Munich to Verona by train, over the Brenner Pass

Along the way

1. Munich
2. 1

   about an hour out of Munich, from Kufstein to Innsbruck

   The Inn valley and Kufstein

   After Rosenheim the line follows the Inn across the Austrian border. At Kufstein the fortress stands on its rock above the town; it was first recorded around 1205, and its open-air organ of 4,307 pipes, the largest in the world, sounds over the town at midday. Sit on the left for the fortress as the train comes into Kufstein.

3. 2

   1 hour 46 minutes from Munich

   Innsbruck

   The train stops for about ten minutes at Innsbruck Hbf, with the mountains of the Nordkette standing directly behind the city. From here the climb begins: the 2027 timetable allows 34 minutes from Innsbruck to the summit station at the Brenner.

4. 3

   in the Wipptal, south of Steinach

   The loop at St. Jodok

   The line cannot climb the head of the valley directly, so at St. Jodok it turns off into the side valley, circles the village and returns through a 481 m horseshoe tunnel, gaining height as it goes. The village and the valley floor drop away below the window. It is 1860s engineering, and its gradients are why a heavy freight train here still needs two or three locomotives.

5. 4

   2 hours 30 minutes from Munich, 1,371 m

   Brennero, on the border

   The highest point of the journey is a station on the frontier between Austria and Italy, at 1,371 m on the pass itself. The railjet waits here for up to 12 minutes in the 2027 timetable. Deep beneath the frontier, the two tubes of the new base tunnel met on 28 July 2026.

6. 5

   30 to 60 minutes after the Brenner

   Franzensfeste, Brixen and Säben

   The Eisack valley narrows at Fortezza, where Austria built a vast fortress between 1833 and 1838 to guard the Brenner road; it never saw a battle and is now a museum, half an hour's walk south of the station. After Brixen comes Klausen, under the rock of Säben, once the seat of the bishops before they moved to Brixen, with its Benedictine convent on top. Look right for it.

7. 6

   3 hours 55 minutes from Munich

   Bolzano and the vineyards

   The valley opens and the vines arrive. South Tyrol grows them from 200 to 1,000 m, two thirds white, with Vernatsch and Lagrein as its native reds; St. Magdalener, led by Vernatsch, takes its name from the hillside hamlet above the city. In October the leaves turn and the Törggelen season, the South Tyrolean harvest feast of new wine and chestnuts, is under way in the farmhouses of the Eisack valley.

8. 7

   the last 1 hour 30 minutes

   Down the Adige to Verona

   South of Bolzano the train follows the broad Adige valley past vineyards, Trento and Rovereto, between steep valley walls. It arrives at Verona Porta Nuova, a short ride from the Arena and the old town that UNESCO inscribed in 2000 as a city built up over two thousand years.

9. Verona

Ways to do it

• The direct railjet, standard class

  From€24.40 Munich to Verona (Trenitalia, 18 November 2026 trains, priced 19 October 2026); €19.99 Munich to Bolzano (DB)

  Five a day in each direction, run jointly by DB and ÖBB with new-generation railjets: power sockets, free wifi, a quiet zone, a children's area and a restaurant car. There is no supplement and reservation is not compulsory. The cheapest fares are DB's Super Sparpreis Europa and ÖBB's Sparschiene: tied to one train, sold in limited numbers, opening six months ahead.

• First class

  From€29.99 on DB's Super Sparpreis Europa to Italy, €33.99 on the cancellable Sparpreis Europa

  Leather seats with more legroom, reading lights and food and drinks served at your seat. On ÖBB tickets a Business Class upgrade, with more space and privacy, can be added to a first-class booking. For a day of views from one seat it is the cheapest luxury on the route.

• The slow way over the pass, by local trains

  To linger on the mountain section, break the journey at Innsbruck and take local trains over the top, changing at Brennero. On a weekday in November 2026 the S3 left Innsbruck for Brennero every 30 to 60 minutes and took 38 minutes, and regional trains ran from Brennero to Bolzano about hourly in 1 hour 21 minutes, stopping at the villages the railjet passes.

• Straight on to Venice or Bologna

  FromVerona to Venice from €9.90 on ÖBB Sparschiene

  Two of the five railjets continue to Venice Santa Lucia (the 07:32 and 11:32 from Munich in 2027, arriving 14:25 and 18:25) and two to Bologna Centrale (the 09:32 and 13:32, arriving 16:08 and 20:16), so you can stay in your seat past Verona.

When to go

• WinterAt its best

  Winter turns the climb from Innsbruck into a white crossing: snow on the Wipptal and on the pass, then, within the hour, the terraced vineyard slopes of the Eisack valley on the Italian side. Bolzano's Christmas market fills Waltherplatz from 26 November 2026 to 6 January 2027. The days are short, so take the 07:32 or 09:32 to see the pass by daylight; the 15:32 reaches the Brenner at 18:02, in the dark in midwinter.

• Summer

  Long evenings mean even the last train of the day crosses the mountains in daylight, and in summer 2026 one railjet ran on beyond Bologna to Rimini and Ancona from 2 April to 4 October.

• AutumnAt its best

  The best weeks are October and early November: the vineyards around Bolzano and in the Eisack valley turn gold and red, the harvest is in, and the Törggelen season of new wine, chestnuts and speck runs in the farmhouse inns through October and into November. The low autumn light suits the climb through the Wipptal.