Which is better? Eurostar and connecting trains or flying? I hate flying but the train may cost more due to extra stops overnight.
Yes I’m going from Edinburgh so it means an extra 4 hours. I done Milan by train but I believe Rome is much further and I am not quite sure I am that keen to travel that far by rail.
Rome to Milan is 3hr thoughRome is at least another 4 hours from Rome by train
Rome to Milan is 3hr though
I'm planning Sicily to Shipley later this year and will probably break the journey in Rome and then once more.
Rome to Yorkshire/Lowlands works reasonably well using the Venice-Milan-Paris sleeper, whereas via Munich is tight for timings.
Yes I have.I assume you have read the man in seat 61?
https://www.seat61.com/Italy.htm#London to Bologna, Florence, Rome, Naples
The Italian trains begin from Paris in December so this may change this?
If you start in London at 07:16, you can arrive into Roma Terminii on the second morning - about 24 hours later.
You would change at Brussels-Midi, Frankfurt(Main)Hbf, and München Hbf. At München Hbf, you would board the modern and comfortable NightJet train for a good night's sleep, arriving into Roma at 09:22.
The journey by train would be far more exciting and interesting than a dull flight, and as you say, you hate flying anyway. It's a no-brainer for that distance!
having left London 7 hours later.
As the OP prefers not to travel for more than 6hr/day (from previous posts), to avoid night trains, and doesn't apparently travel light (post #12), I would split the journey Edinburgh-Paris-Turin-Rome and return via Lausanne/Geneva-Paris or possibly Zurich/Basel-Paris.
As an alternative to the big cities, and to split the travel better, I would consider Brig or Sion for Lausanne and the bottom end of Lake Lucerne (Fluelen/Brunnen); in the latter case I would think about switching to the old Gotthard route as well.
Coming via Basel, yet another option for the middle day is via Strasbourg-Lille, as there is a convenient afternoon train.
Faster, but it's still a 19 hour journey time (+plus ES check-in time), with probably not a lot of sleep (especially if you're going to get off the sleeper at 06:05) and missing a lot of the scenery in the darkness.
Which is better? Eurostar and connecting trains or flying? I hate flying but the train may cost more due to extra stops overnight.
An overnight stop isn't needed. First train from London to Paris in the morning, then train to Turin. Then there's plenty of time to get a high-speed train from Turin to Rome arriving the same evening.
Lyon is easy from Edinburgh in a day; even easier if you change at Lille. Plenty to see in the evening and fantastic restaurants. Very scenic to Turin via TGV. Return from Milan via Zurich even more scenic and direct TGV possible Zurich-Paris with onward connections to UK.