Our family will be doing quite a bit of train travel in between rome, venice, and florence. It seems like I recently heard somewhere that the trains have a 35lb. weight limit...does anyone know if this is true? Also, is this 35lb. per bag or total per person? We have a one year old we are bringing with us so 35lb. could be quite the challenge with as much stuff as we have to bring for her!
Thanks in advance!
Posted by
Tresana, Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
23296 posts
I have never encountered a weight limit on trains. Besides there is no place to check on your luggage. You just walk to the car and get on. There may be some informal restrictions on the weight of the luggage that you can put on overhead racks. The conductor would enforce that on case by case situation. The Eurostar under the channel does have a checkin and luggage screening procedures.
Posted by
Indianapolis, IN, USA
143 posts
Take Rick's advice about packing as lightly as possible, especially if you doing a lot of train travel. Train stations are not like airports, don't count on porters or carts to help carry your stuff, and you will have to lug it into the train, as well as onto overhead racks or storage spaces at the rear of the car. Also, some trains spend a relatively short period of time in the station (less than I would have anticipated), so you may have to hustle.
I've always been an over-packer, but probably the best thing I did on my trip last October was to heed the "pack light" advice and limit myself to just carry on - I can't tell you the number of times on the trip I thanked myself for doing so! Admittedly, with a one-year old you'll have more stuff, but remember you'll be juggling her as well and take a long, hard look at what you really need to bring and what falls into the nice-to-have-but-don't-really-need category.
Posted by
Indianapolis, IN, USA
143 posts
Train travel in Italy is fun but it is defintely a do-it-yourself activity!
Posted by
The Hague, NL (AMS)
2207 posts
Currently in Italy no X-RAY scans, no baggage inspections, or baggage restrictions on the trains. Whatever you can drag on, you can bring.
We once moved and had 7 bags - most around 50lbs.. Other passengers felt sorry for us and started throwing our stuff off the train when we reached our destination!
My wife still tells the story of when we bought a HUGE plasma TV (42") over here and took the box (crate?) on the TRAIN, on the trolley, then on the bus... and then we had to haul it up the stairs because it would not fit in the elevator... but that's another story!
Posted by
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
705 posts
No, no weight limits. It's amazing what people drag on. One thing I have found though you must put your bags on the racks above your seat or in the luggage section at the end of each carriage. We were on the train from Genova to Milan and it was full. There was no where for us to put our cases and so we left them at the end of the passage. This train only had over head racks no separate luggage section. A conductor came up and went beserk about our cases being in the passage. I couldn't understand him and he couldn't understand me. I gathered he wanted us to move our cases but there was no room on the racks and the other passengers weren't moving anything to make room. I just shrugged and pointed to the full racks and he just sighed and moved on.
Posted by
Elk Grove, CA, USA
6898 posts
I agree with Helen. There is absolutely no weight limits. What you will run into is draggin all that luggage onboard via narrow stairways on and off the train. And, all of this while dozens of other passengers are trying to get by you. However, this is much better in Rome, Venice and Florence as you can arrive early and board before the masses.
The second difficulty is changing platforms when you change trains. You go down 25-30 stairs, go through a tunnel and backup 25-30 stairs. However, and again, this will not happen in Rome, Venice or Florence. These are large stations where you change platforms on the same level. Quite nice actually.