swalter518

We are staying at the Hotel AI DUE FANALI
Santa Croce, 946 in October. What is the closest train station for travelling out of Venice on a few day trips? Any suggestions? We're thinking about Bologna, Verona and possibly Milan. We're staying in Venice for 7 nights.

PatrickLondon

There's only one train station in Venice, surely?

swalter518

It appears that there is a S. Lucia station and a Mestre station at least according to Trentitalia.

Statia

Santa Lucia is the train station you want, swalter. It is in Venice proper.

Metstre is located in an industrial area on the mainland and is the first stop when leaving Venice.

rex

The Mestre train station is in Mestre - - the town that serves as the "umbilical stump" to the causeway which connects Venice, out in the lagoon, to the mainland. To get TO Mestre from Venice proper, you board at Venice's one and only train station (Santa Lucia), and ride the train across the causeway. This is a requirement to get from Venice to anywhere by train.

In theory, if you were arriving by car, say from Verona or Trieste, you might board at Mestre to head east or west, or north.

Best wishes,

Rex

swalter518

Thanks all. So if Trentitalia lists the train originating from Mestre we would take a local train from S. Lucia to Mestre then board at Mestre. Do the local trains between the two run regularly (like a subway or el) or are they more spaced apart?

rex

P.S. I would not personally "day trip" from Venice to see Milan. That would be a little bit like paying for an expensive hotel room in Beverly Hills to day trip to Fresno.

If you want to see Milan, it makes little sense to spend the extra money for a hotel room in Venice (so much more expensive for lodging than most of the rest of Italy), and then spend six hours on a train that day to see Milan. Relocate to see those other destinations.

Intrepid1

The trains between the two "Venice" stations run at least three of four, sometimes more, times an hour. The trip across the causeway by train takes about 10 minutes or less.

Intrepid1

And by the way...if you really do want to see Milan, and some of the other places, and are willing to spend the money for a Eurostar high-speed train, many of them leave from Santa Lucia so there is no need to change in Maestre.

The one-way trip from Santa Lucia to Milan takes about 2 hrs and 45 minutes.

sandi_travelnut

A day trip to Verona is well worth it.

suze

If your hotel is in Venice proper, then Santa Lucia is the one you'll use. You might want to ask your hotel for directions upon arrival (i.e., vaporetto route number and stop name).

swalter518

It sounds like a day trip to Milan will be too much travel time. We want to base ourselves in Venice for many reasons not to bore you with but we will be staying there all 7 nights. Does anyone have any opinions on a day trip to Bologna? Is the train an option or would a car rental be better?

travelwhenican

Recently spent 10 days in Venice. Did day trips to Ferrara, Verona, Vicenza, Padua and Treviso. I would recomend all of them. Have not been to Bologna, but it is on my short list!

suze

The train ride from Venice to Milan is approx. 3 to 3-1/2 hours each way.

Intrepid1

You can check train schedules either using the Trenitalia (www.trenitalia.om) website or the more comprehensive GermanRail site
http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en

Again, I will reiterate that the Eurostar travel time one way from Santa Lucia to Milan is 2 hrs and 45 minutes.

The train is easy to use in Italy and just to make a daytrip (or two) I would not recommend renting a car.

ira

Hi S,

Bologna is a very nice daytrip from Venice.

See my trip report for more detail.
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34451044

Statia

In addition to Ira's post, I would add that the train would be a much more feasible option to Bologna than renting a car.

HowardR

For day trips, definitely put Verona and Bologna at the top of your list....and travel to both by train.

rex

For those of you who like Bologna, is it not such a "worthy" candidate of overnighting (I realize that this is perhaps irrelevant to swalter, since there is another reason to want to stay there a full 7 nights/days). I have never visited there, let alone overnighted there. In general, I feel conflicted about "day tripping". It beats excessive packing and unpacking, but it misses something also. I have day tripped twice to Verona - - once from Garda, and the other (first, a ctually) time was "en route"... from Venice to Bassano del Grappa.

In general, I am not in favor of staying in an expensive city and day tripping out to a place where I could spend the night much more cheaply... or alternatively, I think that day tripping "en route" actually IS a good use of time. You leave place one - - drive an hour or two, "day trip to the intermediate location - - and then drive onward another hour or two (rather than backtracking to the place you started in the morning). It seems to me to beat, just traveling four hours straight from A to B.

It does leave all your belongings in the car (or left luggage, if traveling by train) while in the "day trip" location, though...

GeoffHamer

If "Swalter518" is staying in Venezia for seven nights, then it seems a good idea to see somewhere else in Italy, and it hardly seems worth bothering to move to a hotel somewhere else for one night. Bologna has a beautiful historic centre and is noted for its cuisine. Verona is also well worth visiting; I was there once in October when the annual grape festival was on. Trains are cheap, frequent and will take you within walking distance of the city centres. Milano is a much bigger city, the financial centre of Italy, so is less appealing for a day trip. One minor advantage of making day trips from Venezia is that most people make day trips to the city, so morning trains into Venezia and evening trains from Venezia are crowded, while trains the other way will not be so busy.