I am plotting my fall train travel post RS Berlin, Prague and Vienna. I am confident, with the help of The Man in Seat 61, of all the segments except the above. Seems as of now, most of the schedules on the various sites (Trainline, Trenitalia, etc) show only two trains from Verona to Milano, earliest at 2:32 p.m.!!! And I don't see any trains from Milano to Varenna-Ensino at all. Am I looking at this wrong! Is it too early for those trains to be on the schedule?
Posted by
Edmonds, WA 🌨 ☂
11174 posts
The Fall schedule is not out yet.
Are you checking a week or two into the future? Usually changes, if any, are minor
Posted by
Sweden
6363 posts
Also, avoid Trainline and other resellers. They may not show all available trains.
Posted by
OP
Buffalo
110 posts
i have tried Trainline, Trenitalia, RailEurope, etc. I have tried closer dates. I keep getting "no trains between those stations." I have tried Verona to Milano, Milano to Varenna-Ensino, I have tried Verona to Bergamo, Bergamo to Varenna. I did see some success looking at next week through RailEurope just now. I will ignore my anxiety and assume it will fall into place!! lol@me.
Posted by
Seattle, WA
16232 posts
The schedules change in mid-June (although not much, if at all), so look for a date in May or late April. Use Verona Porta Nuova and Varenna-Esino, and only look at Trenitalia. These will appear in the drop-down menu as you type.
You also need to specify a start time, or it may default to the current time.
Looking at a date next week and starting at 9 am, I see trains with one change at Milano departing Verona P.N. At 9:43, 10:32, 12:02, 13:43, 14:43, 15:02, 15:43, and so on. The travel time is 3-3.5 hours, depending on the type of train.
There are lots more if you make 2 or 3 changes (which I would not want to do).
The service from Milano to Varenna is with Trenord, but Trenitalia will sell you the ticket.
Posted by
Italy
3812 posts
You are worrying about trains with no reserved seats and no discounts for early birds. Just get tickets on June 12, when all the summer schedules will have been uploaded on the system.
Posted by
2494 posts
We went from Varenna to Verona stopping in Milan last August on regional trains which I bought online two days before just to not to bother with it on the day of travel.
There is a fast train that goes from Milan to Verona that is much more expensive than regional train which is why I did not buy it. It is not that much faster. However, we found out the hard way that the regional train was not air conditioned which was a significant disadvantage in August! The windows do open. But we happened to hit a heat wave (was 97 F when we arrived in Verona) so rather unpleasant.
We then took a regional train then from Verona to Venice and it was air conditioned so not sure if we just got unlucky or what. But we had different members of our party on two different trains that afternoon from Milan to Verona and neither were air conditioned. So maybe something to consider, depending on when you will be traveling.
Posted by
OP
Buffalo
110 posts
Thanks for all the input. I realize I got caught up in nothing to do but find out all the minutia I don't need to find out!