Let us take you on a journey to Italy

A choice of routes

There are endless routes to reach Italy by train, and most of them are scenic. Choose from the efficient high-speed route via Turin, or perhaps a detour through Switzerland with an overnight stay in Zürich before taking a direct tilting train to Milan via the Italian Lakes.

TGV via Turin - a scenic and gastronomic gateway to Italy

This is by far the most popular route among Inntravellers, and it is easy to see why, as it combines good-value fares with civilised departure times from London, a comfortable high-speed TGV journey, splendid mountain scenery and an overnight stay in gastronomic Turin.

You leave London St Pancras at around 8 or 9am and arrive in Paris in time for lunch, before taking your seat on an afternoon French TGV or an Italian Frecciarossa to Turin. Leaving the Paris suburbs behind, these high-speed trains glide between wheat fields, then through Burgundy’s forests, meadows and vineyards. After circling Lyon, you leave the high-speed line to climb eastwards towards Chambéry, beyond which lies some of the best Alpine scenery – you pass below towering peaks before entering the Fréjus Tunnel.

Shortly afterwards, you emerge in Italy, passing through a long, narrow valley between two mountain ranges and on to a plain. You arrive at Turin before 9pm, just in time for dinner.

It was among Turin’s elegant boulevards that the Slow Food movement first began to promote locally grown, artisanal and seasonal produce, so it makes a fitting start to your Slow Inntravel holiday. The Grand Sitea Hotel is ideally situated, within an easy walk of a wealth of good restaurants. After dinner, you could stroll around the Baroque Piazza San Carlo, then follow the grand porticoes of the Via Roma to the Palazzo Reale, the former seat of the Dukes of Savoy, often floodlit at night.

From Turin’s Porta Nuova station, many onward journeys involve a high-speed Frecciarossa train with compulsory reserved seating, travelling direct to the region of your choice or with a change at Milan’s impressive Centrale station. For some of our more rural holidays, you are also likely to have a change from your high-speed train to a local regionale train for the final leg. These local services don’t require reservations and make many stops as you head deeper into the countryside.

From Turin to Liguria

To reach our Along the Ligurian Coast walking holiday, you have a four-hour journey from Turin. Take an Intercity or local regionale train south-eastwards through vineyards and the Asti Hills, then along a river valley to Genoa. Here, you change to another regionale train for a ride along the coast, past picturesque fishing villages.

From Turin to the Veneto, Italian Lakes & Alps

The Italian Lakes are within easy reach of Turin. To get to Lake Iseo and Lake Garda, you take a direct Frecciarossa across the Lombardy plain, alighting after less than two hours to meet your waiting taxi. Our Lake Orta to Lake Maggiore walking holiday, meanwhile, is just over two hours from Turin by local regionale train. The best views are saved for last, when the train briefly follows the lake's shore.

For our cycling holiday in the Veneto, you take a high-speed Frecciarossa from Turin to Milan, where you change to the tilting Frecciargento train. Two-and-a-half hours after leaving Turin, you reach the atmospheric city of Verona, famed not only as the setting for Romeo and Juliet, but also for its wealth of Roman monuments.

From Turin to the Apennines & Tuscany

To reach these regions in the heart of Italy, you take a Frecciarossa or Frecciargento on Italy’s main high-speed line south from Turin across the Po Valley towards Bologna (2hrs 20mins).

Here, you alight and change to a regionale train on the Porrettana Railway for the Secret Apennines walking holiday. This line takes you through rolling hills cloaked in dense woodland which produces the chestnuts which feature in the highly praised regional cuisine. It takes just over an hour from Bologna, but it feels like you are stepping off the train into a different world, far from the madding crowds.

For most of our holidays in Tuscany (except the one which starts in Umbria), the fastest and most convenient route is to continue past Bologna, through a series of tunnels cutting through the Apennine Mountains, to Florence (3hrs). In this famous art city, you change to a regionale train for a 1-hour journey through rolling hills, vineyards and cypress-lined wheat fields, followed by a taxi transfer to your hotel.

From Turin to Umbria

Our suggested route to reach the Stroll through History walking holiday, which starts in Umbria, uses a combination of the high-speed trains on the outward journey, returning on the Tyrrhenian Railway. You take a 9am Frecciarossa train for the 3-hour journey from Turin to Florence, changing to a local train for a scenic 2-hour journey that skirts the shores of Lake Trasimeno, before our taxi meets you for the short drive to your hotel.

Direct connections from Turin to Italy’s Deep South - the Amalfi Coast, Basilicata & Puglia

Reaching the Amalfi Coast from Turin couldn’t be simpler. A direct Frecciarossa service leaves Turin at around 9am, reaching Salerno in under seven hours. From here, we arrange a transfer to The Amalfi Coast & Villages walking holiday. Travelling home, we arrange a two-hour transfer to Naples for the six-hour train ride back to Turin.

Idyllic and uncrowded Basilicata is eight hours from Turin by direct Frecciarossa, departing after 9am. You leave the high-speed network after Bologna and continue south-east to skirt the beaches and fishing villages of the Adriatic before heading inland through vineyards and olive groves to bypass the mountains of the Gargnano Peninsula. There is a full restaurant car on board with waiter service, and a taxi will be waiting for you when you alight from the train, meaning that you feel relaxed when you arrive at the first hotel on our Sassi & Trulli cycling holiday.

For our Pedalling through Puglia cycling holiday, take the same Frecciarossa from Turin direct to Italy’s ‘heel’ (9hrs 30mins), followed by a short transfer to your hotel.