Italy

This Finnair flight was on an Airbus A321 from Rome to Helsinki. From the departure gate in Rome all passengers board a bus which transports everyone way around to the other side of the airport to board the aircraft via stairs.

Finnair aircraft are always clean and the decor light and bright. Flight time was approximately 3 hours and 30 minutes and an interesting feature is the nose camera feed into everyone's seatback LCD monitors during takeoff and landing.

The Finnair cabin crew were all extremely pleasant and happy throughout the entire flight.

Artemide Hotel
Via Nazionale 22, Rome, 00184, Italy
+3906489911

Double Classic, Free Wireless Internet, Breakfast Buffet, King Bed

Once again this was a clean and affordable first class train trip on Trentalia Frecciargento 9431 from Venezia S. Lucia to Roma Termini.

The day we took this trip was freezing in Venice and we had a wait at the station due to checking out of the hotel and making our way to the station in good time.

This hotel is in an ok location as long as getting to and from the station or airport is not a consideration for you. The rooms are small and the bathroom very small and cramped. There is a textile wall covering in the room that is dirty and lamp shades etc are dirty and stained. The pillows and bedding smells, possibly of tobacco smoke or the like.

The staff are friendly and helpful.

The room located on level 2 had a weak wireless internet signal and a connection that dropped out from time to time.

After the earlier really bad trip on SBB to Milan this train was a welcome relief. Booking and paying for this train in advance from Australia was easy and first class was only around 20 euro each!

I made a mistake selecting seats while booking and we were seated back to back but no problem on an Italian train! We were given the ok to move to facing seats and someone else was moved to the other pair. Several other passengers were moved about so they could sit together etc.

This would be without a doubt the absolute worst train trip we have ever experienced and that includes Sydney rail experiences! We have used London metro, Paris metro, Los Angeles trains, Tokyo metro, Kyoto metro and Japan rail, Hong Kong Rail, Italian Rail, Barcelona metro, German trains, Finland, Swedish, Danish and Singapore trains, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane rail and yes this Swiss one is without doubt the very worst by a long margin.

Images from an around the world trip via;

1. Australia
2. USA
3. Finland
4. Sweden
5. Denmark
6. Germany
7. Austria
8. Switzerland
9. Italy
10. Spain
11. France
12. UK
13. Hong Kong

Cities;

This is the longest night train trip we experienced in Europe.

Most of the others leave around 23:00 or 24:00 and arrive at 06:00 or 07:00 so even if you get to sleep the entire journey it is short.

The Milano Barcelona night train leaves Milano Centrale at 19:40 and is scheduled to arrive at Barcelona Franca at 09:43 the following day.

Obviously this travels from Italy to Spain via France.

The train staff require passengers passports on departure and the passports are returned the following morning before arrival.

Treno Roma 13:15 to Milano

Hotel Sonya Via del Viminale, 58 00184 Roma Italy

With the last really good hotel we stayed in being the one in Helsinki this hotel was a welcome change.

The hotel in Venizia was good too and it would be hard to claim one as better, as the staff were friendly and helpful at both, and the rooms were clean and a good size.

About the only thing that could be said about the room we had at Hotel Sonya is that the shower enclosure was small although I fitted ok at 6' and around 95 – 100 kg so this could only be a problem for larger people.