msexton
Traveller
8 comments
Posted 7 years ago
Hi all,
Was thinking of interrailling around Italy this summer for maybe up to 3 weeks with my girlfriend. Would love to see Rome, Venice and Sicily and areas of Tuscany. Just wondering if anybody could suggest a nice route or have any suggestions with regards to places to see? Is it easy to travel to Sicily by train? Thanks
Mark
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
Hi Mark,
I hope you had a nice Interrail in 2016 ;)
Travelling by train in Italy is pretty easy and straightforward, especially on the main network.
I would suggest going with an Interrail One Country Pass which would cover all long-distance travel and buy tickets for regional trains for short trips locally. This would leave you really flexible for long distance travel (you just need to get seat reservations locally) while being quite cheap overall.
Have a look at the blogs about Cinque Terre (terrific place, albeit quite touristy already) and the night train to Sicily below. :)
In Tuscany you shouldnt miss Florence of course; other must-go places would be Siena, Lucca and/or Pisa; I have been to Siena only, from what I\'ve heard Lucca is much more interesting than Pisa, where the Leaning Tower is more or less the only thing worth seing.
Arezzo is lesser known but also quite beautiful and easily accessible by train; you should also look into Perugia and Assisi (not in Tuscany anymore but nearby) - see pics below. Train travel between these cities can be easily done with regional trains and tickets bought locally before departure.
[p]https://rail.cc/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/DSC4343_1100.jpg[/p]
Siena
[p]https://rail.cc/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/DSC4427_1100.jpg[/p]
Perugia
[p]https://rail.cc/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/DSC4586_1100.jpg[/p]
Assisi
Maybe also have a look at Lecce in the far south-east of Italy; Bologna, Turin, Verona are also beautiful cities to visit.
Sicily itself still has a number of railway lines connecting the major towns and cities, mainly running along the north and east coast; plus a limited number of "cross-country" services. Apart from Palermo, Catania and Siracusa also check out Cefalu und the cities of the Val di Noto (in the vicinity of Catania).
Support our work buy getting your Interrail passes via our partner link: [ux]https://rail.shop/interrail[/ux] - thank you! :)
Flo 8)
bumbum
Traveller
4 comments
Also check out Matera, the old caves are fantastic! Bergamo and Mantova are also beautiful cities!
msexton
Traveller
8 comments
Okay thanks for the suggestions guys! Would anyone know about seeing rural Tuscany? The "post card" pictures you see of the rolling fields and cypress trees?
Thanks!
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
Havent really been to these rural areas, but the area around San Gimignano should be what you are looking for. Maybe also Montalcino. The problem is that both dont have a railway station. The line on which a station was serving Montalcino (albeit 10km away from the town) is closed, but you could try to go to Buonconvento, which is also about 10-15km away. I dont know about local buses.
For San Gimignano, you can go to Poggibonsi-San Gimignano station which is about 10km away. I could image that there are buses between the two towns.