My wife and I will arrive in Paris for a week in late May 2007. We%26#39;ll then spend some time in Aix-en-Provence. Then we go to Cortona, It for a week, and then finish in Venice for a few days and a flight home.
We%26#39;d like all of our travel between cities to be by train. Paris-Avignon, then I%26#39;m thinking Marseilles-Cortona,(is it smarter to fly this leg?) and then finally Cortona-Venice. We%26#39;ll be in Europe for 3 weeks.
Are there any recommendations and tips that can point us to best way to plan and reserve our train travel with this itinery?
TIA
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Wow! That%26#39;s challenging... but fun! First, like bad students, let%26#39;s do the easy part: if you are going to Aix-en-Provence, no need now to go to Avignon or Marseille. Thanks to the advent of the TGV Méditerranée in 2001, our Aixois friends now have their own brand new station (well, actually a bit in the middle of nowhere outside Aix, but still). There are plenty of direct TGVs every day between Paris and Aix, about 3 hours.
Now, the thorny part: Marseille-Cortona. I%26#39;ve looked it up on bahn.de (actual station: Camucia-Cortona apparently), and you CAN go there by train, but it%26#39;s a real ordeal, between 14 and 19 hours on the way, with multiple changes in Nice, Ventimiglia, Milan, etc. Actually, the most cost-effective way would be to take Ryanair from Marseille to Rome Ciampino (dirt cheap: €36 all included for early June, but it%26#39;s an early flight: 6h35), then go to central Rome and catch a train to Camucia ex Tiburtini or Termini station: they are quite frequent and take between 2 or 3 hours.
As for the last leg, it%26#39;s feasible by train, just under 5 hours. People on the Italian forum might be able to tell you whether there are any low cost flight connections, but my research hasn%26#39;t found any.
And now, I am going to lay down for a rest...
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Because of the timing of the Ryanair flight you might prefer to take the train to Nice and fly to Rome FCO with Blu-Express.
I don%26#39;t think you will find any low-cost flights to Venice from anywhere closer to Cortona than Rome.
For your train travel in France significant advance purchase discounts are available if you book up to 90 days ahead direct on the SNCF (French rail) site www.voyages-sncf.com. This page by MorganB will help you navigate the not always user-friendly system: http://tinyurl.com/qpdef
Advance purchase discounts are less common on the Trenitalia (Italian rail) network but they do exist. Try www.trenitalia.it. I think you can only book up to 60 days ahead with Trenitalia.
In both cases early booking will give you the best chance of scoring a low fare — as with the airlines.
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Thanks Bob and Irish for the courtesy of your time and helpful information.
Phil
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