I am having trouble finding a train from Nice (or Avignon) that goes to Rome in less than 23 hours. Am I just missing something here or do we have to fly?

Where are you looking? The http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en shows trips in 9-10hr range.

I am looking on the site you suggest and it comes up as a 25 hour trip leaving Nice at 7:23am & arriving at 9:05 the next morning having changed trains 7 times.

http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/que...&rt=1&OK#focus

From Avignon it takes 23 hours. I can't find the 9 hour trip you see.

Hi Mimmel - You're misreading it. Journey time is 8hrs 52'

Dep: 07.53 Nice
Arr: 16.45 Rome

2 changes (- Ventimiglia and Milano Centrale)

Hope this helps ...

Steve

The quickest and most scenic train is from Nice to Rome Ostiense which goes all along the coast. Have a look at http://www.sbb.ch/en/
It takes 8 hours 37 minutes but leaves at 5.23 in the morning!

If you want to save the cost of a night in a hotel and have more daylight hours for sightseeing, there is also a route that includes a leg on a night train. Leave Nice at 18:24; connect in Monaco, Ventimiglia, and Genova; and arrive in Roma at 05:51. The night train leaves Genova at 23:53 so your sleeping time will be a bit limited.

OK
Nice Ville Th, 01.07.10 dep 07:23 TGV 6854 TGV
Lyon Part Dieu Th, 01.07.10 arr 11:55

Lyon Part Dieu Th, 01.07.10 dep 13:04 RE 96524
Geneve Th, 01.07.10 arr 14:57

Geneve Th, 01.07.10 dep 15:45 4 IC 735
Zürich HB Th, 01.07.10 arr 18:28 12

woops

OK Steve & nochblad,
I was trying to paste in what I am seeing & it is definitely 7:23 to 9:05 the next day. I am entering Nice Ville to Rome. What am I doing wrong?

You can fly non-stop from Nice to Rome in just over an hour. Depending on the date, fare can be cheaper than the train.

I just got a weird response from www.bahn.de on a different query. They must have a bug. Why don't you try www.voyages-sncf.fr? Pretend you're French.

But the plane is a lot quicker.

Mimmel - Use trenitalia instead and you will get the right timetables.

http://trenitalia.com/homepage_en.html

Choose 'Nice City'

Hope this helps ...

Steve

Mimmel,

You are not doing anything wrong and the German Rail site is not malfunctioning either. Trenitalia (Italian National Rail) is the culprit. New timetables will go into effect throughout most of Europe on 13 June and Trenitalia hasn't uploaded theirs to their site yet. (Trenitalia is notorious for doing this at the last minute.) Until Trenitalia does its job, German Rail can't show all possible routes within Italy.

Enter a date no later than 12 June and you'll get complete timetables. In most cases the new timetables should be virtually identical to the current ones.

Everyone - Thank you so much. I feel much better now that I know I am not completely nuts. I find train travel much more relaxing but in this case I booked a flight.