Ok, go easy on me please-newbie here! My sister and I are planning a 7 day trip to Italy on a fairly tight budget (if this is even possible in Europe). We have rented an apartment in Milan near a metro to use as a home base and are planning on taking day trips by train to Florence, Venice, Bellagio and Portofino (by way of Santa Margherita?). I have checked the train schedules and it all seems realistic but I'm not a very experienced traveler so I wanted to get some feedback.
It also seems a Eurail pass is easier but maybe a little more expensive then point to point tickets? Also, I'm confused about Eurail and Eurostar?? Help please!!
Thank you!!!!!

"We have rented an apartment in Milan near a metro to use as a home base and are planning on taking day trips by train to Florence, Venice, Bellagio and Portofino"

Crazy, yes. Sorry.

Hmmm ! That hardly seems feaible to spend 6 hours in a train for a day trip. from Milano here is my list of day trips:
Bellagio
Stresa
Bergamo
Lugano
Genoa
Torino
Verona
That will keep you very busy.

just buy tickets at the train staion....it's not complicated at all ;-) and the Eurail passes just never mork out cheaper in italy. (and yes, you have to buy supplements for some trains anyway with Eurail)

I have to say it sounds crazy to me, too.

You will spend your whole visit on the train. Venice and Florence, for example, are 3 hours away by car (most certainly more by train), and so you will spend most of your time travelling back and forth.

How about sticking to some places no more than an hour away (Bellagio on the outside), and taking fewer trips. Maybe Lugano or Como. Or pick one of (Florence, Venice) and take an overnight trip.

Eurostar is the high speed international train. Eurail is a ticket system that you can use to ride Eurostar and other train systems.

Eurrail passes are usually only cost effective if you want to travel long distances every day, which I admit you look like you want to do. It is not so hard to get point-to-point tickets, and you would probably save money.

To answer your question, I doubt any kind of pass would make this cheaper than buying point-to-point tickets. You can buy all your tickets for all the different trips at the same time, if that seems easier to you. Eurail is a ticket seller. Eurostar is a type of high-speed train service.

BUT

Here are the travel times one way:

Milan to Venice (2hr 30mins to 3 hr one way)

Milan to Florence (2hr 45mins one way)

Milan to Bellagio (1hr to Varenna + 15mins ferry to Bellagio one way)

Milan to Portofino (2hr 45mins one way)

And these times don't include the time you will spend getting to and from the train stations in each city. For Venice, Florence, and Portofino, you will spend at least 7 hours travel there and back for how long a visit?

All this train time does not seem like much of a vacation. If you think by staying in one place and renting an apartment that you will be saving money, you won't with all these lengthy trips. You will be losing an incredible amount of enjoyable vacation time on trains and train stations. Better to relocate to one of these other locations and invest all that train ticket money in an inexpensive hotel.

I've done a day trip to Venice from Milan via train, said trip taking place one summer when I was in college and living in Milan. I traveled with an Italian friend.

It's do-able, but I wouldn't plan more than one trip this long and would, instead, take advantage of the many cool destinations in easy reach of Milan by train.

Yep, crazy and not at all enjoyable. What will you see by the time you leave the station areas, then get back to the station areas? And some of these stations are not a day at the beach, IMO.

Bobthenavigator has given you a very nice list of possible day trips. I would remove at least one or two. Again, IMO you can do without going to Genoa.

Can you get out of this apartment?

Crazy, yes.

Also consider that trains do not run very late at night. The last train Venice-Milan leaves at 8:03 pm, requires a change and takes almost 4 hours.

Wow! You guys are fast! Thank you all so much! I'm going to sit down with my sister and review your suggestions and come up with a better plan. This is exactly what I needed- advice from experienced, sane travelers!!!
Thank you!

I would stick more to the area you're in and save Venice and Florence for another trip. We took the train from Milan to Lake Como and it was easy. I would highly recommend that area. If you can stay a night that would be best. I haven't been to Verona, but I have heard that is nice also

I suppose you are locked into that apartment in Milan. But if not, I would consider renting in Bologna, which would be in the middle of much of what you want to see -- it would cut the train travel in half to Florence and Venice.

I would skip Portofino for now.

Gennvieve,

I recommend purchasing point-to-point train tickets and staying overnight in places like Milan, Venice, and Florence. That eliminates the backtracking.

I do not know where you live, but from the U.S. to Europe, the jet lag alone is a killer on the first day for me.

Have a great trip!

Thanks again all. I hadn't considered the jet lag factor-just assumed we would drink lots of expresso and keep chugging along...
We'll probably skip Portofino and Florence and do an overnight in Venice since we both have our hearts set on seeing Venice. We are locked into our apartment stay.

Hello Gennvieve, where are you flying from and will you be landing at the Malpensa Airport (north of Milan)?

I dont get it - why hasn't anyone mentioned spending the 7 days IN (yes IN!) Milan? Or perhaps at least 5 of them with 2 daytrips.

Milan is beauitful, cultural, walkable, sitable, night-life-able, shopable, etc...

I only spent 2 days in Milano and certainly could have used a week.

Get the most for your money Gennvieve, use that apartment as homebase for mainly Milan, but add in Torino & either Bergamo or Bellagio. (I do love Verona as well.

I'm flying in from SC to Malpensa.

We had originally considered just Milan but it's like a kid in a candy shop- how can we resist? We don't often get to Italy so we were trying to cram it all in. Thanks again for all the suggestions!

From my experience, daytrips should involve no more than 2 hours transportation in each direction to be most enjoyable. You'll find plenty to do in Milan and also have a number of diverse and interesting places to consider within that time frame. I second Bellagio, Torino, Bergamo, all different from one another and reached by frequent transportation.

I would spend 2 days in Santa Margherita and visit Portofino and CT, 3 days in Florence, 2 in Venice. You could fly into Pisa and out of Venice. This too is busy but it makes more sense than the original plan.
Nothing beats walking around in Florence and Venice in the evening and seeing them lit up at night.

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Well since Gennvieve has the apartment and her airline tickets staying other places does not make any sense..except for an overnight in Venice. Gennvieve, it is about 3 hours from Milan Centrale Station to Venice. Leave early one morningn and yes bite the bullet and stay overnight in Venice and come back late the next afternoon. You will be paying for two places for one night but so what as you will be able to visit Venice which you two want to do.

I am one btw, that happens to love Milan.

You can buy your train tickets at the Centrale Station. Be sure you stamp your tickets at the little yellow box before getting on the train.

Bobthenavigator who always has wonderful suggestions for travellers in Italy posted on 1/31/08 at 10:06am. Be sure to review his post for other ideas.

You will have a wonderful trip..nothing to feel unhappy about at all Gennvieve. In fact having an apartment instead of checking in and out of hotels constantly is certainly more relaxing.