Train from Zurich to Florence

We flew into Zurich for our trip to Italy this past summer, for a number of reasons. We are familiar with Zurich, are comfortable arriving there after a long flight, and it is a very easy trip downtown and to your hotel. It is 3 house 41 minutes by train from Zurich to Milan, and a short trip from there to Florence by fast train. This summer there were discount tickets for the Zurich to Milan portion on the SBB website, costing 30 CHf instead of 92. It was a good choice for us. I wouldn't spend more than one night in Zurich, but if you want to experience a bit of Switzerland be foe going to Italy, go to Luzern, maybe do a boat trip on the lake and visit Rigi.

Thanks for your suggestions. Since you have actually taken the train trip from Zurich to Milan, can you tell me if it's really worth seeing?

We did the Zurich deal because we were able to get tickets with miles through AA. Zurich is neat, but expensive. It was easy to pick up the train at the airport. We just walked down and got our tickets and had no reservations. We went to Milan, the CT, Florence, Bologna, Parma, Venice, back up to Salzburg, to Innsbruck and back to Ziurich. We are going to do southern Italy at a time other than July. We never had a train reservation. Zurich is woth a day or two, or if you can go to Lucerne, it is neat. The trains through Austria had great scenery. It was a great trip. We had Italian and German cuisine on the same trip. Good Luck - Bill

The Zurich to Milan train has terrific scenery the whole way, much better than the Brenner Pass route. You basically see Switzerland right down the middle, north to south. One of our daughters lives in Zurich so we spend quite some time there each summer. It's worth a day, but Lucerne is much more interesting IMHO. Don't go to Basel (sorry if you are a Basel lover).

We spent some time in Lucerne and then trained to Zurich for our flight home. Spent two nights and one day in Zurich. We found it quite interesting, especially in the business area, there is also a lake side path/road a few blocks further. You wont get bored for a day. It is more expensive than Lucerne. if you decide to spend a day, I would get guidance from your hotel how to get there from the station. We used a taxi, which seemed to have to take a very long way round because of one way streets in center City. we could have walked a lot quicker

we just did this trip in Aug. We flew into Z,then went to Italy. Here are some suggestions: you can get a $130 Swiss transfer ticket (you must buy before getting to Zurich) and that gets you one way anywhere in Switzerland, then anywhere else another day, kids under 17 are free. You can h op on/off the train as much as you like. You could could spend day 1 in Z, tour around Z and then on day 2, head up to Bernese Oberland. We did this via Luzern, got off and toured around L for a few hours, then back on train to Wengen (small town in the Alps). Then you can use day 2 of your ticket to go to Chiasso (closest town to Milan) and at Chiasso, buy a $10 or so ticket to Milan, then in Milan, get your ticket to Florence. We wanted to leave our big luggage, so we actually went back to Z to same hotel, spent the night and then took the train to Milan and bought tickets to Florence. Plus, we got $25 Z-M tickets, so it was just as cheap as using the pass the whole way. The train ride from Z-M is very scenic around Luzern and then just OK after that. I would not do the train ride again just for the scenery -but it is quick (3.5 h rs) and a nice train. I really recommend using the Swiss transfer ticket and going to Luzern for a few hours and then into the Alps to spend the night and then using day 2 to get to Swiss/Italian border. that is what I would do if I did the trip again. The scenery in the Swiss Alps is fabulous, and it is fun taking the little trains to get there. You can use the Swiss trasnfer ticket to take the WIlliam Tell route via boat/train from Luzern to Italy as another scenic option.