This July we will be making our/my annual pilgrimage to Italy by way of Vienna. At first we thought to fly from Vienna to Venice and then a bus to Padua, but the discount airlines fly at ugly times and the major carriers are hugely expensive. So, we next thought about a night train in a sleeper car. I thought it would be a neat experience, but my wife has motion sickness problems. The next idea came to either a day train to Mestre Venice or a car. So, we’ve narrowed it down to the day train or a car. The reason I want to go to Mestre is because we could transit to Padua in either a bus or limo than from Venice Santa Lucia. With a car we could go straight to Padua, which would make the entire journey easier. Money wise, the dollars are not too far apart. Your thoughts, comments?
Calling on Tortola, British Virgin Islands
Senior Sailor Marilyn Jones enjoys a stay on the largest of the British Virgin Islands
I’ve always had fantasies about night sleepers, but they’ve never seemed to work out on timing for me…but I think on this trip I’d definitely opt for the car, especially if time is not tight. ViaMichelin estimates about 6.5 hours of driving, but you could still make time for a bit of more rural Austria and Alpine scenery.
The trains run about 10 hours by comparison. I did find one, at 7:56 am, that goes to Padua with a change of trains at Innsbruck rather than Venice. Austrian Railways shows a price for 2 starting at 200€; viamichelin estimates about 106€ in driving costs (although that doesn’t include the car rental).