Dinner on the night train

You appear to be on the Artesia service between Paris and Florence. According to the Artesia website, it says "The restaurant, for a full meal served at your table: Every evening for dinner, the menu offers for 26€ a first course, main course, and dessert, along with a bottle of water. Two seatings are offered: if you are traveling by sleeping car, the attendant will collect your reservation, otherwise simply come directly to the dining car where you will be seated according to the available places."

Hi Alex.

A dinner for two on the night train from Paris to Rome will cost whatever you spend in the grocery store for your picnic before boarding the train. There is no restaurant car on that train (nor any other night trains that I know of.)

Have fun.

It looks like you are on EN221 out of Paris-Bercy and changing trains in Milan (unless you're going through Germany and then down to Rome. There is such a train). EN221 shows a "bodrestaruant". I don't know what that means but it sounds a bit like food. We have been in a dining car on the Eurostar. A sit-down lunch for two with tablecloth was 52 Euro. It was OK but very expensive. These trains usually have snack carts as well. Or, bring on your own food. Many people do this on the Eurostars.

Thanks for the responses. I was mistaken however: Our night train is going from Paris Bercy to Florence (not Rome, which is later in our trip). When we made the reservation, I was assured that there was indeed a restaurant car that would be serving dinner. While it would be easy (and inexpensive) to simply brown bag it, there is a certain romance to eating in the dinner car...hence the original post.

Hi again, Alex.

Well, it appears then that I was wrong. Odd, though... I've been on several night trains to Italy over the past few years (leaving from Paris, Amsterdam, and Basel), and I recall none of them as having had Bordrestaurants as detailed by the other poster.

I'm glad he was able to give you the correct info. Coolski.

Ciao for niao!

Alex,

Generally speaking, railway restaurants are a bit on the expensive side! However, there's a certain allure to having a fine meal (along with some wine of course), and then retiring for the night. Of course, this will depend on whether the train you'll be travelling on has a full service restaurant.

I suspect that as you've reserved a first class sleeper compartment, this might not be a problem?

One other point - you might want to take your Passports, credit cards and other "essential" valuables with you to the dining car, rather than leaving these in your compartment (just to be on the safe side!).

I'm assuming your train is a direct route, as changes tend to be a bit hard on the sleep.

Happy travels!

Thanks everyone. This is exactly the information I was looking for.

You could even be on the EN227 Patlatino which leaves Paris-Bercy at 7:00pm and arrives at Firenze Campo di Marte at 7:16am the next day. No train changes, only 5 stops enroute and it does have a dining car. Note that most sleepers into Florence end at Campo di Marte. This is a commuter stop near the main station. You will need to get off your train, walk over to the ticket window or machine, and pay 1 Euro for a ticket into Firenze Santa Maria Novella, the main station. As for the dining car, it is expensive as I posted above but we wanted the whole experience of train travel. My wife has been on the real Orient Express so I would call this the Poor Man's Orient Express. We really wanted the experience. Your decision. BTW, here's a TRAIN SCHEDULE for you to look at.

Larry....same train....I guess the Italians call it one thing...the French call it another. Oh well, they could never agree on much anyway! Deutsche Bahn wisely stays out of that fray.