Does anyone know of a good train/ferry combo to get to Venice from Athens quickly?

Also, how about a Florence/Athens combo featuring trains/ferry?

I need to book my travel right away and have not found a solution yet. Fingers crossed!

Try www.ferries.gr You can take an overnight ferry that usually board late afternoon and dock the next morning. Cabins are available and most are pretty much like a cruise ship with disco,movie theater,small casino, etc. From Florence the coast/port is about 1-1 1/2 hour train ride.

Volare fly to Athens from Venice.

You can probably fly for as much or maybe less.

Two discount airlines -- Alpieagls (www.alpieagles.com) and Volareweb (http://buy.volareweb.com) -- fly Athens-Venice.

Another discount airline -- JETX (http://www.jetx.it) -- flies Pisa-Athens. (There are direct bus and/or train connections to Pisa Airport from downtown Florence.)

Thank you everyone! Alas, Volare and the other airlines mentioned do not have flights available based on my schedule.

However, question for you Kybourbon... do you happen to know which ports I should take the ferries from to best travel from Athens to Venice or from Florence to Athens?

Thanks again!

Several ferry lines travel from Venice (there is a port there) to Greece. The closest port to Florence is Livorno but doesn't have ferries to Greece. You will have to take a train from Florence to Ancona (Eurostar with a change at Bologna 3 1/2 hours) to catch a ferry to Greece. Are you sure you can't fly at least one direction?

I enjoyed my overnight ferry to Greece. I had a cabin and found it very relaxing to be at sea after so much sightseeing.

Beverlina - For Patras-Venice ferries try Minoan Lines:

www.minoan.gr

For ferries to/from Ancona:

www.anek.gr
www.minoan.gr

Hope this helps ...

Steve