marcast

I don't know if this is crazy, but since I was in 4th grade, I've dreamed of some day visiting Switzerland. I will be in Italy for 13 days, and wanted to see if it's possible to squeeze Switzerland in from Venice for 3 days (This would include travel time).
Those 3 days would be during the last week of March. I would need to go from Venice to Switzerland and then back to Florence.

If possible, I heard Lucerne is good place to visit.
Given the few days, what would be my best option for transportation to and from Italy? Train or plane?

Is there time to visit another area besides Lucerne or take 1/2 day trip to Mt. Pilatus? If so, should I rent a car to get around? Been reading about the swisspass.
I will start with just these questions and appreciate all suggestions.

kybourbon

I can't imagine needing a Swiss Pass if you will only be there three days and that includes travel time to and from Italy. What is the rest of your itinerary as there may be a better way to add this efficiently? The weather in March might not be the best.

swandav2000

Hi marcast,

The train trip from Venice to Luzern will be around 8h. I don't think a flight will be much quicker once you take into consideration the time to get to the Venice airport, 90 minutes wait time, the flight, the wait to get your bags, and the time to get from the Zürich airport to Luzern.

The train trip to Brig will be a little quicker, about 6h. Brig is a lovely little town with a pretty central square, interesting streets leading off from the square, and a castle. It's quite easy to make a day-trip to the high mountains from Brig, going to Bettmeralp and Riederalp and maybe doing some gentle hikes.

Basically, you'll be travelling one day to get to Swtizerland, then enjoying Switzerland for one day, and travelling for one day to get back to Italy. I would really recommend that you postpone it for a time when you can do it some justice.

You can research the train schedules at the Swiss rail site

www.rail.ch

Have fun as you plan!

s

kleeblatt

The train ride is quite easy and takes about 7.5 hours. You change trains in Arth-Goldau (about 20 min. from Luzern) and change again in Milan.

marcast

thank you all. part of me wants to take advantage and be there even for a day, as I dont travel as much as some of you do probably. The other part of me says to wait and enjoy Italy to its fullest. Are there overnight trains to or from Switzerland? Is the train trip scenic? What's the weather like in March, since I read it's not the best?

swandav2000

Hi again,

Well, overnight trains from where and to where?

The longest journey is from Venice to Luzern, and that overnight trip has a break from 23.10 to 01.10 in Milan. You can use the rail site I gave you above to play with the schedules; just use a start time of around 20.00 or 22.00 to get the night trains.

I didn't see any connections that would allow uninterruped sleep during the night.

s

kybourbon

There are no overnight trains between Italy and Switzerland (I think they ended in 2009) that you can board at night and arrive at your destination in the morning. There are a few overnight trains from Italy to other countries (such as the Thello train to France)that makes a stop in the middle of the night in Switzerland.

13 days is barely enough time to see a few places in Italy. I would not add Switzerland and spend two full days out of your 13 on transportation.

marcast

Then it will have to be in another trip (hopefully). Now that I know how long I will be sitting in a train, I should just enjoy Italy! Thank you very much for your advice.