Eurail Times
Is it possible to see Rome, Venice, Italy, and France in 1 week?
My wife and I are looking into spending a week in Rome. While there we would like to take a train to Venice, Milan, and also Paris. We plan on purchasing a Eurail train pass and spending a day in each city. Our hotel is in Rome so we plan to travel to each city in the morning and return that night. Does anyone know if this trip would be possible based on travel times to each location or should I eliminate a location? Also, is a Eurail pass the best way to go with a trip like this?
You really can’t do a day trip to France from Rome – the travel times here are too long. Rome to Nice is 8 and a half hours on the fastest train and Rome to Paris is 14 hr or more. You can check specific schedules and prices on the Italian train website: http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=ad1ce14114bc9110VgnVCM10000080a3e90aRCRD . Even Venice is not very practical as a day trip from Rome. It’s a 4 and a half hour ride on the train each way. If you really want to go to Venice, you could take the night train and sleep on the train through the night each way, but if you do that, you’d be better off getting a hotel there and spending a couple of days before going back to Rome.
Rome itself is easily worth spending four days exploring. Day trips that are more practical from Rome include Florence (1 hr 40 min), Naples (1 hr 21 min), Pompeii (same as Naples, then another 20 min on the Circumvesuviana train), Orvieto (1 hr to 1 hr 20 min), Tivoli (30 min to 1 hr depending on the train), and Perugia (2 hr 30 min to 3 hr).
A Eurail pass isn’t a good deal for just taking a few day trips from Rome – you would be much better off just buying individual tickets. This is especially true if you have a travel plan and buy tickets for the high speed trains in advance to take advantage of discounts. With the Eurail pass, you still have to make reservations and pay the additional fee unless you’re on the regional trains.