Hi-- I just answered a post for Diego73 asking below and I lost it, and his post. Here is what I said:

We will arrive from USA to Milan's Malpensa airport at 10:30 AM on 9 August'08. We thougth it best to grab train to Venice rather than to sleep in Milan then take day trip to Lake Como next day. (Will now do on back end of trip when we fly again from Malpensa). The 3 hour Milan to Venice trip will give some rest from jet lag.

Went to www.trenitalia.it, put in all info. and saw, "Nessuna soluzione trovata", meaning, no solution was found. Am I doing this too early? Thought I could see listing of all train times for Venice departures and pick best time.

I want to get ticket(download it) way before trip so I know they are in hand. Maybe can only get two months before? Not getting to Venice that that day will mess up whole trip! Thank you.

Ciaodeb~ Why to you keep putting *** and ### in the titles of all your posts?

Hi Suze, I do it so it is easy with my vision to see my post when scrolling fast downward. I see others with various symbols before the title too. I do not mean to offend anyone by it.

enough already with the ***

Oh sorry, I see on another thread you already explained your reasons.

I'm not offended but if everyone did it, no one could find their own posts any easier!


The best way is to simply click on your own author name, up on the screen where where you log in. This will bring up a list of only the threads you started or have participated in.

You couldn't get the schedule because August is too far into the future. The Trenitalia site only gives info and booking possibilities for the next 60 days. At this point you can only book for up to the first week in April.

If you want to check schedules, just use fake dates. For example, you want to travel on 9 August 08, which is a Friday. Use a fake travel date of 8 February o8, whcih is also a Friday, and you will get schedules and prices.

The schedules and prices shouldn't change much if at all between then and now.

Ellenem + Suze--you both know so much about this area of Italy, I am amazed. You each answer so many listings which I have read and I thank you both.

Ellenem, good idea so I wrote from Milano to Venezia and BINGO, got schedule BUT, Mestre was the destination, not Venezia! Now, I know this train goes to Venice, maybe it is under a different name? Maybe under the train station name? I just need to see how many trains run in time I am thinking of taking it. I know I can get a ticket when I arrive, I may also want to download it before I leave to save time. Also, what is station name in Milano?

Mestre station is on the mainland, the last stop before Venice Santa Lucia station, on the island. Sometimes you have to make a change in Mestre ... but there are frequent trains between S. Lucia and Mestre so you won't have to wait long.

The Milano station is called Centrale Stazione (can you guess what it means?)

http://www.trenitalia.com/en/index.html

You will leave from Milano Centrale (the main train station in Milan). I'm assuming you'll be staying in Venice proper (the islands vs. mainland) and so you want to go to "VE. S.L." -- the "Santa Lucia" stop. "Mestre" is the stop for Venice on the mainland. Be aware when deciding which train to take that most, (but not ALL) trains go as far as Santa Lucia.

Thank you, JBX, very informative and will record that.

Capxx, Thank you too, I know about Mestre and-- parlo l'italiano--name is way basic, thought it would be more formal.

You're most welcome. I've only been to Italy twice, honestly. Both times I stayed in Venice for 5 days. That's the limit of my personal experiences.

I just happen to remember things from my limited trips... like the length of the train ride Venice to Milan, or that fact that I bought train tickets after I arrived and had not done it from home online and that worked out fine.

Wishing you safe & happy travels.

Suze- thanks for your good wishes, you're the first to say so six months in advance! Since you have been to Venice and know it well, may I ask you a couple of questions?

1- Seems from website of trenitalia that it is possible to take a train RIGHT from Malpensa Airport to Venice. Is this a direct, high speed train or a slower local? Perhaps we have to change somewhere for the high speed one?

2- I read somewhere today (forget where) there is a shuttle (assume bus) from Malpensa to Milano. How many minutes might that take and where does it bring you in Milano?

Just trying to plan, when we arrive do we go to Milano Centrale Stazione for Venice train, can we avoid going into Milano and take from airport or least popular, sleep in Milano and take early train to Venice? We just think it would be great to arrive and within hours, get on a fast moving train for 3 hours to Venice, sleep off some jet lag in the going!! Thanks so much! -Debbie

OH-- how did you get the smily into your last post? Also, now know about clicking on my screen name to see all my threads and posts I replied to. Someone mentioned that earlier as well.

This train ride last summer was horendus! One broken train after another! It took several hours,and was very difficult. My suggestion is hire a car service or rent a car.

Any listing on Trenitalia from Malpensa to Venice involves either a bus or train to a metro connection, changing to the metro to Milan Centrale to catch the train to Venice. That's too many changes. Just take the bus from the airport to Centrale.

Allow time to get your luggage (1 hour?)and bus to Centrale (about an hour).

Hello ciaodeb, to get from Malpensa Airport to the Central Station in Milan where you will take the train to Venice here is the website for the Malpensa Shuttle that goes back and forth from Malpensa to the Cental Station in Milan.

http://www.malpensashuttle.it/e-default.htm

For the website for the trains in Italy here is the English version of the website.http://www.trenitalia.com/en/index.html

If the train only goes to Mestre in the mainland of Venice you can change trains and within a few minutes a train will come along that will take you to the Santa Lucia Train in Venice proper..about a ten minute or so train ride.

LoveItaly- thank you for that!!!

Is ANYONE familiar with the train codes category codes on www.trenitalia site? They correlate to Length of Journey. I looked under DETAIL and could not find here, or anywhere, if train makes stops or not. Are they all direct? Then why discrepancies in ride durations from 2h 20m to longest ride of 3hr 4 min? Where on this site does it show express, direct trains vs. local, making stops?

Any thoughts are appreciated.

You can also use the Deutsche Bahn website to checkout the Italian trains. I spent 1 month in Italy and only used the German website which is very accurate.

There are trains leaving every hour from Milan Central to Santa Lucia station.

1105 - 1410 - 0 stops
3 hours 5 mins. NO STOPS IC

1155 - 1435 - O stops
2 hours 35 mins. NO STOPS EC

The length of the ride depends on the type of the train.

EC is faster than the IC
ES (you need reservation for seat) is the fastest but not always the quickest as it might have a stop and connection to a slower train.

Go for the NO STOP trains/

http://bahn.hafas.de/bin/query.exe/en

Does this help?

Okay -- so you looked under the column heading "Info" and clicked on "details"? To then find out the location/number of stops, you need to look under the column heading "Train" -- click on link (it'll be a number for that train(s)) and that should pull up a list of arrival/departure stops.

FOR EXAMPLE . . .
I just keyed in "Milano Centrale" to "Venezia" on 3/5 starting at 11:00 am. From that list, I selected the train which leaves Milan at 11:55 am -- I'd describe it as "direct" route (meaning you don't need to change trains), however it does make the following stops >>>

-- Milano Centrale
-- Brescia
-- Verona Porta Nuova
-- Vicenza
-- Padova
-- VE Mestre
-- Venezia S. Lucia

The entire trip between Milan-Venice takes 2 hrs, 30 minutes, so each of the stops is only a short duration -- basically just allowing folks to get off/on.

I don't think there's a completely "non stop" train on Milan-Venice route. At the very least, even on the Eurostar route (usually your best choice), it makes a brief stop in Padova . . . literally scheduled for 2 minutes (let passengers on/off).

There's the '9403' ES that leaves at 13:55 (1:55 pm) and arrives into Venice at 16:15 (4:15 pm) .... and it only has that quick stop in Padova (Padua).

And yes, I find it best to land and continue traveling to one's final destination. You'll be jet-lagged, so you may as well be in a stupor while traveling on the train from Milan to Venice. The better thing of train travel vs. airplane is less confinement and ability to get up & walk around, so you can stretch your legs.

Sorry, I didn't mean NO STOPS I meant no train changes.

I'm getting old.