Inter-Railing to Italy
H. Chan
hols. Other than Rome, Florence, Venice, Naples, Siena, and Bologna (not in
this order), we would also like to make stops at Düsseldorf, Luxembourg and
Zürich on our way to Italy from London. Our plan is to travel using
Inter-Rail tickets. My question is: is it more economical to buy a single
zone ticket for Zone G (which includes Italy), or buy a 2- or even 3-zone
ticket that covers our other destinations? (I'm getting my ticket in the UK,
so it will not include my journey to the continent anyway.) I know that
single zone tickets are only valid for 22 days, but I'm not certain if
that's enough time to cover Italy.
I would also appreciate any other advice or tips. I have guidebooks a plenty
for Italy, but I know next to nothing about the other cities on our list. We
are Art History undergrads, so art and architecture will be our primary
focus. I'm hoping to strike a good balance between modern and pre-modern
art, as our interests vary. If you can tell me more about good places to
stay, eat, shop, and enjoy the local nightlife, all the better.
TIA.
--
Saresha
remove 'antispam.' to reply
benh...@aapi.co.uk
This ius a first answer: I'd welcome moire background from you.
Within Itsaly your derstinations are pretty well a straight line along
a standard route: Venice, Bologna, Florence, Rome, Naples. You just
have a kink at Siena. European rail tickets boughtboutside the
country of travel are valid two mobths. So I wonder whether yoiu
should buy the InterRail Zone G at all, when a single from a north
Italian frontier , such as Villach in Austria, will goive you all you
want (for Siena you just pay ten poiunds or sio detour fee at Florence
station before you board your train south).
Now your non-Italian destinations. Will it be OK to go out via
Luxemborg, and Zurich, and to come back via Dusseldorf ? If so, there
may be still be a rule that lets you use one standard route out to
Villach, via Brussels, Luxemburg and Zurich and Schwarzach, and
another back, via Schwarzach, Munich, Koln, (with a simple return
ticket Koln Dusseldorf Koln) and Brussels, and pay only for two halves
of a return fares, not gor two single tickets. I'll check when next
I'm near a Europe Rail booking office.
Indeed, if you're in a British city with a large station, you could
phone 0345 48 49 50 to learn whether that station has a Europe desk,
and enquire foir yourself. But I'll be interested to take this all a
stage further. To do that I must ask the ages of the party, and where
in Britain you are starting and ending your trip.
Simple curiousity makes nme ask why you want those three cities
outside Italy.
Dusseldorf was heavily bombed and rebuilt, and attracts few tourists.
Perhaps they have interesting modern and podst modern buildings ?
Zurich is ointeresting in a town-planning ay: they are bveginning to
beat the motor car. But otherwise nothing marvelous, I think.
Luxembourg is the most hasndsome of the three, but again nothing very
striking. Perhaps you're after the art galleries in each ?
Obviously, if you set your web searcher to "Dusseldorf Tourism" and to
the same for the other two cities you'll soon find the official
tourist guide sites. For information on paper, if you write to the
tourist information office in each city (no street address needed)
they'll send you street maps, museum and gallery opening hours, and
accomodation lists.
I look forward to your note.
Ben Haines, London
H. Chan
benh...@aapi.co.uk wrote in message <3686c6da...@news.aapi.co.uk>...
:Dear Mr Chan
Actually, it's Ms <g>.
:This ius a first answer: I'd welcome moire background from you.
:
:Within Itsaly your derstinations are pretty well a straight line along
:a standard route: Venice, Bologna, Florence, Rome, Naples. You just
:have a kink at Siena. European rail tickets boughtboutside the
:country of travel are valid two mobths. So I wonder whether yoiu
:should buy the InterRail Zone G at all, when a single from a north
:Italian frontier , such as Villach in Austria, will goive you all you
:want (for Siena you just pay ten poiunds or sio detour fee at Florence
:station before you board your train south).
I see what you mean. Would such a ticket be considerably cheaper than £159
(price of a single zone ticket)?
:Now your non-Italian destinations. Will it be OK to go out via
:Luxemborg, and Zurich, and to come back via Dusseldorf ? If so, there
:may be still be a rule that lets you use one standard route out to
:Villach, via Brussels, Luxemburg and Zurich and Schwarzach, and
:another back, via Schwarzach, Munich, Koln, (with a simple return
:ticket Koln Dusseldorf Koln) and Brussels, and pay only for two halves
:of a return fares, not gor two single tickets. I'll check when next
:I'm near a Europe Rail booking office.
That sounds like an ideal plan, if possible. Thank you!
:Indeed, if you're in a British city with a large station, you could
:phone 0345 48 49 50 to learn whether that station has a Europe desk,
:and enquire foir yourself. But I'll be interested to take this all a
:stage further. To do that I must ask the ages of the party, and where
:in Britain you are starting and ending your trip.
We're 21, 21, and 23, starting and ending in London (well, Reading, really).
I'll ask at Reading or Paddington.
:Simple curiousity makes nme ask why you want those three cities
:outside Italy.
:Dusseldorf was heavily bombed and rebuilt, and attracts few tourists.
:Perhaps they have interesting modern and podst modern buildings ?
:Zurich is ointeresting in a town-planning ay: they are bveginning to
:beat the motor car. But otherwise nothing marvelous, I think.
:Luxembourg is the most hasndsome of the three, but again nothing very
:striking. Perhaps you're after the art galleries in each ?
To be honest, I don't know why these cities. One of the two friends
travelling with me put them on her list <shrug>. I didn't object, knowing
little about them. I haven't asked what she wants to see in those cities,
but if they're really that dull, maybe we can come to a compromise and
substitute one or two of these cities with others. Any suggestions? Or
should we spend more time in Italy?
:Obviously, if you set your web searcher to "Dusseldorf Tourism" and to
:the same for the other two cities you'll soon find the official
:tourist guide sites. For information on paper, if you write to the
:tourist information office in each city (no street address needed)
:they'll send you street maps, museum and gallery opening hours, and
:accomodation lists.
I'll do that. Thank you so much; you've been of immense help!
benh...@aapi.co.uk
I was at a film in the West End this evening, so stopped at the Europe
desk in Charing Cross Station to get some advice.
To answer your first question, the site http://www.eurail.com says
that Innsbruck to Naples return is 72 pounds full fare return, so 54
pounds youth return. (Across Europe, people under 26 get a quarter
off their fares. But don't gloat: so do us pensioners !). It thus
undercuts the InterRail ticket.
To answer my own question, there's a return ticket called Grand Tour
that Great Western Railways can sell from their handbook, but that
Europe Rail enquiries on 0990 848 848 have no trace of. London,
Calais or Boulogne, Paris, Nice, Ventimiglia, Pisa, Rome, Florence,
Milan, Basel, Strasbourg, Luxembourg, Brussels, Ostend, London. Full
fare ticket 228 pounds, youth ticket 171 pounds. You could either
choose buildings and art galleries along that route, as set, or if you
want others you could add on, at youth return fares
Luxemburg, Sterpenich, Aachen, Cologne, Dusseldorf, and back 40
pounds
Basel, Zurich and back 30 pounds
Rome Naples and back 14 pounds.
In fact, you'd pay twenty percent less for Dusseldorf and Zurich, as
you'd take an extra mileage ticket for each diversion from the set
route.
You'd also need a diversion Milan, Venice, Milan, at about 20 pounds
youth return. So far as I can tell, you could skip every diversion
except this one: there's nowhere like Venice -- mother of architects
and painters for centuries. (Also, dead expensive. Stay in the
station square in Padova, take sandwiches for lunch, and commute in to
Venice each day).
You can cut down the London, Rome, London youth fare if you go out and
come back on the same route, London, Paris, Modane, Rome, youth return
126 pounds, but the extra 45 pounds for the Grand Tour seems to me
worth the money.
As you see, the return fare, with diversion tickets, is a better buy
than the InterRail. The rules are that your ticket lasts two months,
and you can get off the train anywhere, take local trains or (for a
five pound supplement) expresses, and carry straight on when you like.
If you travel with a Thomas Cook European Timetable on your lap(sold
at 8 pounds at ther bureau de change in any Thomas Cook shop), and a
guide to your countries, you can get off the train because you like
the look of the church tower, or to have a coffee, or at a whim. For
long runs, like Paris or Brussels to Venice or Rome, or Rome to Zurich
or Basle, you can have a bed in a 6-berth couchette car, with bedding
and pillow, at a 12 or 18 pound supplement (rather than the five I
mentioned): this saves you sitting about all day in a train, and saves
a hotel night. You can even travel overnight from Reading at around
nine pm to Paris around 8.30 am. You arrive in Paris a bit flattened,
and need a hotel room or a bistro to flop in for a few hours on
arrival. I'll give you detail if you ask me.
Villach is out of play: no through ticket from London to Italy runs
through Munich and Austria.
As I was having supper just now, I wondered whether I ought to comment
on architecture on the Grand Tour route. What you should do, the
three of you, is buy a bottle of wine and invite your favourite
lecturer to advise you. If I were on the staff teaching you, I'd
rejoice at your present plan.
I'm no specialist. But in Paris are La Defense and the glass pyramid
at the Louvre, and the Pompidou Centre (Centre Beauborg), which raises
a lot of questions. How come that it needs two years' repair work
just two decades after opening ? Is that good enough ? The overnight
express, Le Phoceen, takes you to Marseilles. The English are blowing
up their point blocks but nobody blows up the Ville Radieuse in
Marseilles: was Corb right ? In Nice there are museums for Matisse
and for Chagall. An overnight train takes you to Padova or Venice:
Venice has some good modern building on challenging sites. Then it's
local trains around Italy. In Milan you might look at the shopping
galleries, which were a model for similar pedestrian galleries across
Europe. The slums of Naples are a byword for neighbourliness: can
anyone nowadays build so well for that purpose ? I think there's good
modern art in the gallery in Basel. The fortifications against the
Germans give a special form to Strasbourg. Your friend can tell you
what she wants to see in Luxembourg. A little north of there is the
monastery of St Bernard, at Clervaux,. Brussels has a rich collection
of Art Nouveau buildings, lovingly preserved, and a good art gallery.
And so home.
Have you asked your faculty librarian whether she or he wants any
colour slides of any specific buildings or sculptures ? Most
faculties of art and architecture welcome such slides. You cannot
snap paintings, of course, but can buy at the desk of most galleries
slides of pictures you or your faculty wanbt on record. Do you plan a
talk (with coffee or wine ?) for fellow students after you're back,
with pictures to make them green with envy ?
Please write again, or phone (best before 11 am), after you've seen
the Europe desk at a GWR station, looked at a good atlas, and spoken
with friends, if I can help further.
Ben Haines