This blog was written by our son Fred and his partner Louise:

We set off from sunny Bristol with our almost 3 year old and 5 month old baby, at 8am on Wednesday morning.  Once at Paddington, it's just a few stops underground to St Pancras International Station, before our 11.30am train to Paris du Nord.  Once through security at St Pancras, the station was very busy and no seats available so we were thankful that a French couple gave up a seat so that I could feed our 5 month old not sitting on the floor!

Once on the Eurostar, we were pleased to have table seats shared with a kind lady who helped us to pack up our little toys at the end of a quick journey!  We arrived in Paris around 2pm French time and headed straight for the AirBnB which was located near Gare de Lyon Station (across Paris - important to note if doing both the Euorstar and Milan train on the same day). 

Luckily, there was a good play park near the AirBnB so our toddler could burn off some energy before delicious falafel in the Jewish quarter.

The next morning, our train for Milan left at 7.30am.  There were good food options (especially for vegetarians) in Milane Centrale Station so we were fuelled for this 4 hour 40 journey.

The train was a busy one!  The tickets we had bought meant no seat reservation for our toddler and we had the added 'fun' of a second family being allotted to our table.  The price difference varied for family tickets vs 2 adults but when we do the trip again we would definitely look to pay the difference!

The train reaches speeds of 300km/hour and only stops a few times, meaning impressive distance is covered fast.  The onboard cafes on all trains are very reasonably priced, with a pizza and bottle of water costing 8E and the coffee was enjoyable too. 

Once in Milan, our AirBnB was a very short walk away before finding another park (a very long walk away) and heading on to the metro system to central Milan to see at least the outside of the very impressive Duomo and have some delicious pizza not far from the main square.

Then on the Friday, soon to be known as 'epic Friday', we headed to Brindisi on a 7am train.  For us, this meant a 25 minute change over in Bologna and a total journey time of 8.5 hours.  Again, no reserved seat for the toddler and a slower second train on this day.  However, the train became less populated as it journeyed down the coast and actually became quite spacious - made even better by our toddler napping successfully for a few hours!

Our ferry for Igoumenitsa departed at 11pm that evening so we had a few hours to wait in rainy Brindisi.  Once more, pasta was consumed by all of us, before a helpful local woman ushered us onto a bus labelled AP.  After a (mildly terrifying) Italian bus driver took us to the airport and back to where we started, we were very happy to learn the route did continue onto the ferry port.  There's a small bar/shop at the terminal which provided much needed ice lollies and cold beers.  We were able to board the boat at 9pm and were prioritised due to having young children so that we were in our very comfortable cabin quickly.

We woke up at 8am Greek time as we pulled into Igoumenitsa.  We took a short taxi ride (about a mile)  to the local port for a crossing Corfu.  We hadn't pre-booked the ferry crossing to Corfu as travelling in May, we could be certain to buy tickets for the next available crossing.

Then it was on to beautiful Villa Loukia (www.villaloukia.com, @villaloukiakassiopi) for a brilliant week of relaxing with family!

We certainly found the journey an adventure, especially with small children and it is not the cheaper option as compared to aeroplane.  It is important to us to think carefully about our CO2, made even more so when travelling with 2 little people!  By our rough calculations, our travel method caused 230kg of CO2 emissions, whereas flying would have been 2300kg.

Next time we are eyeing up the sleeper train from Stuttgard to Venice, meaning a longer ferry down to Greece.  Another adventure to be had!!

As I write this we are currently on the train back to Milan.  Left Corfu on Thursday morning and will be back in Bristol on Monday afternoon.  Of course, if you have the time you could take a week to travel down, breaking your journey in Paris and Milan or Stuttgard and Venice.  Lots of possibilities for adventures!

Louise & Fred

17th May 2025