HONEYMOOM .. CAR VS TRAIN
 

Hello,

My wife and I are traveling to Italy for a med cruise that ports from Rome, but before we do that we arriving in Milan 7 days before we take the cruise. We are going to visit some family that we have there but are confused on weather to take a car or train. We want to make a few stop while traveling but we don't want to have to take our luggage out of the train and carry around with us. Does anyone know if the train does something with your luggage if you are just stopping somewhere for a few hours ? We are going from Milan to venice then to foggia, then to bari then to salerno.. We thought about a car because we can do what we want and stop where we want but the cost of a car and train is definetly more .. any suggestions ??

The train does nothing with your luggage. It is your to haul on the train, put in overhead bins ro racks at the end and then remove when you get off. Some stations may have places youcan check luggage - I honestly don't know - others may be able to give yuo specifics.

If you have only 7 days before the cruise (and when will you see Rome?) - visiting Milan,Venice, Foggia, Bari and Salerno is going to be VERY rushed.

You'll have to navigate the Trenitalia website to find out which stations have lockers or left luggage services. Not all do. But no train or anyone on it is going to assist with your luggage.

I agree that no matter whether you travel by train or car, you've got quite an expedition set out for you before you get to Rome.

The luggage issue would be likely to be with you whether taking a train or a car depending on where you are staying. You need to rent a sufficiently large car for your luggage that remain hidden from the sight while parked away from hotel with luggage for security. Depending on where you are staying, you can get closer to your accommodation by train+taxi than dragging your luggage through cobble stone streets from a parking lot which are not always near your accommodation. Some places let you drop luggage before parking while other places you cannot get anywhere close to your accommodations with your car. You should look at all relevant factors besides the cost before making car/train decision.

Hey CV,

>... arriving in Milan 7 days before we take the cruise.We are going from Milan to venice then to foggia, then to bari then to salerno.<
and then to Rome.

This is not a vacation. It is a forced march.

In 7 days you could visit family in Milan, spend a couple of days in Venice and a couple in Rome before embarking from Civitavecchia.

((I))

Where exactly is the family you want to visit? If you have no family to visit in one or more of the cities you list, then drop those cities. You really don't have time to cover this many miles AND visit family whether you're going by train or car.

You can see how long the train journeys are here:

http://www.fsitaliane.it/homepage_en.html

And the drive times and estimates of tolls and petrol costs here:

http://www.viamichelin.com

Don't forget: you don't want a car in Venice -- the streets are full of water, so you have to park out of town and pay huge parking rates. I don't know about the other three places, but my suspicion is they have no-drive zones (ZTL or zone of traffic limitation) so you have to park your car outside the zone and pay high parking fees.

If you want to stop somewhere in a town, the train will not wait. they usually only stop for 5 minutes, or even less. I don't know how you would be able to visit those other towns anyway, with the short time you have available. The trip all the way down to Foggia and Bari is VERY long by car.