Trenitali's Excelsior Sleeper Trains- Anyone taken before?
 

Any info on the Trenatalia Excelsior Sleeper cabins would be greatly appreciated as their website isn't very helpful and the info # is in Italian. 1). Room for luggage? These are private cabins with bathrooms etc. but I'm expecting it will be small. Will there be room for a large 27" suitcase? 2) How early can you "board". 3) Are there alarm clocks for wake ups? 4) Speaking of sleeping, the trains goes thru several stations throughout the night. Exactly how quiet/loud will this be? Can you actually sleep? I'm bringing earplugs to be safe but wonder if that will even be enough. I just booked tickets on the Excelsior Sleeper cabins on Trenitalia from Toriono (Turin) to Rome. We only have one weekend in Rome so by traveling by night Friday night and returning that Sunday night (both trains leave around midnight and arrive to destination the next am), we save hotel $$ for both "nights"...and more importantly.. the travel time which leaves us 2 FULL days in Rome. Great tip from another thread. Apparently these Excelsiors are fairly new so I'm hoping somebody reading this has traveled on them before. GRAZIE!

you might try looking at the information on www.seat61.com

Hi SRQRobin, I could be wrong but I thought this service had been eliminated.

LoveItaly makes a good point so topping for possible confirmation.

Trenitalia lists two trains, a Euronight leaving at 23:50 and an Espresso leaving at 00:06, from Rome OST to Turin.

Both have 1 cl sleepers.

1) Barely.

2) Almost as soon as the train pulls into the station. Leave yourself 0:30-0:45 hr.

3) No. The sleepr car steward will get you up if you ask.

4) Can you actually sleep? Some people can. It's not the noise, it's the stopping and starting that wakes people up.

Let us know how it turned out.

((I))

The Excelsior domestic stock is not new - but a castoff from the Artesia night trains between Paris and Italy - they were taken off these trains because of a myriad of problems they caused after being billed as luxury accommodations (RailEurope, who books Artesia trains in the US had to at one time sent out a e-mail telling agents NOT to bill these as luxury accommodations in light of the many complaints about them they had received).
So they were thrown off the Artesia trains and put into use on domestic Italian night trains - supposedly refurbished to fix recurring problems such as overflowing toilets. Hopefully the rehab will fix the problems but these are NOT new cars - at least that's my understanding.

Hi PalQ, thanks for the update..no doubt that is what I heard from my friends in Italy. Take care!

Thanks for the info everyone. I'm sure this night train experience will be a big part of my trip report, hopefully full of happy memories (and of course a few tips for "next time").

Have a wonderful trip SRQRobin. And your trip report will be informative for others that wish to take the night train. Wishing you dolce nanna (sweet dreams) and a wonderful weekend in beautiful Rome!

I'm sure the excelsior car problems have been solved and are probably better than any other sleeper cars on Italian trains. the major problem before was the air conditioning breaking down, such as during the infamous heat wave summer of 2003 - some friends who were in excelsior compartments said they could barely stand the heat after the ac didn't work well - and on ac trains windows rarely open any more.