chatenever

We have two home exchanges set up for this July-August. The first is in Formia (one hour south of Rome). The second is in Montpellier. I'm investigating my options of how to get from the Rome to Montpellier, and so far, I don't particularly like any of them. Here's what I think:

By Train: It's too long to do without a stop-over. Genova looks like a reasonable place to stay overnight, however its still a long way from Montpellier. From Genova to Montpellier, it looks like all routes involve 3 or four trains. This appears to make a sleeper car impractical. We're getting a train pass, so I'd prefer the train if its not too tedious. Is it possible that the long trip, if done during the day, might be enjoyable?

By Air: Flights I've found on EasyJet.com take me waaay out of the way to make connections. Don't know if there are other regional carriers that are better.

I'm soliciting your suggestions on how YOU would recommend that we get from our first house to our second.

PalenQ

Or by train hop the night train from Rome to Nice, getting there about 8am and then leisurely go onto Montpellier, saving a night's hotel. www.trenitalia.com for schedules and fares - some online fares can be extremely cheap.

chatenever

Palen -
That looks like a very nice option. I couldn't get to the english version of www.trenitalia because it redirected me to http://www.ferroviedellostato.it/, and there doesn't seem to be an english link there. I found a Rome-Nice night train on www.bahn.de. It shows three trains (EN366,EN367, and EN368). Does this mean two changes of trains, or is it just the route number that changes? Even if we have to change trains, it doesn't look too bad because we get on the third train shortly after midnight.
Thanks for the suggestion.

Dukey

When you try to do a timetable search on the Trenitalia site it will change screens and bring up the EN option.

An alternative would be to fly BluExpress from Rome to somewhere like Nice and take the train from there


http://www.blu-express.com/

Christina

I'm not sure I follow what you want to do with the train. That is a very long trip, so it is going to take a long time, but there are schedules that don't involve 4 trains. There are some night trains, but they take even longer than usual, of course.

YOu could just fly from Rome to Nice or Grenoble/Lyon airport on the cheap Italian airline (blu-express), and the train from there to Montpellier is direct and not that long.

For example, blu-express has a 10-20 euro fare on weekdays from FCO to Nice that arrives at 11:20 am, and then the train to Montpellier is about 4:20 hrs from there. Or, you could fly to Grenoble/Lyons airport for 10 euro on that airline weekdays, arriving 11:55 am, and there are several nonstop trains from Lyon to Montpellier after that, and it's only about 2 hrs from there. I'm sure those airfares are probably not the bottom line, there are taxes, but it's an alternative if you don't want to take the train the entire way.

DOn't expect a flight from Rome to Montpellier cheap on any airline. Aside from blu-express which operates out of FCO, easyjet seems to fly out of Rome CIA to Lyon for only around 20 euro base, why do you think that is such a bad route? It's a direct flight of about 1:40 . Then you could take the train from Lyon for a couple hours. I'm sure you'd have to get from the airport to TGV station, but still, doesn't seem that bad.

PalenQ

EN 366, EN 367 En368 are all the same train - no change and i can't quite determine why it has three codes, unless they add cars onto the train in say Florence and those cars may have a separate EN # - but there's only one train, leaving Rome at 21:16 arriving Nice at 9:45am. Train is called the Monte Carlo and has 4-berth couchettes and sleeper car with singles, double and triples.

Well reading my Cook's timetable further the Venice-Nice night train is called 368 (as well as 358, 359) so these trains no doubt join someplace, such as Genoa most likely.

trenitalia.com can be finicky so ask questions of Fodor trenitalia.com experts, of which i am NOT one but worth pursuing to save big bucks often.

ira

Hi cha,

The english language site is http://www.trenitalia.com/en/index.html

Unfortunately, you can't buy tickets for that train on line.

I also tried www.voyages-sncf.com (the French rail line) and they won't sell the tickets online either.

You coould buy your tickets when you get to Rome, or try BETS at 800-441-9413 or 800-441-2387
9am-5pm Eastern Time
Monday-Friday

They have been recommended by many people here.