are the trains on time in italy
 

We are planning on taking the night train from Rome to Venice that arrives at 5am. We have a flight out of Marco Polo at 11am. Is this a good idea? Do we have to go into Venice Termini or is there a closer stop to the airport?

I always like to be in the departure city the night before, just in case - accidents, late trains etc.

It looks like you can take a bus to the airport from the Venezia Mestre station (before the actual island S.Lucia main station). Here's the link: http://www.atvo.it/eng/airport.php?l....ihtm&id=1

You should have enough time. Trains are notoriously late in Italy, but usually not more than 30 minutes or so.

The bus service looks like it runs regularly, takes 20 min., and cost $2.50Euros.

Hope this helps.

passingthrough <are the trains on time in Italy>. Is the Pope Italian???

I am being silly of course.

passingthrough, there is no way, and I mean no way, that I would take a train in Italy on the day I am scheduled to fly home from Italy. IF your train arrives at 5:00am of course you have plenty of time to get to the SanMarco Airport. DeeDee has given you information BUT as much as I love Italy (and I truly do) between late trains and train strikes I would not even consider this idea. I would be in Venice the night before my flight unless I could afford to buy a new ticket to fly home because of possibly missing my flight.

If I didn't make myself clear in my first response, let me say that I do agree wholeheartedly with LoveItaly on this!

When we were in Venice last, there was an overturned chemical truck on the highway the day we were taking the train from Venezia to Firenze. The spill was close enough to the tracks to stop all trains for at least 5 hours.

There is a 24 hour strike that will involve trains and local transportation in Italy on Tuesday. When we were in Italy we managed to also hit a strike when we were in Rome. There was a second strike on a day we were not traveling. We met up with other travelers on the train out of Rome who were traveling on that day because of the pending strike and who had to get to the airport a couple of days early to make sure the strike didn't affect their ability to catch that flight home. All these events transpired in 9 days of travel in Italy. So...if it's possible, I would reconsider and arrive in Venice the night before your flight. Or stay in a city close to the airport that last night (within reasonable cab fare, as an emergency back up to public transit).

Hi DeeDee, good advise!!! And then if passinthrough is lucky there will not be some sort of an airline strike in Italy. But don't panic passingthrough, at least that won't require you to buy new tickets.

BTW DeeDee, did you hear the railline between Rome and Naples has been closed and will not open (last I read) until Monday. They found an unexploded 500 pound WWII bomb near the tracks. Somewhere between 5000 to 7000 locals were evacuated from their town. Yet we all love to go to Italy! Sometimes I find that amazing, LOL.

LoveItaly,

I had NOT heard about the bomb 'find' between Rome and Naples. Isn't that amazing so many, many years after WWII to find such a large bomb. Hopefully, they will safely remove it soon.

How's everything in your end of the county? Enjoy your holiday!

Hi pass,

One more vote for staying close to the airport your last night.

You can find inexpensive lodgings in Mestre.

((I))