My husband & I will fly from/to US via Zurich then train to & from Italy (our first Italy trip). The first leg is Zurich to Rome. Any thoughts on whether to wander Zurich for the day and take the night train (is left luggage still available at HB?) or day train for scenery and arrive Rome late night +/- 10pm. Thanks.

Are you gonna be tired when you arrive or will you be ready to walk around all day? I've done this a couple of times; I flew into Helsinki from New York enroute to Copenhagen. I got in at 7:00am and left Helsinki at 6:45pm. I was exhausted and ended up sitting in a bar (one of the few places where you can sit and not be asked to leave). And once I flew into London, arriving at 6:30am and found that my connecting flight to Teheran was delayed until 7:00pm that evening and I decided to wander around London all day. I found it to be a pain in the rear not to have anywhere to go after having flown all night.

I lived in Italy for three years, and I would NOT recommend taking a night train if you can avoid it. I heard too many horrow stories. Besides, you'll miss seeing the countryside.

Snoopy - Thanks very much. We did this in London ourselves and were OK (not great, but OK). We've never trained before, so I'm uneasy about having to change trains enroute - the times between connections seem very short. The day train with the least changes is a very tight connection for us which is why I was considering the night train.

I personally don't like night trains, I just don't sleep well on them for one thing and am not nearly so comfortable as in a real bed. Also I don't enjoy arriving somewhere early in the morning and not being able to get into my hotel room for hours. In addition, you are talking about some of the most beautiful scenery in all of Europe. I think it would be a shame to sleep through it.<BR><BR>I wouldn't worry about the connections -- assuming you are talking about Milan. It looks like you have 15 minutes or more for connections and they really are very easy. You can probably ask the conductor in advance which platform to go to for your connection as well, but it should be very easy.