Travel by train with the family in Italy for a week

[Hellsbellscockleshells]

I was wondering how feasible it would be to do some interrailung with the family in Europe for a week probably Italy. Has anyone did this and is it two trashy for a week? I was thinking of just visiting maybe two or three places in Italy and also travelling from the north of England by train on the euro tunnel etc (kids early secondary school age).

I wouldn't be taking the train all the way from North England to Italy for just a week. Especially with teens/tweens. Is it because you don't want to fly? Flights would probably be cheaper than the train. I'd fly into Rome and spend 3 or 4 nights there and then go to Naples for Vesuvius and Pompeii.

its about 13 hours from london to rome (via paris, turin and milan) so yes i think it would be possible

Trashy in what sense? I assume you wouldn’t be sleeping in the corridors, not washing for days & staying in hostels like a gap year student?! We’ve travelled around by train in Italy, usually doing 3 centre holidays. It’s very cheap if booked in advance on Trenitalia - you’re emailed the tickets & as they’re for specific trains you don’t have to validate them at the station. Don’t take suitcases - you’ll only have to leave them in the corridor so take something slimline you can get on a luggage rack. Though they’rd often graffiti covered, the train services are usually frequent & reliable. Last year we did Sicily by train (well, not all of it!) & Nice, Sanremo, Genoa & Milan three years ago. Cheap & simple honest!

I was thinking of maybe going May half term but the flights to anywhere are so extortionate I was thinking by train might be cheaper and a bit more of an adventurous than our summer fortnight in the sun.
Sorry by ‘trashy’ it’s a northern expression meaning too much hastle rather than us being dirty and not washing sorry.
I also wondered whether if we got the train from where we live it would save a two hour journey to the airport (plus allowing an extra hour due to any possible delays) being at the airport for two hours before the flight, flying, waiting around at customs and transfer times etc etc. So I wondered if it might not be that bad plus you pass scenery on your way etc.
Any more top tips and do we have to commit to all trains in advance?

We are going to Italy by train in the summer (and then on to Croatia by boat). We bought our Paris-Venice sleeper tickets on the day they were released to make sure the price was 'comparable' to expensive summer flights to Croatia but it's still definitely costing more.

Doing everything by daytime trains would almost certainly be cheaper but if you are only going for a week then I think you'd really want to consider the sleeper.

Seat61 is a brilliant website for planning journeys.

Should also say we are travelling from London and we are going for 2.5 weeks and we are flying home so it has less of an impact on our holiday than there and back in a week.

Our first few days are - Day 1 - London to Paris at teatime, overnight in Paris. Day 2- all day in Paris and evening sleeper to Venice. Day 3 - wake up in Venice. If you want to get to Italy on the morning of Day 2 you need to be leaving London at lunchtime so north of England, probably early morning.

Hope that helps.

Ta for the explanation - learnt something :-)! Are you thinking of an Interail ticket? In the old days (like over 25 years ago when I used one!), you got on any train & just filled in a section in your ticket book. No idea these days if thats the same! We pre book our Italian train travel as it’s the cheapest way but it will commit you to a specific train & time. You can buy tickets on the day obviously - these are more expensive & don’t have times other than a date on them so have to be ‘validated’ (punched in a machine) just before you travel. If your ticket isn’t validated (and you don’t need to validate the pre-booked ones) & is checked on the train then you can be fined quite a lot! Enjoy & have a fab trip

Thanks it doesn’t sound like a cheap or practical option for us for a week then.
Venice to Croatia sounds lovely.

Not sure on the UK to Italy bit but we did 2 weeks travelling round northern Italy by train, staying in places for 2-3 nights. Booked in advance the trains are ridiculously cheap, so we flew Manchester to Milan, did 2 nights there, then train to lake garda with a bus to Malcesine. Two nights there Then train from there to Venice for another 2 nights. Train from Venice to Florence for three nights and then last stop was Rapallo (you can visit Portofino and Cinq Terre from there). Then finally train back to Milan and flight home. Trains were 150quid for two of us for all of those trains and flights 50 quid each return. You can prebook seats and the trains are really quick and easy to use. We went the first two weeks of September just as the kids went back to school and booked trains 12 weeks in advance.