sam ludu

I’m scheduled to travel to Milan Saturday and take a train from the station to Venice. Has the current rain affected that route, as well as train routes from Venice to Florence? I contacted the Italian Tourism office in New York City and they knew nothing. Same for CIT Tours. I did go to the Weather Channel for weather updates and three-day forecasts. Any information or advice on train travel in the abovementioned areas or on current weather conditions in Verona, Venice, Florence, Orvieto, or Rome would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Kim

I just returned from that area on Saturday (we drove from Venice to Zurich via Milan on Saturday, flew back to States on Sunday). I can give you road conditions as of Saturday. In Venice, the weather has been gray and drizzling, we did not encounter any downpours until we reach Milan (we traveled through Verona, it seemed to be fine), but the roads were not affected. It poured all the way up into Switzerland until we reached the long tunnel. Once through the tunnel, there was sunshine. As for Venice to Florence, that route may be more affected because the Po river has flooded. I am not sure if it is finished cresting or not, but the website for FS (Italian national train system) is www.fs-on-line.com. This should be able to give you a better information if your particular line is affected. I hope this helps! <BR> <BR>Kim

sandi

Also, see the thread "Flooding in Italy".

Paulo

Once my net connection is awfully slow today (actually completely halted for periods over an hour), I wasn't able to sort out today's Italian online news. It appears that the rain has subsided. The water level in the Po river reached 11 meters near Piacenza, the highest in more than 1/2 century!. Of course, even if it's not raining, problems may be expected downriver from Piacenza, today/tomorrow. <BR> <BR>Anyway, as of yesterday, there were train traffic problems only between Piacenza and Milan (Bologna-Milan main trunk). The Milan-Venice piece wasn't affected (and it shouldn't be in the next few days). I don't think the Venice-Bologna trunk will be affected either (the Po water level shouldn't increase dramatically near Ferrara). Should the worst happen, the train traffic would be redirected (e.g., through Verona) with obvious delays but shut down. <BR> <BR>Paulo <BR>

Paulo

I've just read some Italian online news and I learned that the flooding consequences are not over yet. One of the critical points would be exactly the FS bridge over the Po river near Ferrara. At first they thought to prepare it with dinamite to blow it up if necessary. Because of another bridge that is under construction they decided that blowing it up would be too dangerous. One alternative would be to raise the metal structure of the bridge to leave the river bed as free as possible to let the LARGEST water volume rate EVER (13,900 cubic meters/second) to flow as free as possible. The large water wave front was expected some 5 hours ago. No news if they indeed raised the bridge and/or on what happened. If the wave came "clean" (not full of tree logs) the situation would almost certainly be under control. The Venice-Bologna train tracks were closed and traffic redirected (through Verona? would be my guess). If nothing more serious happened/happens, the train traffic should be normalized sometime on Saturday. Let's wait and see what the news are tomorrow morning. <BR> <BR>Paulo <BR>

Paulo

Today's news confirm that the FS rail bridge over the Po near Ferrara has been raised over a meter. The water level under the bridge is raising a couple of centimetres per hour but the situation appears to be under control. As soon as the water level raise under the bridge subsides, it will be lowered to reestablish normal train traffic. No word on when that should happen. Long haul train traffic has indeed been diverted through Verona. Local train traffic has been substituted by a bus service. All Autostrade are open except the A4 and A5 in the flooded area west of Milan. <BR> <BR>Paulo <BR>

sandi

Thanks a million. This is what I was needing. We're going to Verona from Milan, so I think we'll be ok. Once again, thanks for your research.