Venice By Train? Stopovers?

[QueenMabby]

Tentatively thinking of travelling to Venice in Oct 2022. We've been before but by plane and I thought it might be fun to go by train this time with a stop off en route and also on the way back (different places) for a night or two.
Any suggestions? Will be me, DH, DS (16 by then) and DD (13).
Thank you.

I'm just here because I'd like to do the same trip!

Following for inspiration!

I’m hoping to book train travel back from Florence next year (fly there, train back). I’m looking at going up through Switzerland, then across to Paris. Alternatively, following the Italian coast round to the French Riviera, then up through central France.

We've been to Venice by train. We did Eurostar to Brussels, then Cologne. Sleeper to Vienna (where we stayed several days) then another sleeper to Venice. We returned via Verona and got a sleeper to Paris (so you could go that way). It was a real adventure and our kids were much younger than yours at the time. Just be careful when booking couchettes on the sleepers. They sleep 6 and if you don't book the whole thing you might find strangers in your couchette at some ungodly hour. We found it hard to get much actual sleep on the sleeper trains but as long as you plan enough rest days either side it should be fine. Looking out of the windows on the trains was fantastic as we'd definitely do another European train trip in future.

It’s an easy journey. The most straightforward way would be via Paris, probably changing in Milan. You can take the sleeper from Paris to Milan or you can quite easily do it in a day. But lots of other options via southern France and Italy if you want to take your time.

If you use the Trainline app, you can get times and book tickets for European trains on that.

We went to Cologne via Eurostar, then to Chur where we went over to Italy on the bernina express route and then to Milan then onto Rome then Venice - flew home though. Was the best ever weeks holiday

Oh @KittyOSullivanKrauss that sounds amazing. I had a big birthday in the first lockdown, significant wedding anniversary in the third lockdown so I’m thinking that I’m due a nice holiday to make up for lack of any form of celebration and your itinerary sounds so perfect.

Have a look at Man in Seat 61's website.

www.seat61.com

They have quite a few reviews of the various sleeper routes.

Decades ago I went on a school exchange to Germany using those couchette carriages (looking back it must have been a nightmare for the teachers).

Eurostar to Brussels then Cologne - Munich. Sleeper from Munich to Venice. Back via Milan / Paris?
I can 2nd looking at Seat61.com - they explain all the different variations in huge detail and where to buy the tickets.