Shengen is a group of countries which you can visit on a single Shengen visa. What do you mean by "beginning the departure"? That doesn't make sense.

If you hold a Schengen travel visa type C, it says in the first column (valid for): Schengener Staaten, státy Schengenu, Schengen-staterne, Schengeni riigid, Schengen-valtiot, Etats Schengen, Schengen Staates, Stati Schengen, Šengenas valstis, Šengeno valstybėse, l-Istati ta' Schengen, Schengenstaten, Państwa Schengen, Estados Schengen, schengenske države, štáty schengenského priestoru, or Schengenstater you may travel to: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France (to include Monaco), Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy (to include San Marino and Vatican City), Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden 1.1. "VALID FOR" heading This heading indicates the territory in which the visa holder is entitled to travel. This heading may be completed in one of the following four ways only: (a) Schengen States; (b) Schengen State or Schengen States to whose territory the validity of the visa is limited (in this case the following abbreviations are used: A for Austria, B for Belgium, CZ for Czech Republic, DK for Denmark, EST for Estonia, FIN for Finland, F for France, D for Germany, GR fro Greece, IS for Iceland, I for Italy, LVA for Latvia, LT for Lithuania, L for Luxembourg, M for Malta, NL for the Netherlands, N for Norway, PL for Poland, P for Portugal, SVN for Slovenia, SL for Slovakia, E for Spain, S for Sweden. (c) Benelux (stands for Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg); (d) Schengen State (using the abbreviations in (b)) which issued the national long-stay visa (Type D) + Schengen States Source(s): http://www.esteri.it/MAE/EN/Ministero/Se… http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexU…