Recommendations please. We have driven successfully in Italy, but this time I am worried about getting out of Venice - unless we can exit RIGHT ONTO a major highway. Better place to pick up a car? We almost got a divorce trying to get out of Florence!<BR><BR>With train I get the feeling we will have to make a lot of train changes. We would buy train ticket here, have reserved seats.

The fastest journey time by train is 5hours 34mins with one change (Milan).<BR><BR>Dep. VENICE MESTRE 08.38 <BR>Arr. SML 14.12<BR><BR>Ref. www.trenitalia.it<BR><BR>Hope this helps ...<BR><BR>Steve

P.S. You will pay a very high fee for booking outside Italy. <BR>Book when you get there - one or two days in advance is fine.

Picking up a car at the Venice airport is extremely easy. A few turns out of the rental parking lot (well-marked turns) and you are on the major autostradas.<BR>

IT dosn't make sence to go to the airport to rent a car.Auto rental pickup is available in Piazza Roma.Very easy cross the bridge and you are on the mainland and soon on the Autosrada to your destination.<BR>I recommend auto europe for their full insurance at zero deductible at a resonable price.Beware of low quotes,later you find out that the 20% vat tax is not added as well as the mandatory insurance and other add ons

If you choose to take the train, it is NOT necessary to transfer. You can take the Eurostar directly from Venice SL to Florence SML in 2 hours 50 minutes, or an intercity train which takes about 3 hours and 6 minutes.<BR><BR>There are also routes which begin on interregional trains and connect to Eurostar or intercity trains in Bologna. Those take about 3 and ahlf hours.<BR><BR>trenitalia.com

Ack - typos! That would be Florence *SMN* and three and a *half* hours for the slower trains.<BR><BR>Connecting through Milan obviously takes much longer and most prefer to depart from Venice Santa Lucia rather than Maestre; I'm not sure how Steve came up with that as the quickest way to go.

I think Steve assumed, as I did, that SML was an abbreviation for Santa Margherita Ligure, on the coast south of Genoa. Good information for either case though.

Ah, so perhaps what I interpreted as a typo in the initial post was not! My apologies if I went off on the wrong track....