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Rain travel from Florence to Milan
We are considering this trip for 2024, because it includes Milan, Como lake district and Venice. It's been 50 years sinceI traveled to northern Italy, particularly Florence. Has anyone had experience with flying into Florence for 3 nights, traveling to Milan by train, in advance of the this excursion. I also feel a need to arrive in Milan at least a day or so before the welcome dinner. That way, we can book the Last Supper and other venues that Tauck doesn't cover. This sounds like a good foodie tour since it includes Bologna and Modena.
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While I do not have specific experience with this train itinerary, we have used the high speed train on other routes in Italy. You can buy your tickets on line in advance, and I recommend buying a first class seat. There are two main train systems in Italy, Italo or Trenitalia. I highly recommend a website called "The Man in Seat 61" which you can google. He explains everything about train travel in Europe. For Trenitalia, I believe you can buy a ticket up to 120 days in advance, and the sooner you buy, the more likely you will get the discounted seats. There are also helpful videos on Youtube that will orient you to various train stations The only problem (for me!) with train travel is the lugging of the luggage up the steps of the train, and (hopefully) finding a spot to put our larger-than-carry-on size suitcases. We have not always found the luggage racks in First Class that are supposed to be there. Train personnel is not always available to give a hand, although usually there are very nice fellow travelers who are more than willing to help if necessary. On one of our journeys we did travel from Montreux to Milano, and Tauck did pick us up from Milano Centrale, so no worries about that part of it. By the way Firenze SMN is a vast train station, so allow yourself plenty of time.
Regarding Modena, there are no overnights there, so you would have to get yourself there from Bologna, which is about an hour by car as I recall.
It's a really nice tour.
romanskier: I just purchased train tickets in France. Look on the website Trainline.com. I just looked for you and you can purchase tickets online from Florence to Milan. I printed my first class tickets and also used the app and kept a photo of my ticket. It was easy. You pick the number of your train-car and the seat is also reserved. I'm not concerned about dragging my 24" suitcase up the stairs in the train. I have done that once before and it is very labor intensive since the stairwell in trains are quite narrow. We will leave them down below on the designated luggage racks where larger sized luggage is usually stored. I have done that as well without any problem. I have used airtags in my luggage several times so if, by chance, my luggage is moved, my phone will alert me. Good luck. Here is the link.
https://www.thetrainline.com/en-us
We will leave them down below on the designated luggage racks where larger sized luggage is usually stored. I have done that as well without any problem.
Our Travels34, I am not familiar with this type of luggage location on Italian high speed trains. Perhaps you can provide a photo or other link? I am not sure that there are any other options besides hoisting your own suitcase up the steep, narrow stairs, but I would certainly love it if it were true!
****To romanskier and others: We have just booked this trip for October 11, 2023. It was a last minute decision and we decided not to wait for next year. The good side is that the weather will be cooler and the crowds will be somewhat smaller. The bad news is that due to the Bienniale festival the Tauck group is not staying at the Gritti Palace in Venice. We've been to Venice before but have not visited the Lake regions so we are looking forward to this trip. It will be our 12th Tauck trip
We flew into Florence last month. We had a driver to take us to Tuscany. But, then we took a train from Perugia to Florence and then on to Milan. We used TrenItalia's web site. Be sure to check for scheduled 24 hour transportation strikes. I think they post them about a month ahead. To avoid the May 26th strike we went to Milan a day early. Yes - do go to Milan a few days early - there is much to do - in addition to The Last Supper The Ambrosiana , Pezzoli, and Duomo museums are great and it's fun to go through the museums at the Sforza Castle. Wjhile we've been on the roof of the Duomo before and were planning to do so again, there appeared to be a lot of construction going on the roof so we didn't do so this time. Instead we did day trips to towns like Cremona and Brescia which are a short train ride away. .You should have a great time!