Italy by train - the complete guide to planning your rail holiday
Published 11 June 2026
The complete guide to planning your rail holiday
The idea of travelling to Italy by train is one that appeals to almost everyone who hears it. The reality — the Eurostar from St Pancras, the descent through the Alps, the arrival into Venice or Florence or Rome without a transfer queue or a distant airport in sight — is even better than the idea. We have been arranging rail holidays to Italy at Expressions Holidays for over 35 years, and we arrange more of them every year.
What we have also learned is that Italy by train means something different to different travellers. Some want the full overland journey from London, including an overnight stop in Switzerland. Some want to fly to Italy and travel between cities by train once they are there. Some want to combine a rail journey with a hire-car so they can reach the countryside. Some want the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express. This guide explains every option clearly and connects each to the holidays we can arrange around it.
A rail holiday to Italy is not simply a more sustainable alternative to flying. It is a different experience from the moment you leave London — one that begins with the journey rather than ending the journey before the holiday starts.
Getting to Italy by train from London — the routes explained
There are two main ways to reach Italy by train from London, and each produces a different journey. Understanding the differences is the starting point for planning any Italian rail holiday.
The first option — and the one we recommend most often for clients who want a scenic, daytime experience — is to travel by Eurostar from London St Pancras to Paris, then by high-speed TGV-Lyria train to Lausanne, Zurich or Lucerne in Switzerland, spending a night there, and continuing south through the Alps the following day on a EuroCity service to Milan, from where onward trains connect to every Italian destination. The Swiss overnight stop is not merely a logistical necessity: Lausanne, Zurich and Lucerne are among the most handsome cities in Europe, and a night in any of them makes the journey to Italy feel like a two-destination trip rather than a transit.
The second option is to take a daytime TGV from Paris to Turin or Milan. Without an overnight in Paris this allows you to reach Turin or Milan in a single day from London, but does not allow time to travel further south on the same day.
There is also the possibility of taking the Eurostar to Brussels and then the overnight sleeper to Munich. You continue by day-time train through the Brenner Pass into Italy and the obvious stop is at Verona. From here you can travel east to Venice, south to Bologna or west to Lake Garda and then Milan.
For a special occasion, or for clients who want the experience of the journey as the centrepiece of the trip rather than the means to an end, we also offer the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express from London to Venice — one of the great train journeys in the world, and one that deserves its reputation entirely.
Explore: Rail holidays to Italy
The Swiss Alpine crossing — why it is worth treating as part of the holiday
The rail journey from Switzerland into Italy through the Alps is one of the finest train journeys in Europe. The route south from Zurich or Lucerne to Milan passes through the St Gotthard massif — either through the Gotthard Base Tunnel or the older scenic route above it — with mountain landscapes of an entirely different character from anything visible from an aircraft window at 35,000 feet.
For clients with more time, we incorporate the Bernina Express into itineraries as a deliberate highlight. The Bernina Express runs from Chur in Switzerland to Tirano in northern Italy, crossing the highest railway pass in the Alps at nearly 2,300 metres and passing glaciers, viaducts and mountain scenery of spectacular quality. It is a UNESCO World Heritage railway and a compelling reason to structure an Italian holiday around a Swiss entry point rather than a direct flight to your destination city.
We have built a range of itineraries specifically around this journey: Venice via the Bernina Express, Lake Como via the Bernina Express, Lake Garda via the Bernina Express. Each uses the Swiss alpine crossing as the structural centrepiece of the trip rather than an incidental route.
Clients who have made this journey consistently tell us that it reframes how they think about Italy. Arriving by train through the mountains, watching the landscape change from Swiss precision to Italian warmth as you cross the border, is a very different entry point from a taxi queue at Milan Malpensa.
Rail touring holidays — the classic Italian cities by train
The combination of Venice, Florence and Rome is the journey that most people imagine when they think of an Italian rail holiday, and it is the itinerary that delivers most consistently on that imagination. The high-speed Frecciarossa trains that connect the three cities are among the fastest and most comfortable in Europe, with journey times of around 4 hours from Venice to Rome via Florence. The stations are central, transfers are simple, and the rhythm of the trip — two or three nights in each city, moving south at a pace that allows each place to settle — suits Italy particularly well.
We have arranged this journey for hundreds of clients over the years, and the details that make it work well are the ones that rarely appear in the itinerary description: the hotel position in relation to the station and the main sites, the timing of trains that avoid the busiest periods, the extra night in Florence that turns a brief cultural encounter into something more substantive.
Other places worth combining are the art cities of northern Italy: Bologna, Ravenna and Padua or Vicenza, Padua and Turin.
The cities are not the only option. A rail touring holiday can be built around less-visited combinations: Verona and Lake Garda, Venice and the Veneto, Turin and Piemonte, Rome and Naples. We design itineraries that reflect what clients actually want from Italian cities rather than defaulting to the standard circuit.
Explore: Venice, Florence and Rome by train or The Art Cities of Northern Italy
Rail-drive holidays — combining the train journey with a hire-car in Italy
A rail-drive holiday is the format that solves the central tension in Italian travel: the train is the best way to travel between major cities and across distances, but a hire-car is the best way to explore the Italian countryside, the Chianti hills, the Umbrian valleys, the Amalfi coastal roads.
The format is straightforward. You travel by train from London to your Italian gateway city — Florence is the most common, with Rome a close second — and collect a hire-car there. You then tour by car, staying in three or four different places, before returning the car and travelling home by train. The return journey can use a different route through the Alps, which makes the overall trip feel genuinely varied rather than retracing.
Our most popular rail-drive itinerary combines Florence with the Chianti region, continuing to San Gimignano, Montalcino and the Maremma before returning to Florence for the train home. Clients who want more scope extend the itinerary into Umbria, combining the Chianti hills with Cortona and the countryside around Orvieto.
A rail-drive holiday to Piemonte is a less obvious but thoroughly rewarding option: the train to Turin takes just over a day from London with a Swiss overnight stop, and the hire-car opens up the Barolo and Barbaresco vineyards of the Langhe, the white truffle country around Alba, and the hills of Monferrato — a region that rewards slow exploration rather than a single-centre stay.
Sicily by train — the most adventurous Italian rail journey
Travelling to Sicily by train from London is one of the most genuinely adventurous journeys available in European rail travel, and it is an itinerary we arrange regularly. The route south — via Switzerland, through Italy to Naples, and then the remarkable crossing of the Strait of Messina on a train ferry — is unlike any other journey on the continent.
The train goes onto the ferry at Villa San Giovanni and crosses to Messina in Sicily; this is the only place in Europe where a scheduled passenger train boards a ferry as a complete train and continues the journey on the other side. For clients with any interest in travel as experience rather than merely as transport, this is worth the journey entirely on its own terms.
Our Sicily by train itinerary includes overnight stops in Switzerland and in Naples or Rome, with the destination typically being Taormina — one of the great hill towns of the Mediterranean — with options to extend to Palermo. We offer a version of this itinerary that follows the route made famous by Michael Portillo on his Great Continental Railway Journeys, which has brought a new generation of clients to Italian rail travel.
Explore: Sicily by train holiday
Fly-rail holidays and rail within Italy — for clients who want the Italian train experience without the full overland journey
Not every client wants to make the full journey from London to Italy by train, and we do not assume that rail travel from the UK is the right approach for every trip. For clients who want to travel by air to Italy and then use the train network within the country — either to move between cities or as part of a touring itinerary — we arrange fly-rail holidays that combine the flexibility of flying with the experience of Italian rail.
A fly-rail holiday from Venice to Rome, stopping in Florence, is a natural fit: you fly into Venice, travel south by train through Florence to Rome, and fly home from Rome. The Frecciarossa high-speed service makes each leg efficient and comfortable, and the city-to-city pattern suits clients who want cultural depth in each place rather than the logistics of a hire-car.
For clients with a specific interest — opera in Verona, a cookery holiday in Umbria, a wine tour in Piemonte — we can adapt any itinerary to include rail travel rather than flights within Italy, adjusting departure dates and adding overnight stops where the journey requires it
Explore: Southern Tuscany fly-rail holiday
The practical details — trains, classes and what to expect on board
Eurostar runs almost hourly departures from London St Pancras to Paris, with an average journey time of 2 hours 18 minutes. Trains are split into Eurostar Standard, Eurostar Plus and Eurostar Premier. Eurostar Plus passengers receive a light cold meal and more spacious seating; Eurostar Premier passengers receive a hot meal, unlimited beverages and lounge access at both ends of the journey.
TGV-Lyria trains link Paris with Swiss cities in Standard and First Class. Journey times are approximately 3 hours 40 minutes to Lausanne, 4 hours to Zurich and just over 3 hours to Geneva.
EuroCity trains, operated jointly by Swiss Federal Railways and Trenitalia, run between Swiss cities and Milan with connections to Verona and Venice. They carry First and Second-Class passengers and a restaurant car.
Within Italy, the Frecciarossa high-speed trains — operated by Trenitalia — connect the major cities at speeds of up to 300km/h. Journey times of under 1 hour 30 minutes between Florence and Rome, and around 2 hours 20 minutes between Venice and Florence, make inter-city rail travel faster than any other option once airport time is included. We book all rail segments as part of the overall holiday arrangement, selecting the right classes and connections for each client's itinerary.
Planning an Italy by train holiday with Expressions Holidays
Every Italy by train holiday we arrange is designed around the client — the route that suits the journey they want to make, the destinations that match their interests, the hotels that connect the train journey to the experience of being in Italy. The sample itineraries on our rail holidays page give a clear picture of the range of holidays we arrange, and each of them is a starting point for a conversation rather than a fixed product.
To begin planning, call us on 01392 441245 Monday to Friday 9am to 5.30pm, Saturday 10am to 2pm, or email info@expressionsholidays.co.uk. If you would prefer to browse first, the links below go directly to the most relevant holiday pages.
