A luxury rail holiday to Italy is a justifiably popular and enjoyable experience. There are several ways to reach Italy by train and there are several types of holiday that we can arrange for you whilst you’re in Italy, using a train for all the travel or part of the time. If you want to travel on day-time times from London to Italy, you need to spend at least one night in Paris or somewhere along the way. Lausanne, Zurich and Lucerne are popular overnight stops in Switzerland as you can reach these cities the same day from London. Then, you travel south through the Alps into Italy the next day.
An alternative is to take the sleeper train from Brussels to points in Italy including Como San Giovanni and Milan Porta Garibaldi. This service generally leaves Brussels Midi at about 19.00 hrs and reaches Milan at 11.40 the next morning. Once in Italy we can arrange train travel from place to place, usually the major cities, for example Venice, Florence and Rome, or, depending on the location of your holiday in Italy, we would advise that you have a hire-car for the duration of your stay, for example, if you wanted to take the train to Italy and stay in the countryside for a week.
Expressions Holidays offers a selection of suggested touring holidays by train to Italy, rail-drive holidays to Italy and rail holidays within Italy including flights there and back. These suggested itineraries can be booked exactly as they are, or you can ask us to adapt them in any way, with us tailoring your rail holiday according to your needs, navigating through the options to select the most convenient trains and most appropriate hotels. We offer a wide range of hotels in Italy, from charming boutique hotels to luxurious grand hotels, in the countryside, on the lakes, by the coast and in the Italian cities. Rail holidays to Italy can also combine and involve special interests and activities. You can take the train to Italy for a Verona opera break, or you can take the train to and from Italy and stay in Umbria for one of our cookery holidays. Just find the special interest holiday you’re interested in and we will tailor the travel arrangements for you to include rail travel.
Rail touring holidays to Italy
Rail travel to Italy is an increasingly popular option for a touring holiday to Italy. The most popular option is to travel to Paris on the Eurostar and then travel by fast TGV-Lyria train to Switzerland where you spend a night (Lausanne, Zurich or Lucerne are ideal places) and then the next day enjoy a scenic day-time journey over the Alps to Italy on a fast service to Milan, where you change for onward travel to your destination. This can be done in both directions, taking different routes. Another option is to take a day-time TGV from Paris to Turin or Milan, but without spending a night in Paris beforehand you can only get as far as Turin or Milan in one day. For a special occasion or for a leisurely, nostalgic rail journey, we offer the Venice Simplon-Orient Express from Paris to Venice or vice versa. In 2026 a new sleeper service was launched from Brussels Midi to Como San Giovanni and Milan Porta Garibaldi in Italy. The service leaves Brussels about 19.00 hrs and arrives in Milan at 11.40 hrs the next morning.
Rail-drive touring holidays of Italy
A rail-drive touring holiday to Italy is a rewarding way to combine the experience of a rail journey from London to Italy, perhaps with stops along the way, with a chance to explore countryside regions in Italy that lend themselves more to car travel than train travel. Typical examples of this are a rail-drive holiday to Tuscany, where you take the train from London to Paris, Paris to Milan, Milan to Florence, then collect your hire-car, perhaps after a short stay in Florence itself, to tour Tuscany, staying in three of four different places which might be the Chianti region, San Gimignano, Montalcino and the Maremma. You return by train, the same way or a different way.
Rail touring holidays within Italy
If you don’t want the train journey from London to Italy, either day-time with stops or overnight from Paris, then you can fly to Italy and then continue by train. Many clients combine stays in various Italian cities, travelling by train in between, for example Venice, Florence and Rome and then flying home.
Our hotels in Italy
All the luxury hotels that are featured by Expressions Holidays have been selected to provide high standards of comfort, service and cuisine. Our hotels are renowned for their charm and character, quality of surroundings and service whilst providing rest and relaxation amid an atmosphere of luxury and style.
Special interest holidays by rail
Our special interest holidays, such as opera breaks, cookery holidays, wine appreciation and garden holidays, can include rail travel instead of flights.
Train information
Eurostar offers almost hourly departures every day, with an average journey time from London St Pancras to Paris of 2 hours and 18 minutes. The Eurostar trains have 8 coaches which are split into Eurostar Standard, Eurostar Plus and Eurostar Premier as well as two cafeterias. Eurostar Plus customers are served a light cold meal and enjoy a more spacious environment than Standard, while Eurostar Premier customers receive a hot meal and unlimited beverages as well as lounge access. Lounge access is only possible with the Premier class but this service is typically aimed at Business travellers. TGV-Lyria trains are high-speed trains that run between Paris and Switzerland, reaching Zurich in about 4 hours, Lausanne in 3 hours 40 minutes and Geneva in just over 3 hours. There is a choice between Standard Class and First Class. EuroCity trains are operated jointly by Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) and Italian Railways (Trenitalia) and run between Swiss major cities and Milan, with extensions to Verona and Venice. The trains have first and second class and a restaurant car. The sleeper service is operated by the European Sleeper and has a choice of accommodation on board. Expressions clients are booked in the Comfort Plus sleeping car which is the top tier service. It has up to three beds and an en-suite washbasin. We book the cabin for your sole occupancy. There are no private WCs or showers in any category on this train.
Our rail holidays to Italy include
● Travel arrangements with trains as required● Sample touring itineraries to book as they are or adapt
● Flexible durations and multi-centre stays
● Accommodation in personally-selected 4-or 5-star hotels
● Additional travel arrangements such as flights, transfers, car-hire to combine with rail travel
● Combinations with special interests
● Overnight stops en-route to Italy
Included in all our holidays
● Concierge service● Handcrafted helpful hints and local information provided with all our holidays
● Personal service by your sales consultant who looks after all aspects of your holiday
● Financial protection with our ATOL (3076) for all holidays including a flight and AFPS (6104) for all non-air holidays
