[Removed user]

14 March 2015 at 20:10:05 #806983

We are hopefully staying in Sion, Switzerland later on in the year and would dearly love to have a couple of days in Italy,most likely Venice, I understand that it would take a day by train to travel there but we would be staying over two nights to make up for the distance, and we as a couple and our twelve year old son are used to travelling long distances. My question is as we would also be visiting such places as Zermatt, and possibly the Jungfrau region, what pass would we benefit from as we are also travelling into Italy , I understand that the ‘boarder’ for swiss transport ends in Domodossla. So just getting tickets from Dom to Venice is a possibility? Is there a pass that would see us through both countires? Many thanks for any help.

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[Arno]

16 March 2015 at 6:51:10 #842026

Hi jjchd,

There’s a direct train from Sion to Venice, that takes 5.5 hours. If you have a Swiss Travel Pass, its validity indeed ends in Domodossola (see the map). There is no pass that combines Italy and Switzerland. So you need a ticket from Domodossola to Venice and back. Or from Brig to Venice and back, if the booking system can’t find tickets from Domodossola. You can best check the prices of these tickets, and you may find that a 3-day Interrail Pass for Italy is a bit cheaper (but note that tickets include seat reservations, whereas with a pass you need to get these separately). I noticed you live in the UK; in that case you can get the Swiss Travel Pass, the Interrail Italy Pass and the seat reservations through http://www.acprail.com, and pay in GBP. The Interrail Italy Pass currently costs GBP 98. You need to click a bit further into the booking process to see that price. They initially show a higher price.

More about regular point to point tickets for Italy can be found here.

[Removed user]

17 March 2015 at 16:52:36 #842027

Many Thanks Arno, for your invaluable information. As you quite rightly point out the booking system couldn’t display Domodossola but accepted Brig as a destination! We are toying with the idea although we would be staying for a couple of nights we had thought of Milan, also having the benefit of being closer, and less travelling time more sightseeing time. We were concerned though as it is quite a bit more cosmopolitan than Venice, which is not really to our interest, we tend to like more traditional places, are there any other places that you would suggest seeing buy train?

Again many thanks for your help.

[Arno]

18 March 2015 at 14:41:37 #842028

Hi jjchd,

I can’t tell you much about Italian towns. I’ve been to Milan once and it’s a huge busy town. That doesn’t seem to fit with your interests. There are many, many options in Switzerland but it really depends on what you like. Basel has an historical town center, but it’s not in the mountains. Lucerne is really nice, not that big but plenty to do. Chur is the oldest town in Switzerland, if that interests you. And there are many “traditional, small typical Swiss villages” all over the country. Those don’t qualify as a city trip, you’d better combine them with exploring the region. You can start exploring here.