Milan

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.

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

Treno 9715 11.35AM Train Milano – Venezia scheduled to arrive 14:10

Cost of reserving the 2 first class tickets using our Eurail global pass for 2 persons was 20 Euro.

Interior of the carriges on this train is clean and roomier than the train from Zurich to Milano.

Vinyl floor feels cleaner than carpet but interior is nosier as a result.

Seating layout is typically a row of 2 seats down one side and a single row down the other. Seats are facing each other generally with a table between and 220 VAC power is available.

Apparently recently renovated, this hotel is clean. Close to the central station too.

If internet access is important you may need to consider other options here. The wifi signal in our room on the 3rd floor was weak and dropped out regularly.

They seem to have every port other than port 80 blocked so you will not be able to send or receive emails using your email client such as outlook, thunderbird etc.

13:09 Train Zürich Hauptbahnhof 13:09 – Milano 16:50

Once again according to the Eurail schedule book this train service required a reservation.

The reservation was made at Zürich Hauptbahnhof and we were charged 35 CHF for the reservation.

As checkout for our room was 11:00 AM and we had been very tired from the previous night train experiences we made the reservation for the 13:09 train.

We actually arrived at Zürich Hauptbahnhof just before 10:00 AM and decided to see if we could change to the 11.09 AM.