Train help-italy

Either Pisa or Venice seem to be better than Milan for your schedule than Milan. Venice Marco Polo is next to Venice. Pisa is very near the CT and Florence. Milan is in the middle and it's a 4hr. bus/train journey to either the CT or Venice.

As a side note, if you want to look at typical train schedules on www.trenitalia.com/en/index.html, don't put in a date that is more than 60 days out. If you put in a 2009 date, I'm betting that you won't get anything accurate.

For an itinerary, I would suggest the CT or Venice first (depending on where you fly in), then Florence (and maybe a day trip to Siena or San Gimignano) and then on to Rome.

What Larry says is good advice...but just to add confusion, we did about your same trip last year in reverse. It all worked out well. But I suggest Genoa airport. Simple train ride to CT, then from there to Pisa, then to Florence and Venice, then to Rome. Exactly what we did, but the other way round. We like Genoa airport as a quiet one.

If you do decide to do that, and want a good reasonable hotel in Genoa, try the Balbi which is close to the train station in Genoa. See if you can get the room with the ceiling like the sistine chapel!

Jack,

My preference would be to start in Venice and end in Rome, but I don't know what flights are available from your area (the schedules for 2009 probably won't be posted until later this year?).

I find the train system very easy to use, but I always research which trains I'll be using and whether reservations will be required on a particular route. You might find it helpful to read the "Rail Skills" chapter in Rick's Europe Through The Back Door. Moving eight people with luggage off a train and through the "sotto passagio" (tunnel) when changing trains will be interesting!

Regarding your question "is one better than the others?" - I generally try to choose direct or high speed trains (ie: no changes), but usually reservations are compulsory on these. However, I don't mind a route with changes if the timing fits, even if this involves as many as five changes.

You might check the www.bahn.de website to get some idea of the trains that operate between the cities you'll be visiting. Venice-Florence is fairly easy, Florence-Cinque Terre a bit longer and Cinque Terre-Rome is very easy as there are direct trains from La Spezia to Rome (a pleasant four hour trip directly to Roma Termini).

Good luck with your planning!

If there are 8 of you, have you estimated the cost of RR tickets? You can research that on the webpage for Italian RRs.

If I were planning for that many people I would consider renting a van and enjoying the trip more. Because you say you have driven before, you know the difficulty of parking.

Your car will be a hindrance in Cinque Terre where there is very little parking, but in other areas I would want it.

Knowing the air terminals, I would fly into Rome and out of Milan. Getting out of Rome is easier than driving into Rome and trying to find the drop off for your car. You don't want to drive in Rome!

The chief advantage of RR travel is that the stations are located in the city center.

For eight adults I think any single rental vehicle would be expensive and difficult to use in the destination jack wants to visit. Train travel will be much less stress, easy to reach the city centers and great to socialize while traveling. I would only rent vehicles for rural areas like Tuscany.

I think flying into Venice and out from Rome makes the most sense.

As 6 adults we rented a Ford Combi, a 9 passenger van, with great huge windows. We sort of felt like we had our own tour bus. We rented it from Hertz at the Genoa airport, drove it to Levanto, 1st town north of CT where we stayed for several days, left it at our agriturismo, and used the train for the CT trains (inexpensive). We then drove on to Tuscany, and trained into Florence. There are a number of towns close to Florence you could stay in and could take public transportation into Florence. From the Florence area you could drive south to Orvieto, getting a feel for Tuscany, and drop your rental van just an hour north of Rome in Orvieto. The Hertz office is a very short walk from the train station. Venice to CT, is pretty much a day on the train, its a must see city, but always a bit of a pain to work in. If you plan to stay in the CT, try Agriturismo L'Erba Persa. There upstairs has 4 rooms, one bedroom with bathroom ensuite, and 3 rooms that share a bathroom, but since you are all family should be OK, and it is very reasonable priced, although not fancy, it is clean. If your family in in to the out of doors and beautiful scenery, I would say do the CT, otherwise by pass.