Is there a direct train from Milan Centrale Station to Rapallo? Do you have to change in Genoa? My daughter and I are on a tight schedule and we have to be in Rapallo the morning after we land in Milan. Thanks in advance.
Audrey

Yep! You can do a search to see the times and connections. I prefer the DieBahn (German) to search as I find it easier to navigate. You'll need the date and time to complete your search.

Go to http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/que...quest=yes&

Enter Milano Centrale as start place and Rapallo as the destination, put in date and time, then search. The "Chg" column shows the trains changes necessary for each option.

If you click the box to the left of the first option and then click "Details for selection," all the intermediate stops will be shown with the times.

Hope this helps.

I checked today's schedule on Trenitalia. If you put in your travel date, you'll get schedules for that specific date.

These are today's DIRECT trains from Milano Centrale to Rapallo (no change in Genova):

7:15 IR, 8:10 IC, 12:10 ICplus; 14:10 ICplus; 16:10 EC; 18:10 IC; 20:10 IC

All trains cost the same except the IR, which is less expensive (plus no seat reservations possible on the IR).

There are also other trains which do require a change in Genova.

www.trenitalia.com

Thanks for your help,I'm a little nervous about getting on the wrong train,as I have not any experience traveling on one.
Audrey

I felt the same way - very anxious - the first time we traveled on European trains.

It's not difficult. You might feel more at ease using the train websites to print up your journey information. I would print up all the stops on the journey. Then, as we traveled I was sure to follow the stops as listed on my printouts and that way was sure not to miss our stop!

Rick Steves offers a lot of help to first time train travelers. Check his website, also his book "Europe through the Back Door" - many helpful train travels suggestions.

Have a great trip!

liver227,

One more idea - use the website to see the platform your trains arrive at and depart from. I think this info is posted online, although it may be listed just several days prior to the trip (and, of course, can change).

I remember once we had a tight connection, maybe 3 or 4 minutes and our train was arriving on platform 1 and the next train departing platform 8. I posted to Fodors and someone gave me exact directions to get from the one platform to the other and that was SO HELPFUL! We made that connection with NO problem! Of course, that was in Germany, where the trains run pretty right on schedule! Not quite the same in Italy - if you have connections in Italy you may want to ensure you have some extra time built into the schedule as trains are notoriously late!