A view of Athens and Lykavittos Hill from the Acropolis.
Photo: Anders Blomqvist, Lonely Planet Images

by Brook Wilkinson

Question from reader jth163:

"I am helping my daughter plan her honeymoon. She and her fiance will be flying to Munich and then Athens. After several days in Athens, they are planning to use Eurail passes to ferry across to Italy, stopping in Sorrento, Rome, and Venice before taking the night train back to Munich. How can they get from Athens to the ferry at Patras? The Greek rail schedules are confusing; the bus appears faster but is it covered by the Eurail pass? Second, are they okay with Youth second-class rail passes in Italy and Greece, or is the extra money for first-class worthwhile there? Third, the rail trip from Naples to Rome is short. Is there a day trip to add in between to get the most out of the Eurail pass? They are traveling 16 days on a fairly tight budget."

That's a lot of ground to cover in a short time, especially for a honeymoon! Is your daughter sure that she wants to spend that much time on trains and ferries?

If so, they should take the train from Athens to Patras. It's about two and a half hours, which is shorter than the bus and will be covered by the Eurail pass (once you buy the pass, you'll receive a detailed map of the available routes). Since your daughter isn't planning any especially long or overnight journeys, she should be fine in second class. The seats won't recline, and they'll be slightly smaller than in first, but any inter-city train in Europe is better than what you'd find here in the U.S.

If your daughter and her new husband are going to be schlepping bags, I'm not sure that they'll want to get off the train midway between Naples and Rome (an hour-and-a-half trip). But one good option would be Aversa, which is famous for its buffalo mozzarella.