Venice Train Station

Mestre is on the mainland while S. Lucia is in the old city in the mid of the lagoon. If you are not interested in visiting Venezia you can head directly to Mestre station that will be much easier to reach, by bus or ordinary taxi (a car).

All trains, fast and slow, originating or ending their run at S. Lucia will call also at Mestre. A few trains will run only to/from Mestre.

There are no high speed trains from Venice to Verona. The only options are Regionale, Frecciabianca and Eurocity, which are all "slow" trains, although the Frecciabianca is nicer (but pricier). There are trains that take longer because of the route they take, and the stops they make, but there are no high speed trains. The trip takes just 1 hour\1 hour and a half though....

Thnk you all for clarifying. I did notice that Frecciabianca runs faster than others and meant it o be the fast train. On the way back I will be traveling by train from Bologna to Venice and satying in Vanice. So it will probably be better to get off at Santa Lucia station correct?

The Freccia trains are high speed.

Frecciabianca, frecciarossa and frecciaargento are high-speed, your ticket will come with a seat reservation. You definitely want Venezia Santa Lucia if you are staying on the islands.

So, from the airport, take a local bus to Mestre station, then take the next train leaving to Verona; they run every half hour and most take an hour. From Bologna to Venezia S Lucia, the faster direct trains run hourly and take 1.5 hours.

If I'm reading your post correctly, you're flying into Venice and then directly going to Verona? If that's the case, it would probably be easier to go directly to Mestre and depart from there, since virtually all the trains that depart from Venezia Santa Lucia also stop at Mestre. Note that your destination station will be Verona Porta Nuova.

The Le Frecce trains are considered "high speed" but there are different versions of that. The FrecciaBianca and FrecciaArgento trains travel at up to 125 mph / 200 kmh, while the top level FrecciaRossa travels at about 185 mph / 300 kmh. They only travel at the higher speeds when they're not in built up areas. Note that your tickets for those trains will include a compulsory reservation, which is specific to train, date and departure time, and can only be used on the one train specified on the ticket.

Thank you so much. I feel much better that I know the stations of the destinations.
PK

First, there is no train station at Marco Polo. Thus, you will be taking a local bus from Marco Polo to the Mestre train station where you will transfer to a train going to Verona Porta Nuova. Impossible to take a bus to Santa Lucia. Santa Lucia is on the main Venice islands and is reached only by train or boat. The bus goes to the Piazzale Roma which is a large vehicle area on the islands.

There are two bus lines that go to and from Marco Polo. ACTV is the city bus line. It goes between Marco Polo and the Piazzale Roma. ATVO is an alternate carrier that also goes to the Piazzale Roma but also has runs that go to Venezia Mestre. Guess which one you want? Here's a snapshot of the bus schedule. http://gyazo.com/665b57de9e2e2fd22f125ef689719d7c

Now you are at Mestre. Every train, fast or slow that departs Venezia Santa Lucia will stop at Mestre. Not a problem here. It doesn't matter which train you are on - fast or slow. The differences are fares and speed. The Regionale trains are the slowest and take almost 2hrs. Cost is 8.55Euro. The Frecciabianca fast train (the slowest of the three fast trains), gets you there an hour sooner. Base cost is 23Euro although you can purchase non-refundable fares on these trains for as low as 9Euro if you book 90 days in advance and lock yourself into a specific train. Booking in advance is not wise when going from a plane to a train. To much risk on the plane being late. But, 9Euro may be worth the risk. Here's a screenshot of a partial schedule with fares. http://gyazo.com/c765f4a4ad73d545b1b6ac314d1f1a7b You can see all of these train schedules on www.trenitalia.com To see the fares on all trains, you must look with 7 days out as Trenitalia won't show you the fares for a Regionale train farther out that 7 days from the time of travel.

Further to Larry's post, there are two types of regional trains, Regionale and Regionale Veloce. The Veloce, as the name implies, makes limited stops and does the run faster, but not as fast, as the Freccia trains. They are the same 8.55 euro ticket price, but get you to Verona in 1 hour 15 minutes, vs 2 hours for Regionale and 58 minutes for Freccia trains. Also, the Regionale Veloce have 1st class available for 50% more than 2nd class. The straight Regionale are all 2nd class.
These trains leave Mestre at 24 past the hour with some exceptions. The 6:22 leave 2 minutes early, and there are no 9:24, 10:24, 12:24, 14:24 trains. The last one is 21:24. That is the weekday schedule.

The Frecciabianca is parts of the freccia trains, but it is not high speed. Sometimes it's faster than the regional (veloce or not veloce) because it makes less stops, but it runs on the slow speed rails, and goes to places where there are no high speed trains. For example from Milan to Turin, it takes the same 2 hours, but it costs twice as much…

You learn something new every day. It's true about the Frecciabianca trains.

Here's what Trenitalia says about Frecciabianca trains:
"The third Freccia of Trenitalia runs on traditional lines, outside the high-speed network, guaranteeing comfort and quality services. 86 trains each day connect 87 medium and big towns, with departures every 13 minutes on average, from 5 am to 21, assuring high capillarity."

Thank goodness for high capillarity!