from venice to lyon

November 2, 2009 2:13 PM

Recommend somewhere in between Venice and Lyon to spend 3-4 days this December?

Winter break travels:

My sister and I (two college-age girls) were originally thinking of taking an overnight train to Geneva from Venice since Venice-Geneva-Lyon seems like a pretty straightforward route looking at the map. Also, we thought that taking the cable car up Mont Blanc would be nice.

Problem is, bahn.de's Geneva-bound night trains currently appear to transit through Innsbruck and Zurich, which seems like an unnecessarily long detour with not much time for sleep. Is there any awesome place in between Venice and Lyon that doesn't have that much of a detour by train? Or should we just suck it up and go to Geneva anyway?

The Venice and Lyon bits are fixed, unfortunately or not.

Prior to this, we will have visited Rome and Florence. We'd like to visit somewhere in Switzerland, but it seems like every train will go through Zurich. Should we just do Zurich then? Another possible option I've considered is Milan but it doesn't seem very interesting, from what others have said.

Thanks!

posted by swimmingly to travel & transportation (5 comments total)

I've been to Milan several times and there is plenty interesting stuff to do, see, buy and eat. Maybe link below will change your mind...

20 Great Things to do in Milan

Another option to consider is Turin, which is a beautiful city and close to the Alps, if you want mountains.
posted by janecr at 2:39 PM on November 2

You could stop at Marseille or Aix-en-Provence (on the coastal route to Lyon from Venice, pick up the TGV at Nice or Marseille), both very different cities but lovely in their own way. Marseille is a proper port city, France's second biggest and has a very individual culture - it's not like anywhere else in France. Aix is the ancient capital of Provence - very elegant old town and feels a bit like a chunk of the Parisian Rive Gauche deposited in the South. Also home of Cézanne, whose very simple studio is open for visits.
posted by athenian at 2:54 PM on November 2

Grenoble!
posted by blue_beetle at 3:13 PM on November 2

Carcassonne is a lovely place, and from memory it's more or less on the junction of the train line from Italy to Spain & the line up to Paris via Lyon.

You might be facing something like a day skirting the Alps & then along the coast (through Monaco, as well) and then a quick few hours from Carcassonne to Lyon.
posted by UbuRoivas at 4:36 PM on November 2

I got a good nights sleep on the overnight train from Venice to Dijon in 2006 - it's a couple hours from there on to Lyon.
posted by jacalata at 11:30 PM on November 2