma. You just need to buy a ticket from Venice S.L. To Mestre. The trains run frequently. ( it is possible that your train actually starts at Venice S.L., although jot all do. Mwhat is the train number?) As for exchanging it, hopefully he got a Super Economy price on the ticket, which is great but means it is non exchangeable.

Mestre is actually the third station from Venezia SL but nobody but the smallest Regionale trains stop at either of the smaller ones (says he who once got all his luggage off at Porto Marghera, panicked and shoved it all back up the vast step and hopped back on as the doors slammed). Just buy the €1 or whatever it is for the Regionale trip at the first train station they visit in Italy.

So if it is three stops from St. Lucia is Mestre heading South towards Florence and how long from Venice to get to Mestre? Do we take the St. lucia Train to get to Mestre? Trip #1 From: Venezia Mestre Departs: May 8, 2013 - 9:20AM Train #585 To: Orvieto Arrives: May 8, 2013 - 2:08PM Class of Service: Comfort Reserved in: coach# 002 seat# 055 coach# 002 seat# 056 Terms & Conditions:
Trenitalia Domestic Trains Adult

Denise, It may be easier for you to pull up a google map of Venice. Venice is an island that is accessed by one road. This road is used by cars, bus and trains. The Santa Lucia station is on Venice 'island', the Mestre station is to the west of Venice (looking at the map to your left) on mainland Italy. Santa Lucia train station opens to Venice proper with a canal in front of you as you exit. The Mestre station train will go west (Venice island is to your east). From Venice island, you can take a bus or the train to get to Mestre train station.
I would allow 30 minutes for the bus, not sure about the train.

OK, I see why your husband bought that train. It goes directly to Orvieto with no intermediate change (many have a train change at Bologna). It starts in Trieste so does not go to Venezia S.L. at all. But no worries. Regional trains depart Venice Santa Lucia for Mestre every 10 to 15 minutes. For example, right now they run at 8:30, 8:41, 8:43, 8:57, 9:04, etc. The journey take 11-12 minutes. That 9:04 is a bit late for my tastes but the ones departing around 8:45 would be fine. You can see the schedule at Trenitalia.com

Lola, Thank you so much, that is what I was looking for. Can you tell me where you got that information? Thanks again! I want to relax and enjoy this, but sometimes it is so overwhelming.

Denise, every train departing Venezia Santa Lucia stops at Mestre. For your needs, you need the basic Regionale train and not the high-speed trains. The trip takes about 11 minutes and costs about 1E-1.50Euro. You will have to change trains. Lola identified the website. It's www.trenitalia.com. English but the station names still have to be entered in Italian. Your husband probably got a good deal. Thus, the remedy above and by Lola is relatively inexpensive and painless. As noted above, the Santa Lucia station is Venezia Santa Lucia. Note that you won't be able to buy the tickets for any Trenitalia Regionale train online more that 7 days out from the time of travel. Note also that you shouldn't expect to just show up at the train station, buy a ticket, validate it and then get on. The lines can be long. But, you should be able to buy this ticket from the ticket machines which will prompt you in English and will accept your U.S. credit card.

Time for a warm blanket and a cup of cocoa. One cup of cocoa and a warm (do you prefer red or blue-with-flowers?) blanket coming up. I only mentioned the two very small stations that almost no trains stop at as an illustration of how important it is to read the platform signs (the blue ones) before leaving a train. Train 585 comes from the far northeast corner of Italy in Trieste. It sits at Venice Mestre for a long time (scheduled to arrive at 8:55) so should be there when you arrive from Venezia Santa Lucia. Because you are going in that direction it will be super easy for you to get tickets for the short hop to Mestre as you arrive off the Grand Canal at Venezia Santa Lucia. You can grab any The 585 continues towards Roma Termini (which is what it will say on the screens - be sure to go to the IC585 as there may be more than one train to Roma at the same time) at Venezia Mestre 09:20 Padova 09:41 Terme Euganee-Abano-Montegrotto 09:51 Rovigo 10:08 Ferrara 10:31 Bologna Centrale 11:02 Prato Centrale 11:57 Firenze Rifredi 12:18 Arezzo 13:00 Chiusi-Chianciano Terme 13:45
and reaches Orvieto 14:08. ... more to follow ...

... continued ... There are frequent regional trains to Mestre that will make the connection and take 11 or 12 minutes. These are: Time dep SL Time arr Mestre Train Number Destination Stops to Mestre 0830 0841 11031 Portogruaro-Caorle one at Porto Marghera 0841 0853 5606 Padova nonstop 0843 0854 11006 Treviso one at Porto Marghera
0857 0909 11054 Bassano del Grappa one at Porto Marghera 0904 0915 2828 Udine nonstop The 0904 above is risky for you finding the right train comfortably in Mestre - only 5 minutes is cutting it too close for me. There are only stairs between the platforms at Mestre and you will have to go down and back up. The coaches will have their number on the outside by the door. You are looking for coach number 2 which will either be at the front or back of the train. That is a good reason to be there soon after your train arrives at Mestre. I hope that this helps you, and you feel a bit less stressed. Did you say where you will be staying so we can help you get to the SL station from there?

Lola, Nigel, All, Thank you so much this helps put me at ease. Lola, That is why my husband booked that train. I missed that you found the info on Trenitalia, sorry abou that. I actually seen them on the R.Steves recommended site www.bahn.hafas.de/bin/query.exe/en
I do see they have some trains leaving SL but it doesn't look like I can purchase them in advance, it says "compulsory reservations". And it also looks like it has several stops and takea half an hour more, which may be worth it considering lugging our bags on and off another train to get to Mestre. Still so confusing. Nigel, I would like the blue w/flowers, please ; ) And it is cold enough in Chicago right now to warrant that hot cocoa. THANK you so much for your post. This helps greatly and actually does put me at ease. Although it sounds like alot of travel hassel to be honest. We are staying at the La Locanda Di Orsaria and actuallly picked there because it is 2 minutes from SL. Little did we know... Thank yoU!

The Bahn website is very easy to use to find schedules and routes (including stopovers) for European trains. However, it only has prices for trains that stop in Germany, and you cannot book non-German trains on it. So, Trenitalia is the way to go to book Italian trains-you done good! The train you want to take from Venezia Santa Lucia to Venezia Mestre will be a regional train; it's easiest if you think of this as a "city bus on tracks." These trains are unreserved, and if there are no seats, you stand (for you, it's only a 10 minute ride, so not a big deal). You validate your ticket, hop on, and when you reach Venezia Mestre, you hop off. That's it. Don't count stops; look at the signs in the station, so you get off at the right place. You can buy tickets in advance online, but there's no advantage; these cost the same, and lock you into a specific train. So, buy one at the station (as Nigel says, allow some time for this). BE SURE to validate it before getting on the train. Then at Venezia Mestre, you find your train to Orvieto, following Nigel's guide and using the train number to make sure you're on the correct one. Then you find your reserved seat, and settle in. Know when you are due to arrive at Orvieto. About 5 minutes before, start gathering your belongings and moving towards the train doors (you'll see others doing the same). This way, you won't have any frantic dashes and leave things behind. Once you've done this once, you'll see it's really not hard, and you'll be a pro.

If you arrive in Venice by train, you can buy your Venezia-Santa Lucia to Mestre ticket when you arrive rather than when you leave (lines could be long, kiosk might reject your card, etc.). Just in case the advance purchase through Trenitalia doesn't work out.

I can't thank everyone enough or tell you how much better I feel. If I do want to try to get them in advance (just for an additional peace of mind), do you think I would be able to print them out at home? The ones to Orvieto they actually sent via UPS which I thought was odd.