Trieste, Italy to Venice, Italy: By Train with a Bicycle

At this juncture in the trip, I decided to start taking trains along with riding my bicycle. It was fairly easy to take the train from Trieste to Venice. One way to check the schedules from your cell is to use the Go Euro app. They have the schedules for TrenItalia loaded into their application. You have the option of purchasing through Go Euro, but it's more expensive than if you buy the tickets at the station. You can buy your tickets in English from the machines. One important thing to note is that you have to buy a ticket supplement for you bicycle. You buy a ticket for you, and one for your bicycle.



Also, it's the slower, regional trains that allow you to take you bicycle with you. If you find that a ticket machine is not allowing you to buy a ticket for your bicycle, it's very possible that your bicycle is not allowed on that particular train. I found this to be the case with me.

When you go to board the train, there is a car at the front of the train with a bicycle symbol on it. You need to hike your bike up the stairs to the bicycle car. For longer rides, I would lock the bicycle with a cable lock.



The trip by train was scenic, and you can look at the Adriatic as you head to Venice.





Of course, Venice is not a bicycle town, it's a boat town. My Italian friend teased me about arriving in Venice with my bicycle. "I will imagine you getting off the train with your bicycle at Venezia San Lucia, and I will laugh." I didn't fully understand until I started walking around. There are bridges everywhere, and they all have stairs.



I booked a hostel on the main island of Venice, and ended up lifting my loaded bicycle over no less than 13 bridges (or sets of stairs) on my way over there. I was glad that I was feeling strong that day. At the beginning of my trip, I could not even lift my bicycle up a set of stairs without taking my panniers off first. I was a beast with the beast. After I went on a walk after dropping my bicycle off at the hostel, waiters at outdoor cafes asked me where my bicycle was, remembering me awkwardly carrying it past just moments before.

In Venice, I had the extra challenge of having my first flat of the trip. I was struggling with my pump, and wanted to visit a bicycle shop. I was able to change the tube and pump it up using a CO2 inflator I had bought back in Prague. My stuff had shifted around a lot in my panniers by this point in my trip.



There is no bike shop on the island of Venice that I was able to find, but there are shops in Venezia Mestre. You can take the train over there. Mestre has bike lanes all over, and it's fun to ride around.



Venezia is a beautiful place to walk around and constantly get lost in its enchanting maze. It's everything Italian that we see in films in the United States. I focused on some of the bicycle things, but it is a paradise for pedestrians. The streets are crowded sometimes, so it's important to keep your wits about you. I would visit here again, and I did briefly before I left for Paris. Here are some glimpses of Venice.