Best Way to Venice From Rome
 

I will be staying at the Hilton Cavilieri in Rome on the GLON 6 night deal then on to Venice.
Two options;
1. take the train through Florence (get out and walk around a bit, eat, reboard then on to Venice. Should take all day and only gets me to Mestre station. I then have to make it to San Marcos from where the Hilton Venice Stucky runs a shuttle. Any advice on getting from Mestre to San Marcos (probably at night)?

2. Fly from Rome to Treviso Airport (on Ryan Air -- two tickets for less than 100 Euro w/ taxes). No via Florence, but only 1 hour flight time. However.... any advice on getting from Treviso (apparently a hole in the wall airport 20 or so miles North or Venice) to San Marco?

Is there a 3d (and maybe better) way?

If your train stops at Maestre, there are lots of other trains that continue on to Venezia Santa Lucia (sometimes seen as V.S.L). But first make sure your train won't do the job for you.

europeforvisitors.com/venice/articles/venice-railroad-station.htm
has all sorts of things you might find useful if you decide to go by train.

Once at VSL, exit the train station out the front and down a very wide set of stairs. You will see lots of boats (vaporetto) right in front of you. You can find one of them to take you to San Marcos or you can walk there in 5 or 10 minutes.

I suspect another boat would also take you from VSL to the Hilton, but I don't know the details of it. Venice guide books usually have maps of the water transport routes. I couldn't find a web one big enough to be readable.

Romelle

The one hour flight time is a bit deceiving. Once you factor in the entire travel time the train is quick. Flying requires a trip to the airport, time before the flight and then transport from Treviso to Venice. I'd stick with the train, regardless if you decide to stop in Florence along the way. Check train schedule at Trenitalia - most trains stop at Mestre & Venice S. Lucia.

If you stop in Florence you will need two tickets - one from Rome to Florence and another from Florence to Venice. You cannot buy one ticket and stop in a city along your way.

Take the train
 

Take the train direct from Rome to Venice. The train takes about 4.5 hours so skip the stop in Florence - you can't do the city justice with a quick stopover. Check train schedules on Trenitalia - most trains continue on from Mestre to Venice's S. Lucia station.

The one hour flight time flying from Rome to Treviso is a bit deceiving. The time and expense is much more once you factor in the time & money getting to/from the airport and the time you must be at the airport before your flight departs. Most of the airlines flying this route have very strict weight limits on luggage. If you go over the amount you will pay dearly. The train stations are located in the center of each city.

Skip Florence - what are you going to do w/your luggage? (As an alternative - take a day trip to Florence from Rome - its only 90 minutes by train)

Why not book a train that goes all the way to Venice instead of Mestre? Regardless, when you get to Venice, simply take a vaporetto (water bus) to Piazza San Marco.

I suspect you will regret this decision. #1 - what type of luggage do you have? Ryan Air is notorious for their baggage charges. Also, it takes about an hour on a bus to get from Treviso to Venice. By the time you add in travel time to the Rome airport - you probably won't save any time or money.

I just did this trip last week. Took the train from Rome to Venice--easy as can be. 4.5 hours from Roma Termimi to Venezia San Lucia with a few stops along the way. Cost about 59 euros a ticket I think. Piece of cake--you get to see some country side and catch a good rest before getting to Venice.

"Most" trains do not continue to Santa Lucia. For example, I live east of Venezia in Portogruaro and we get just as many trains from Mestre as SL does, if not more (trains go up to Udine, Trieste, etc, so not all go to SL). That being said you can catch a nearly hourly train to SL or bus from the Mestre station.

As for luggage, in most larger stations there is a luggage check and storage station you can use for just a few Euros. Just be advised they normally close at 2100 or 2200 i.e. 9 or 10 PM, so have your bags back before then.

If you want a quick stop there are many trains via Bologna, where you can stop and walk over and get some food.

I fly and drive all over Italia, so I do not discourage flying as much as some here, however RyanAir would not be my first choice due to luggage, as some have already noted. And yes Treviso is a pain in the .... I never have problems parking or getting a bus flying into and out of Marco Polo, but Treviso is not as convienient. There is a bus from Treviso. I don't remember the hours, it is online somewhere.

AirOne (www.flyairone.com) flies from Rome Fiumicino to Marco Polo non-stop but it will probably be more expensive than RyanAir.

Ciao,
FH

The train is all very possible and efficient - skip the plane.

The trip from Rome to Florence is indeed 90 minutes, and if you leave Rome relatively early in the morning you can have several hours in Florence. Two possible trains are:

depart Rome 7:30 arrive Florence 9:06
depart Rome 8:30 arrive Florence 10:06

there are also earlier trains, but I was trying to be civilized.

you will arrive at Santa Maria Novella (universally called SMN) and there is indeed left luggage, this recent page says:

You can stash you luggage at the left luggage facility on the ground floor. Cost is 3 Euros for the first 12 hours and 2 Euros each additional 12 hours.

Florence is very compact, and you can easily walk to the major attractions from SMN. If lines are long the Uffizi will probably take more time than you want to use up that way, but there are plenty of other things to do, including just walking around and gawking.

You can then hop back on a train to Venice, including trains at:

depart Florence 3:40 arrive Venice 6:17
depart Florence 4:38 arrive Venice 7:17
depart Florence 6:38arrive Venice 9:17

as well as earlier and later trains. These three do go directly into Venezia San Lucia. From there you can hop on a water bus (dock is right outside the station) that will take you directly to Piazza San Marco in just a few minutes. Or, splurge on a water taxi as you'll have had a long day.

The walk from the station will take much longer than the 5-10 minutes suggested by another poster, will be difficult with luggage, and you can certainly plan on getting lost more than once (part of the charm of Venice, but not when you're tired and dragging luggage behind you).

Thanks
 

OK, Kill the Ryan Air idea (note that web site says total would be about 50 euro - with one bag each). If it is anything like easyJet, I remember that nightmare. I will check JetOne though.
I think we will leave Rome early, do the walk around in Florence, then on to Venice.
Problem with the Italian Rail web site, is that you can only reserve 60 days out. When I check for 10 May (although our trip will be on 30 June), all destinations at VCE read "Mestre." Anyway to check to see if these go on to VSL?
Great advice from everyone, thanks again!

Isn't there a vapporetto that runs from VSL to someplace fairly close to the hotel? one would go counterclockwise from train sta to giudecca. i recall the 40 & 50 lines run by the boat docks.

Take a look at www.raileurope.com. I just put in Florence to Venice. The schedule does show trains ending both in Maestre and SMN (thanks milepig for supplying that - obviously I'm overdue on another trip to Venice:)).

Do note that sometimes it is the very same train, but the one ending in SMN just has a slightly longer schedule.

If this is your only opportunity to see Florence and you are willing to get up early and get into Venice late, I'd vote with the people who say to buy two different tickets and do it. I've wandered more than one city with my backpack luggage. A good workout when the rest of the day is a lot of sitting.

Romelle

Those "all you can ride" tickets are a great deal for Venice!!

You can pick up a vaporetto map when you get to Venice. They are tricky to read at first, but it can be done. The Hilton web site has some information as to which stop works for the public ones. There is a walk involved upon arrival if you do use the public ones. It's been a while since I read it, but I think it said "2 bridges and about 10 minutes". You might be able to get the Hilton to give a little more information with an email? Possibly for your first time though, it might be easier to find their transportation.

Which website are you checking? When I go to www.trenitalia.com, choose Abbonamenti and enter Firenze and Venezia I get all kinds of trains to VSL on 10 May, this is a small part of the timetable:

N. Partenza Arrivo Treni Durata Acquista
l'abbonamento
6. 12:38
FI.SMN 15:17
VE S.L. 02:39 Abbonamento non disponibile.
7. 13:27
FI C.M 16:47
VE S.L. 03:20 Abbonamento non disponibile.
8. 14:38
FI.SMN 17:17
VE S.L. 02:39 Abbonamento non disponibile.
9. 15:40
FI.SMN 18:17
VE S.L. 02:37 Abbonamento non disponibile.
10. 16:38
FI.SMN 19:17
VE S.L. 02:39 Abbonamento non disponibile.

Yes, the 41/42 and 51/52 stop at Giudecca as does the Hilton Launch. But those lines can be challenging for a first timer.

Why that? don't they leave from one of those docks in front of the train station and have large numbers on them?

also, in summer, does not the 82 which i think is now called #2 get to giudecca?(never been to venice in summer). never been to the west end of giudecca.

there is a bridge between the hilton and sacca fisola. i do not know how many steps it has and how big a luggage blocade it is.

this map shows the path and stops of the 41 & 82. the 51/2 do not stop there:
http://www.venice-rentals.com/info/routes.html

i cannot find any up to date actv maps, and mine has been borrowed to never never land.

Yes, boats leave from Ferrovia, and head to the right as opposed to the left/PSM. However, these boats are usually the smaller, covered models which can be very challenging with luggage.

The 51/2 stops at Zattere where there is another Hilton launch stop. The 41/2 goes directly to the Giudecca but then you do have bridges, etc.

If I were going to the Hilton from the train station would I take the #1 to PSM, no - but then again, I'm not a first time visitor. Anyone can find PSM.

PS: In actuality, if I were a 1st time visitor going to the Hilton, I'd take a water taxi.