Am interested in a night train from Paris to Florence for a long weekend in June 2008. There will be two of us travelling and we%26#39;d like %26quot;beds%26quot;. (Since I%26#39;m sure that the trip must be at least 12 hours, I can%26#39;t imagine sitting up all night at this point in my life.) Any idea about price, length of trip, suggestions, etc. would be much appreciated.
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I did this trip a couple of years ago. If you get a first class compartment, you should have it to yourselves (although technically there are three berths). You also can get a second class sleeper that holds six in a very small compartment - meaning that you (and more imoprtantly, your luggage and valuables) are within reach of total strangers all night.
When we did it, we got a first class compartment. Even that is tiny, and you probably would want to put the top berth down and store some of your luggage up there. There is not much in the way of food (there is a snack bar and a diner car, but the snack bar ran out of virtually everything pretty early, and the diner food looked barely okay plus there was a very long wait).
I think your guess of 12 hours was about right as I recall. If you are dragging big bags when you come out of the station in Florence, one person should go ahead while the other waits because we had an unfortuate experience with trying to exit up to the street (escalator not working, required either a long backtrack or heaving luggage up long stairs).
So - my bottom line is that it was handy as a way to make the trip without burning a day coming and going (Florence was definitely worth it, and we will return at some point!). The train berths are not conducive to deep sleep but you can at least nap. Do take some food and water with you, so you don%26#39;t have to deal with trying to purchase aboard.
Advice I have read from others (that we followed): don%26#39;t ever leave your compartment door unlocked (e.g., while going down the hall to the WC, as there are thieves who make a living just watching for people to go down the hall during the night. Also, the door locks are not very good, so put a big suitcase on the inside against the door.
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Thanks for such a wonderfully detailed reply to my questions! Now I have a very good idea of what to expect.
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There is a thread with similar questions and more information about Paris/Venice (same train system and issues) that was active a couple of weeks ago. In it, someone mentioned a web site with information about the trains, and it might be worth searching it out and checking that as well.
Sorry, I don%26#39;t recall the price at all - I see you asked that - but would suggest booking through SNCF and printing your ticket (following the MorganB instructions) as that%26#39;s likely to be the best price you will get.
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we did the night train from Florence to Paris (same as from Rome including same cost since they can%26#39;t book the cabin from Rome to Florence if it is reserved in Florence)
we had a private cabin for two which had two very comfortable bunks made up from the seat. we made sure valuables were well stowed and not near the door (I slept with my money belt and valuables) -- there was a dining car with perfectly good dinner options -- not fabulous food, but perfectly okay -- there was also a snack bar -- they brought around coffee and a packaged croissant as we arrived in Paris
It is a very long journey -- I think if I were going to Florence for a weekend, I would just fly down to Pisa or Florence (depending on which one had the cheapest flight) -- you don%26#39;t need much luggage for a weekend so the luggage limits of cheap carriers are not a factor --
we chose the train because we had been in FLorence for 2 months and had a huge bag of books as well as other luggage -- but for a quick trip, flying would be so much better I think
it cost us about 300 Euro one way for two --
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this is our threat admin here killed it a few day ago.... I guess get the truth. then go is just a BS nevertheless do not make a same mistakes we did.....
If you thinking about taking a “NIGHT TRAIN in ITALY”….. Do yourself a favor….. DON”T!!!
Let me tell you about our “vacation” in Italy! My husband and I have been married for 12 years and since he is from Europe, throughout our marriage, his dream has been to get me to Europe to see how “the other side lives”. Being Italian myself, I was very excited to visit Italy! We started planning our European vacation back in April and decided to take a Mediterranean cruise on Celebrity Millennium from Venice to Barcelona because the itinerary was excellent and also wanted to see Paris. We got busy booking our cruise and all the travel arrangements from place to place. My husband was thrilled with the fact that we would start in Paris and take a sleeper train at night to continue our journey to catch our ship in Venice. He said it would be wonderful experience for me and a great way to travel in addition to all our flying. Our three days in Paris were phenomenal. We boarded our train #221 Paris-Venezia on Tues. Aug. 28, 2007 for our journey to Italy. We got in our coach 95 couchette 45-46 and got cozy for the nights ride. We ask our conductor who collected our passports for two blankets which he delivered later , locked the door and went to sleep at around 23:00. We awoke around midnight and checked our watch for the time. Falling back to sleep, we awoke around 5:00 am and discovered my husbands’ watch was missing. We checked around the floor and my husband said somebody took it and immediately went for our money and documents in his “fanny pack” only to discover every bit of cash we had for travel, 1500 Dollars + 500 Euro’s was GONE!! We were robbed while we slept with our door locked and money in the “fanny pack”! My husband immediately went to the conductor to report it and found him standing with two “undercover officers” who never show any ID’s. They came back to the couchette and did a “report”. After train stopped in Venice we went to the police station and filed a report. We then went to get a cash advance off our credit card that was not stolen and the lady informed us it happen every day. I said there is no way somebody would come in my room and I would not wake up and she informed me that thieves use conductor’s key’s to open your couchette and spray your room and it knocks you out so you won’t hear anything and that how they rob you.
What a horrible nightmare it is to make plans for months, make all the arrangements, take time off from work and packing for a wonderful vacation only to be robbed of all your cash while you sleep before you even arrived to your cruise ship! For these people to invade our privacy and break into our couchette and drug you while you sleep to steal all our money is something we will never get over. We arrived at our ship and began our journey at sea. Along the way, we met a couple that travel by train from Paris to Venice two days earlier with four people in their room and she was robbed off ALL her currency as well. She had it tucked away in four different envelopes and the thief had time to go into every envelope and empty them one by one while four people slept. We got a copy of their police report if you are interested. This is my first trip to Europe and my first and last ride on your train was a horrible and frightening experience. After have returned home, I decided to go on the internet to read about all the other victims of this horrible ordeal. We feel TRENITALIA is a 100% responsible for the safety of its travelers and we paid approx. $500 to travel on your train only to be invaded and robbed!!! We do feel company is 100% responsible for allowing this theft to occur every day, on a regular basis and feel it OK to accept this behavior from your own employees. There is no doubt in our minds you are fully aware of this incredibly horrible crime and allow it to happen on a daily basis. We also feel your conductors are definitely part of the whole operation and you as a company are fully responsible for allowing people to pay for ticket to ride your train only to be robbed on a daily basis. Why there are no cameras on the sleeper trains to prevent this? We are planning to go to the television with our story so we can let the world know about our wonderful TRENITALIA experience. This has been a devastating event for our trip which completely ruined our desire to EVER visit Italy again! If this was your goal, congratulations…You have succeeded! With sincere regret of traveling TRENITALIA…
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