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Trip planning advice traveling between Italy and Spain

Posted by (Chicago, IL, USA) on

My husband and I are traveling to Italy next spring and starting our 2 week trip in Florence and Cinque Terre. From there we are planning on visiting Barcelona and we will be flying home to the US from this city. We would like to take one of the high speed trains from Italy to Barcelona and stop in southern France for 1 or 2 nights before continuing via train.

My question is where to stop in France that would make for easy train connections besides staying in Marseilles? We probably need to avoid Nice/Cannes since the annual film festival is occurring during this timeframe.

Our other option is to skip France on this trip and fly to Barcelona. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thank you,

Posted by
16893 posts

Flying from Pisa to Barcelona will definitely be cheapest and fastest; see www.skyscanner.com. You would have to spend at least two nights at your French destination(s) in order to have a day of sightseeing there.

The best travel time from Cinque Terre to Nice varies from 5 to 7 hours, with several departure options in that range, making Nice a common stop. Or you can get as far as Marseille within 8 hours or Aix-en-Provence in 9 hours, but only two departures per day are that fast (one early, one late).

The fastest, most direct TGV that heads from Marseille to Barcelona at 8:00 a.m. also stops at Aix-en-Provence, Avignon, Nimes, etc. Maybe you'd prefer sleeping in Aix over Marseille.

Posted by
7175 posts

As Laura says, the quickest and cheapest means for you would be a flight from Pisa to Barcelona, but where's the fun in that?

Personally I would look at a stop in Marseille as I think it's an undervalued destination with a lot of misconceptions.
However, as you seem averse to this I would go with Avignon or Nimes as a stop for a night or two.

In fact, depending on your luggage, you could make a reservation in to Avignon from CT and the onward booking to Barcelona from Nimes. A local train will serve you on the interim day to make the short hop Avignon to Nimes.

The following trains run currently ...
Day 1
1) IC 666 Dep 10:46 MONTEROSSO (Italy) Arr 12:15 GENOVA P.ZA PRINCIPE (Italy)
2) EC 144 Dep 12:56 GENOVA P.ZA PRINCIPE (Italy) Arr 16:00 NICE VILLE (France)
3) TGV 6180 Dep 17:04 NICE VILLE (France) Arr 19:58 AVIGNON TGV (France)
Day 2
Avignon sights, then
Late afternoon local train from Avignon to Nimes - 33 min journey
Day 3
Nimes sights, then
1) RSC 9743 Dep 15:48 NIMES (France) Arr 19:28 BARCELONA SANTS (Spain)

Posted by
3207 posts

I agree with djp regarding the train vs flying. You can't see the scenery from a plane, not really. I love seeing the world from the windows of a train, and meeting people on the train, which doesn't happen on a plane. I also agree Marseille is way undervalued. I've never been to Nimes so I'd have to throw Nice into the mix as I love Nice. But as djp has so many more details, you probably should follow his RX.

Posted by
14 posts

Thank you everyone for the suggestions. I think we may look into Avignon or Nimes, since we do plan on traveling light or reconsider Marseille.

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