Travelling within Italy

Posted by dlbalmert on 05/05/19 06:28 PM

Hi everyone,

My wife and I are visiting Italy in July for our honeymoon, and I had a question about how to best spend the last day or so of our trip. Our flights are in and out of Venice and our return flight out of Venice is in the morning (11am).

Our current itinerary has us in Rome toward the end of the trip. My question is about returning from Rome back to Venice: should we be confident in taking a train back from Rome to Venice the day before our morning flight? Or does it make more sense to plan to arrive in Venice a day and a half before our flight to protect against train cancellations or any other delay that may cause us to miss our flight?

Thanks for your help!

Posted by CWsocial

near San Francisco

05/05/19 06:43 PM

5565 posts

I prefer to be in my departure city early and generally plan my sightseeing there at the end of the trip. I recall a trip during which we had a planned day trip from Lucca to Florence and the trains went on strike that day. However unlikely, I wouldn't want that to happen on the day before my departure.

Posted by ChristineH

Gettysburg PA

05/05/19 08:10 PM

7304 posts

Might make sense to put all of your Venice nights at end of trip. Head from Venice on arrival to your first destination, finish with Venice so no worries about missing flight.

Hard to advise without seeing your full itinerary

Posted by anja

05/06/19 11:47 PM

18 posts

Uauhh! Congratulations, first of all...what a nice honeymoon. Definitely my advice is to spend the night before your departure in Venice. Even though you use Frecciarossa (which is the fastest train in Italy), it will take almost 4h from Rome to Venice and its too risky, you dont want to jeopardize a wonderful trip at the end. Bye Anja

Posted by Chani

Tel Aviv

05/07/19 10:45 AM

15798 posts

I think the last poster misunderstood and thought you were planning to take the train on departure day.

While my general advice is to press on to your next destination on landing, Italy is a special case. Venice is laid back - yeah, even with all the tourist crowds, it's quieter, slower, more peaceful than bustling Rome. The sights in Venice are like the city, low key - lots of beauty but not the major ancient Roman ruins and incredible museum collections. Venice is romantic, it's easy to find the lesser visited back canals, enjoy the misty early mornings and late nights when it's magical, float up and down the Grand Canal and across the lagoon on the vaporettos and just soak up the atmosphere while sipping coffee, nursing a glass of wine, or oh-so-slowly eating gelato. The best place to get over jetlag!! After a couple days (or as many more as you can eke out) you'll be ready to tackle the rest.

I wouldn't be concerned about getting back to Venice from Rome on the day before departure. What is your plan. It sounds like you're going other places between Venice and Rome. Maybe switch around so you go from Venice to Rome, then make your way back to Venice, so you'll be closer just in case.

Posted by NickB

Maryland

05/07/19 01:46 PM

913 posts

The day before your flight will be fine. On a slightly different note, and not knowing the rest of the itinerary, one of our favorite sites in ALL of Italy is the Scrovigni Chapel in Padua (but you need reservations), less than an hour away from Venice. The university town ambience is great and the lifestyle is really laid back in comparison to Venice. Maybe come almost all the way back, stay in Padua, and get to Venice airport in a relaxed fashion.