Rome to Venice rail holiday

Planet

On this trip we travel across Northern Italy from Rome to Venice, almost exclusively by train. Not only is rail travel a wonderful way to see landscapes change as you traverse a country, but it has an extremely low carbon footprint compared to using chartered vehicles. Our hotels are also chosen to be within easy reach on foot from the railway station helping minimise the environmental impact of our trip on the cities we visit.

All our city tours are either on foot or use public transport such as the metro in Rome or the vaporetto water buses in Venice. Along the Cinque Terre coast and at Lake Como, we explore by local train, ferry and on hikes. As well as being less polluting and more sustainable this also enables the group to discover hidden sights and gain a greater insight into the local culture and daily life.

We make a point of staying in Venice for 2 nights (rather than just being a day-tripper) and staying in a family-run hotel, shopping and eating locally and exploring away from the tourist hotspots to ensure that our visit benefits the city as much as it can.

The tap water is treated and safe to drink in Italy. We encourage clients to take a reusable water bottle to re-fill, rather than generating plastic bottle waste. Our local partner and tour leaders on tour try to follow a zero waste travel strategy whenever possible.

People

Both we and our local agent we use on this trip are very keen on doing activities and visiting places that involve our customers in the real lives and customs of the place. This can be something as simple as joining the locals for a coffee at a back street espresso bar in Rome or indulging in cicchetti and a spritz in a quieter quarter of Venice. We use local tour leaders that have a deep knowledge of the destination and of the local businesses in each community we visit. They also ensure that our customers are aware of the cultural norms that should be observed, dress code, gestures, etc.

We purposely do not include evening meals on this trip. This allows you to eat out at local family-run restaurants which is both an opportunity to experience the traditional cuisine and specialities of Italy's different regions, as well as helping to support the local economy. The wonderful food the tour leader will help the group find and try along the way is invariably grown or sourced locally and is simple in nature to showcase the quality fresh produce. This means less transportation and carbon footprint.

This trip visits a wine producer close to Montepulciano in Southern Tuscany where we'll have the chance to support the local production through tasting and then perhaps purchasing their various wines.

As a company we have valuable and longstanding partnerships with UK charities Toilet Twinning and Send a Cow, plus many smaller initiatives and projects around the world. We’re members of the UK travel industry body AITO because we believe it’s important to share our knowledge and experience, as well as learn from other operators.