In July (2023) I spent three weeks on an interrail in Europe, of which we spent seven days in beautiful Italy. This post is my personal testimonial to my experience with traveling with trains on an interrail pass in Italy during summer (high season).

Table of contents

1. Introduction
2. Beginning with a relaxed beach vacation in Monterosso, Cinque Terre
3. From Cinque Terre to Pisa – a pit stop underway to Florence
4. Walking wherever our feet take us in Florence
   1. Museums, palaces and art in Florence
   2. Foodies in Florence
5. Exploring the mazes and canals of Venice
   1. Venice is slowly sinking

Introduction

Italy is a fantastic travel destination; well known for their cuisine, cultural heritage and beautiful scenery, my partner and I ventured out to experience the diversity of the Italian summer.

Our itinerary from Copenhagen to Italy was Copenhagen-Cologne-Zürich-Monterosso (via Milan and Genova). After Cinque Terre we headed to Pisa, Florence and finally Venice.

After arriving in Milan from Zürich we changed trains in Genova, and then continued to Cinque Terre, right by the edge of the Mediterranean Sea.

We were amazed by how well we could use our interrail passes in Italy. Especially Cinque Terre turned out to be a great investment of our time, since we could use the passes to travel in between the five cities along the coast! Every day, we could take the train between the cities, allowing us to save time and choose which hikes we wanted to explore.

In cities like Pisa, Florence and Venice, you can’t use the interrail pass for local travel within the city itself, because you cannot use if on busses and the metro. But the genius of the interrail pass is really that you can customize your trip almost exactly how you want. And you get to experience the beautiful country along the way on the rail (and not from a regular airplane window seat!)

Pro tip: When traveling by high-speed trains to Italy and between the larger cities, we were required to have a seat reservation, adding up some extra expenses. If you are traveling on a tight budget, and have more time to spare, you can take the slower regional trains and save the money for pizza 🙂

Beginning with a relaxed beach vacation in Monterosso, Cinque Terre

We stayed four nights in the beautiful Cinque Terre, where we went swimming in the Mediterranean Sea. Having booked a nice hotel in the outskirts of Monterosso, the western-most part of Cinque Terre, we had only a short distance to the beach.

In Cinque Terre we indulged in the Italian cuisine, we swam, we hiked from Monterosso to Vernazza and explored the other three towns by using our interrail passes in between.

Admittedly, Cinque Terre is a very beautiful part of Italy. Due to this, Cinque Terre was swarmed with tourists, but in the evening (at least in Monterosso!) after the last daytime visitors had left, things calmed down and the locals seemed more at ease.

I imagine that I will return to this beautiful part of Italy once again!

From Cinque Terre to Pisa – a pit stop underway to Florence

While we had planned not to stay in Pisa, we managed to squeeze half a day of sightseeing in Pisa to see the Tower of Pisa.

It was very easy to travel with the high speed trains between La Spezia (from Cinque Terre) to Pisa. At the main train station in Pisa we had our luggage stored for a small fee (something like 10 euros).

We then walked through the streets all the way to the square where the beautiful the huge cathedral ‘Cattedrale di Pisa’, the smaller (but no less ornamental!) ‘Battistero di San Giovanni’, and the Tower of Pisa is situated.

Before returning to the train station in Pisa we enjoyed a pizza and a local appetizer at a restaurant in one of the alleys. Note: If the alleys make you uncomfortable, you can stick to the main walking streets after it gets dark.

Walking wherever our feet take us in Florence

In Florence, we were surprised by how bad the public transport was in the city center. It was not so important since the interrail pass does not cover metro and busses in large cities.

We didn’t mind walking everywhere, and we did not compromise on experiences either. I had never been to Florence before, and I admired the beauty and charm of the city, despite it’s large size.

Museums, palaces and art in Florence

I was disappointed (and a bit surprised!) by the fact that we had to book ahead entrance to all the famous art galleries in Florence. But since we had so much planning of the interrail to do (and me getting a new job before the summer vacation), I just hadn’t prepared for this. Well, we have saved something for the next time we will see Florence!

We managed to visit the Pitti Palace and the Medici Palace, where we had a sample of the huge art and crafts that can be viewed in Florence. Especially the Pitti Palace had some beautiful ornaments like glass and wood sculpture, and we took a long walk in the enormous garden too (albeit it was too hot).

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Foodies in Florence

We enjoyed having our gelatos, espressos and focaccias while hiding from the scorching sun. There was a large sample of cosy cafes along the river in Florence.

Most of the shops in the city center are closed during midday, and the shopping in Florence is mostly for the upper class (and fashionistas).

Exploring the mazes and canals of Venice

Our stay in the unique city of Venice was unfortunately way too short. Due to the duration of our stay, we had chosen to book a hotel in the central part of Venice. It is also possible to stay in Mestre, which is the mainland city before you cross the bridge with either train or car.

Venice deserves a better time allocation than what we gave her on our interrail. Nevertheless, I was happy to have enjoyed a busy day in Venice exploring the marvelous city.

We booked 24 hours passes for the Vaporetta shuttle service. The Vaporettas are the shuttle ferries running on a time schedule in Venice along Canal Grande and between the islands.

It was worth our time to have the Vaporetta 24 hour passes. We could easily move from one side of the Canal Grande to the other, and we visited Murano Island (known for the glass craftsmanship).

Pro tip! For much more information about traveling by train in Europe, head to this post!

Venice is slowly sinking

Venice is an extremely fragile environment.

Venice is threatened by rising sea levels, and if you visit the link provided here you can learn about the struggles of Venice in this age of climate change occurring all across the world.

Furthermore, Venice is still being flooded with tourists, and we leave one hell of a trash trail behind. Fortunately, they have compensation measures to combat the growing piles of garbage.. Due to us tourists paying taxes when visiting this beautiful ‘floating’ city, they have a high level of maintenance which makes Venice stand out as a clean town.

I hope that this post has brought you some inspiration for your future trip to Italy. I highly recommend traveling by train in Italy, if not with interrail pass then just in general 🙂

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© All photos are my own unless stated and may not be used without permission.