Varenna to Milan Central

nancy,

The new rail schedules for July and onward won't be uploaded until 15 June. Just use the Trenitalia or TreNord websites to plan your trip, using a date within the next week on the same day-of-the-week that you'll be travelling. That will provide a close estimate. There are frequent departures on that route and since it's a Regionale there's no price break for pre-purchase (DON'T forget to validate prior to boarding the train on the day of travel!).

You could buy your tickets at Milano Centrale prior to going to Varenna, and then just validate them on the return trip. How long will you be in Varenna?

Where are you looking? On trenitalia.com found 16 trains, no connections, roughly an hour or so. You can also use bahn.de for all schedules BUT only purchases tickets train beginning or ending in Germany. All regionale trains. Absolutely do not buy tickets on line for Regionale trains. Buy at the station.

Ken, the schedules were posted.

@Frank,

Thanks for the info on the schedules. I tried the TreNord website for 5 July, and it wouldn't provide any solutions beyond 14 June. I didn't check the Trenitalia site this time.

Your other problem could be the station names. You must use the Italian names for the stations. Varenna is Varenna-Esino and Milan is Milano Centrale.

Two things. Bahn.de does not show schedules for Varenna as it does not recognize the station even if you input Varenna-Esino. So use Trenitalia for sure. And unless things have changed since we were last there (2011), you cannot buy tix at the station. We had to buy them from the travel agent around the corner. So buying online in advance might be a good idea even if it is a Regionale train. Also when we were there the validation machine did not work, but maybe they have fixed that.

Regional train tickets bought on-line are only valid for four hours, they are sold pre-validated. Keep that in mind if you decide to buy on-line. I have read it is difficult to buy regional train tickets on-line without providing an Italian address. It is recommend you use your hotel's address or Trenitalia's. : )

We just made the trip today. Trains are normally two hours apart and your hotel will know the latest schedule.. It is easiest to get your ticket to Milan when you buy your ticket to Varenna. There is not a ticket office at the station. However you can buy them in town. Since this is a Regional train there are no assigned seats and the tickets are good for several days (weeks?). You do not have to specify either the time or day of return.

All great answers. thank you for your help.