{"id":88298,"date":"2012-12-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-12-18T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/travelstartblg.wpenginepowered.com\/paris-to-milan-on-the-overnight-train\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T13:51:01","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T13:51:01","slug":"paris-to-milan-on-the-overnight-train","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.travelstart.co.za\/blog\/paris-to-milan-on-the-overnight-train\/","title":{"rendered":"Paris to Milan on the overnight train"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-27157\" src=\"https:\/\/travelstartmu.wpenginepowered.com\/zablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/10\/Screen-shot-2012-11-02-at-16.53.39.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"547\" height=\"407\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The last time I slept on an overnight train was in Vietnam. My expectations for comfort were so low that I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that there was clean bedding and nobody spitting into the communal aisles (we\u2019d just been to Cambodia and I was a little scarred!)<\/p>\n<p>Paris to Milan on an overnight train, though, had its own special set of expectations \u2013 most of them involving Armani sheets and gilt-edged drinking glasses, to be honest. I mean, surely a European overnighter must beat a South-East Asian one? Surprisingly, no. It was no worse than the Vietnamese train, but it was certainly no better.<\/p>\n<p>I partly blame our poor planning. We checked out the train on the best-ever-train-website (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.seat61.com\">www.seat61.com<\/a>) and were told, in no uncertain terms, to book a 4-sleeper because then you get some space to stretch out, whereas a 6-sleeper compartment is very cosy. We had booked our tickets months before, and as we boarded the train I was almost certain we\u2019d gone for the more expensive but more comfortable option\u2026 I was wrong. We had, in fact, booked two seats in a 6 sleeper compartment, which meant sitting with our knees touching our stranger neighbours for the first few hours, and then all shuffling in and out to make our beds once night fell.<\/p>\n<p>That said, it was as comfortable a night as one could wish for on a train. The bedding, again, was clean and warm. The bunks were cosy but long enough to stretch out on. And the rhythmic clickety-clack of the train tracks remains one of my favourite ways to fall asleep\u2026 Add to this, of course, the fact that you\u2019re getting a night\u2019s accommodation included in your train fare, and you can see why so many Europeans decide to hop countries by train. It\u2019s an adventure!<\/p>\n<p>Image credit: Heather Blackley via Pinterest<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You\u2019re getting a night\u2019s accommodation included in your train fare, and you can see why so many Europeans decide to hop countries by train. It\u2019s an adventure!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":88299,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_destination_ratings":[],"_destination_review_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[423,40,224],"class_list":["post-88298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel","tag-france","tag-italy","tag-paris","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Paris to Milan on the overnight train - Travelstart Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.travelstart.co.za\/blog\/paris-to-milan-on-the-overnight-train\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Paris to Milan on the overnight train - Travelstart Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You\u2019re getting a night\u2019s accommodation included in your train fare, and you can see why so many Europeans decide to hop countries by train. 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