charnees

We've decided that next September we will fly into Amsterdam and take about a week traveling by train to Orvieto where we will pick up a car abd stay in a little town nearby.

I realize that it's been so long since we last traveled by train outside of Italy that I don't really know the ropes any more.

What is the proper name for the bullet trains that travel between AMS and Paris, and Paris and major Italian cities? Is there a problem with it when it crosses from France to Italy?

What is the best web site for booking these two trains? When will the schedules for fall 2012 be posted? What other info do I need to do this right?

Thanks for your help.

qwovadis

seat61.com/france and italy great info for you.

Thalys then TGVs down to www.orvieto.info cute

little Etruscan town was there in May Hotel Grand Italie

TGV to Nice Monaco then San Remo then www.metropole.it

for Portofino and cinqueterre.com www.lucca.info

Pisa Florence if you like then Orvieto...

It is a great ride border crossings usually uneventful...

Have fun ricksteves.com good info also eurocheapo.com

Have fun!

ira

Hi Char,

www.thalys.com for the Ams to Paris part.

www.voyages-sncf.com for Paris --> Italy

I think that you will find it much cheaper to train Paris --> Milan and then use www.trenitalia.com to get to Orvieto.

You can print your discount tickets from SNCF at home.

Enjoy your visit.

kerouac

Try to book 3 months ahead to time to get the best fares.

charnees

Thanks for the info. We have not traveled in Holland and France for a few years, so I wasn't sure where to look for train travel. If anyone has other suggestions, let me know.

Once we get into Italy we know our way around quite well. Yes, I suspect the Italy portion should have the fast train ending in Milano and then regular train to Orvieto. I was not sure about the current state of the handoff from French to Italian operations at the border. It seems to me I had read of some hangups there.

We are very familiar with Orvieto and environs, already know where we want to stay, about half-hour out of town in a dream villa we stayed in in 2010. Just need to round up the other people to share it with us. We're working on that now.

charnees

just looked at the Thalys site and tried out the one way Ams to Paris, using the latest bookable date, and need to understand the meanings of the fare structure. It seems the highest fare is a senior one, which I do not understand. It's more than twice the promotional fare. What am I missing?