A friend and I are taking advantage of the use of visiting friends in both Trieste and Lucerne for 10 days travel. We are looking at doing most of travel on the rails, but figured we might be able to do a couple of day trips between the two locations. I see that we can do Venice and we can try and do Slovenia/Croatia for a few days. Is it really doable to fit so much in just 10 days with traveling on the rail system?

You cannot take the rail to Slovenia/Croatia from Trieste. That would be a bus ride. Venice is easy to reach by rail from Trieste. I think you could squeeze in a side trip to Venice but don't add too much more. 10 days is not a lot of time in Europe.

Thank you for the the travel advice P_M!

P-M- you mean the Trieste to Llubjiana direct trains have been scrubbed? and those to Zagreb from Trieste/Llubjiana as well?

Trenitalia only lists a night train from Trieste to Ljubljana (Italian spelling ? on Trenitalia) which departs at 22:21 and requires a change of trains arriving at 1:41 am.

bahn.de shows 3 rail links daily but with one section by bus - Trieste to Gorizia Centrale (Italy) then tranfser 'by bus or taxi' 40 mins to Nova Gorica - border town of Slovenia -thence by train to Ljubljana- whole trips takes between 5.5 hrs and 4.5 hrs

Best or fastest leaves Trieste 12:26 - takes 4 h 38 min to Ljubljana

There were traditionally direct trains Trieste to Ljubljana until recently but apparently Italy has decided to discontinue direct international trains in many cases so the Italian system will take you only to the border where you must change

The bus link Gorizia Centrale to Nova Goricia could be due to railway rebuilding perhaps or maybe the bus link is permanent and another purposefull stumbling block to international train travel from Italy to neighboring countries.

Anyway there is regular links by rail-bus-rail or perhaps more conveniently all by bus

I was referring to going into Croatia from Trieste. I was looking into this myself but I didn't think of Ljubliana first and then Croatia. Thank you for setting the record straight.

I still think the OP should stick with Venice and save Slovenia and Croatia for another trip. 10 days is isn't much time.

>The bus link Gorizia Centrale to Nova Goricia could be due to railway rebuilding perhaps or maybe the bus link is permanent and another purposefull stumbling block to international train travel from Italy to neighboring countries.

I have been to Gorizia last year. It is a separated city, kind of mini-version of cold war Berlin. The city center is in Italy but the eastern suburbs are Slovenian. There is no rail line over the border - an Italian terminal station and a Slovenian station about 2 km away. If you don't have too much luggage it is about 25-30 min walk between the stations.

I have a question - how severe are the boras in Trieste? Are they worse during a certain part of the year?

I was in Trieste one September day and the winds were ferocious - there was a yacht derby going on and they were really sailing - think it got postponed after a bit.

altamiro - for years there were direct EC trains between Trieste and Llujbjana - i gather they must have take a different route. And i wonder why they were scrapped, apparently.

Seasonal ferry service between Trieste and Parenzo/Porec, Rovigno/Rovinj (Croatia), Portorose/Portoroz (Slovenia).

http://www.usticalines.it/orari_tariffe.php?lingua=E