night travel in italy

On Wed, 26 Nov 2003 02:01:51 -0500, ben
wrote:


hi,
i m a student planning to go on back ppack to italy this december.. my
plan is staying two days and one night in rome then on to naples, then
to florence and probably pisa and then venice before stopping at milan
for the last stop in italy.
i have booked accom only for rome and the rest i have plans to travel
in overnight trains i.e from rome to naples to florence and so on...
my probs is
I) the realtively short travelling time from rome to naples (2hrs) and
florence to venice(3hrs) which doesnt allow for overnight night travel
that extends to the morning upon arrival
II) the seemingly impossible to find operating hours of the individual
trains station to see if overnight trains runs there and from what time
to which time.
pls advice as if need arises for a changed of route, i will do so
accordingly...

This may not be of much interest to you, but there is a good night
train from Naples to Milano. I took it earlier this year. It isn't
very crowded (even in summer when I was there), and I got a whole
cabin to myself. The best thing about Italian trains (apart from the
derelicts selling birra! aqua! in Rome and Florence) is that the seats
in the cabins are completely retractable. You can reasonably have the
equivilant of a double-bed to yourself on night trains!

You're gonna struggle to get night trains unless you're travelling a
bit of a distance. However, night trains regularly go slower than day
trains to destinations. Italy isn't that big a country - there are no
night trains from, say, Florence to Venice.

Night trains are a good way to save cash when travelling
internationally. I did that a lot on my backpacking adventures -
brilliant with a eurail pass!


Pisa is good for a day trip from Firenze - nice city to walk around
and look at stuff. Good gelato, too


hope this helped...

st wrote:

However, night trains regularly go slower than day
trains to destinations. Italy isn't that big a country - there are no
night trains from, say, Florence to Venice.

Actually, Italy is quite a long country and a Milan to Sicily trip is a
fairly long stretch. Only, most tourist don't go south of Naples.

--
Luca Logi - Firenze - Italy e-mail:

In article , (Luca Logi)
wrote:

st wrote:

However, night trains regularly go slower than day
trains to destinations. Italy isn't that big a country - there are no
night trains from, say, Florence to Venice.

Actually, Italy is quite a long country

Indeed - it's easy for visitors to forget that Rome is (geographically)
more central than southern.

20:38 Firenze 23:27 Venezia
22:09 Firenze 1:01 Venezia Mestre
01:40 Firenze 5:55 Venezia
04:33 Firenze 9:53 Venezia (through Bologna)


It's true... there's not a lot of night trains (between Florence and Venice)
but still ... night trains do exist in Italy.

Bon voyage
Braque



ha scritto nel messaggio
...
In article , (Luca Logi)
wrote:

st wrote:

However, night trains regularly go slower than day
trains to destinations. Italy isn't that big a country - there are no
night trains from, say, Florence to Venice.

Actually, Italy is quite a long country

Indeed - it's easy for visitors to forget that Rome is (geographically)
more central than southern.

On Sat, 29 Nov 2003 11:00:27 GMT, "[ B r a q u e ]"
wrote:

20:38 Firenze 23:27 Venezia
22:09 Firenze 1:01 Venezia Mestre
01:40 Firenze 5:55 Venezia
04:33 Firenze 9:53 Venezia (through Bologna)


It's true... there's not a lot of night trains (between Florence and Venice)
but still ... night trains do exist in Italy.

I think he was after all nighter trains, like a train leaving at say
11pm and arriving at the destination at 7am or so. Did this a lot
earlier this year to save money (eg. hamburg-brussels,
amsterdam-munich, paris-barcelona). There are heaps of great night
trains around Europe, but not all that many in Italy.