We're taking the June 12 Village Italy, but will be staying in Venice for a few days prior. We will take the train from Venice Santa Lucia to Padua the morning of the 12th. My question: is it necessary to purchase our tickets ahead of time for this 26 minute train ride or is it safe to assume we can pick up tickets when we're in Venice?
We walked up, used a machine and we were on our way, same time of year, same plan, few days in Venice then Village Italy. As I recall there were many trains per day, and ours was 1/4 full if that.
Thanks Alan, I figured it wasn't a big deal, but better safe than sorry.
You can buy tickets in Venice the day you're traveling. Since it's a short train ride/cheaper ticket, there's not an incentive to purchase it earlier and commit to a specific train time weeks before your trip.
Glad you're able to see Venice, too!
Thanks to you too Jean. Yes, very excited. We're traveling with 2 friends who've never been to Italy and are excited to show them the magical Venice we love!!!
Take care to take a Regionale (or Regionale Veloce) train and not a sleek Freccia, which comes at EUR 16 instead of EUR 4! The trains to Padua (Padova in Italian) leave every 15 mins or so.
I took the RS village tour a few years ago. It was mid to late may. No problem getting tickets the day of travel. At the time Italo was cheaper than trenitalia. I and many others here found Padua to be quite interesting. I would suggest leaving Venice early that day if not a day earlier.