Italy by train?

[whirlygirlie]

Has anybody travelled to Italy by train? We're considering it - I'd love to hear of anybody's experiences. We'd be travelling from the west country.
Thanks!

I once had my bag stolen on the overnight to Venice - I was very foolish and 17 years old though. We discovered my Thomas Cook European Train Timetable in the toilet bin though thank god.

I went the other way - from Venice (overnight) via Paris to London and it was fabulous. But then, I am a bit of a train nut.

pisa train station is very confusing though to be fair at the time I think the boards were being updated...
(instead of going to nearby Lucca) we nearly ended up in Florence.

Have also gone from Rome to Napoli and Sorrento (v easy)

ah mis read OP we flew then trained IYKWIM

Riven is right- that website is amazing and the journey is lovely and exciting too!

Friends of ours visited us from the UK to Milan, they broke the trip twice, in Paris and Switzerland.
You can travel from Paris to Milan in 8 hrs.
Trains are cheap here in Italy, compared to the uk, BUT local ones tend to be dirty and with no facilities for babies etc.
We now have very fast trains from Milan to rome, apparently you can now travel to rome in 3 hrs and a half, here

I did West Country to Florence by train (with the help of seat61.com) a few years ago as a single parent with DCs aged 4 and 8: train to London, Eurostar to Paris, taxi across Paris to another station for the night sleeper to Florence (had our own 3-berth compartment), and back by the same route. It went very smoothly, we all enjoyed it, but I can't say I got much sleep on the sleeper train - too noisy with lots of stops and starts. If I was doing it again, I would try to pack even lighter - we each had a wheely suitcase and backpack (including the 4yr old) which was fine most of the time, except at Florence which didn't have lifts to the platforms.

I just did it this summer. No problems apart from getting the slow train once instead of the fast train. Seat 61 is great.

Thanks for all your replies, really helpful. I forgot to add that our children will be just 5 and 1 (so buggybound!). Are we mad? We haven't gone abroad as a family before and the thought of airports, delays etc concerns me.

There were younger children on board when we travelled, and if you have two adults (one to push the buggy and one to deal with luggage) it should be quite do-able.

But boarding Eurostar is quite airport-like - security wasn't quite as intensive, and they didn't have all the restrictions on what you could take aboard, obviously, but security stuff can change overnight. And delays are certainly possible - just ask anyone stranded on Eurostar before Christmas. But in general I'd say trains might be better with little ones - it's much more possible to walk up and down, look at interesting things out of the window, and not be stuck in your seat for hours.

I am waiting until my youngest is about 4 for that sort of sleeper journey to be enjoyable - atm I go for whichever method will get us there fastest.

We dont drive though and are used to getting the train all over the UK - you do get used to it and develop strategies for every eventuality but it is more of a coping and not fun (for us at least). Especially when you have to change - ie the trip to my dads is train, tube, big train, train and the changes can wear you down with the dcs and luggage and buggy etc.

We flew last year when dd was 1 (and her brother was five) short haul and I just bf her when she got cranky and all was fine - she was fascinated by all the food as well and we got to our villa in about the same time it takes us here to get to the ILS.

Another vote for seat61.com. Haven't done UK to Italy but have done overnight return sleeper trips from Dusseldorf to Vienna twice when DS was 2 and 4 and Vienna to Ancona (Italy) when he was 5. He loved every journey and slept like a log each time (must confess I didn't sleep so well but still love trains). I must admit when he was 2 I shared a bunk with him (head to toe, not much sleep for me) but the other times we splashed out for his own bunk.