I will be a week in Venice and a week in Italy in the fall; am undecided which city to see first. I am travelling from Boston. But then I would like to spend a week in Cornwall. I would like opinions on the best way to travel from these Italian cities to Cornwall. My first investigations say to fly to London & then take a train.

<<I will be a week in Venice and a week in Italy>>#


Umm, Venice is in Italy, but I assume you mean you will be somewhere else in Italy after Venice?

Perhaps you could clarify where you will be in Italy - the point being that from some places in Italy - like Pisa and Rome - you can fly to Bristol, which is more or less halfway between London and Cornwall. Easyjet no longer offer flights from Venice to BRS.

You should do this the other way around. See what airports in the UK have convenient transportation to where you want to be in the UK, and then look at thee airport websites to see what flights from Italy regularly go there, and what Italian cities they leave from.

www.skyscanner.net is good for what sandralist recommends since you can search really widely. Pull up fares from "Italy" to "United Kingdom" one way for the entire month that you are thinking of heading across, then start narrowing down the best city pairs.

You'd do better starting in Cornwall or Dartmoor, while the weather's relatively good. Then move south as the season changes.

Most flights between London and Venice use Gatwick airport, which is usually over 5 hours (changing at Reading) to Plymouth, the gateway to Cornwall, from where trains take another 2 hrs to Penzance, stopping at most Cornwall railheads en route.

It's about 4 hrs to Plymouth from Heathrow (to which flights from Italy usually cost more than to Gatwick), by bus to Reading station, then changing to a train. There are flights from Italy to London's other four airports, but getting to Reading from them is a nightmare.

It's about 2.5 hrs from Bristol airport to Plymouth, getting a bus from the airport to Bristol Temple Meads station, though the airport gets flights only from Rome, Pisa, Bologna and what Ryanair deceitfully calls "Milan-Bergamo", which is handy for Bergamo but for nowhere else.

The only other airports with easy public transport to Plymouth and onwards to Cornwall are Southampton (changing trains at Reading) and Birmingham (changing trains at Bristol TM), both typically taking about the same time as from Heathrow.

Though flights to Bristol, Birmingham and Southampton usually cost less than to London, all these trains can easily cost more than the flight, and advance booking is essential to keep costs down.

www.nationalrail.co.uk for all-railway connections to Cornwall. www.transportdirect.info for the bus and train combinations, then go to National Rail for price guides and for links to the relevant train operator's booking engine

I forgot.

There are some flights to Newquay (which is actually in Cornwall) from Gatwick, Birmingham and Manchester. Though many of them are seasonal, and might not be running by the time you're travelling, they might give you more flexibility - if the timings work