I will be traveling from Varenna to Venice. I'd like to take the train. I've read that you can't purchase tickets at the Varenna train station. This will just be a one way ticket as I am traveling to Varenna by car. Any suggestions?? Thank you!
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area (USA)
16240 posts
You can purchase tickets at the station.
What do you plan to do with the car? Abandon it in Varenna?
Posted by
Reading, PA, USA
1637 posts
Sorry Roberto this is one time you are wrong. I was just in Varenna and you cannot purchase tickets at the train station. There is a travel agency down the hill from the train station where you can buy tickets. I do not know the hours they are open. This is also noted in Rick Steves Italy 2014 book
I would do some research ahead of time. I was traveling from Venice to Varenna and found that you had to take a train to Milan and then a train to Varenna.
Posted by
OP
19 posts
Roberto……I have a "ride" to Varenna. No need for you to be rude.
I will check out the travel agency in town for train tickets. Thank you.
Posted by
Vernon, Canada
32405 posts
amy,
Rail travel on that route is very easy. Regarding rail tickets, as I recall the Varenna-Esino station doesn't have a staffed ticket office, and I can't remember if they have ticket Kiosks. In any case, as the previous reply indicated you'll be able to buy tickets at the very helpful Tivano Tours office which is about half way between the station and the Ferry dock across from Albergo Olivedo. If you're going to be close to a rail station prior to going to Varenna, you could also buy tickets there.
Your journey to Venice will be in two parts. The first part will be from Varenna-Esino to Milano Centrale. That will likely be a Regionale train so you MUST validate your ticket prior to boarding the train on the day of travel. Failure to do so may result in hefty fines which will be collected on the spot! The trip is "officially" listed as taking 1H:03M.
The second segment will be from Milano Centrale to Venezia Santa Lucia via Freccia high speed train, which travel at up to 300 kmH. Tickets for those have compulsory reservations which are specific to a particular train, date and departure time, and you can ONLY use the one train specified on your ticket. If you use any other train, again hefty fines.
One point to mention regarding the Milan-Venice segment. Some of the fast trains on that route are direct (no changes), while others have one change at Bologna Centrale. I'd suggest having a look at the Trenitalia website so you'll have some idea of the departures and which ones have a change. Travel time on the direct routes is 2H:35M so that would be the easiest and quickest option.
Posted by
Rick Steves' Europe
16895 posts
You can see schedules for both legs of the train connection at www.trentalia.com. Some other schedule resources (such as DB) don't reflect the local line from Varenna-Esino to Milano Centrale station, but those trains do run every 1 - 2 hours, similar to the schedule on p. 299 of Rick's Italy book. Milan-Venice service is more frequent. The Varenna travel agency (closed Sundays) can sell both tickets.
Posted by
New York, NY, USA
11294 posts
In addition to being able to buy tickets at the travel agency in Varenna, you can also buy these tickets at any other train station in Italy that does have ticket windows or working machines (in other words, almost all of them except Varenna-Esino). Just select Varenna-Esino as your start station, and Venezia Santa Lucia as your end station.