BarbaraJ

We leave for Italy in about 5 weeks and I'm beginning to sweat the little details. This is one.

We are traveling by train from Parma to Florence in October. I was looking at schedules on Trentalia and found that if we wanted to go into SMN, we would have to take an IC and change in Bologna. However, we could take the ES into Firenze Rifredi station directly from Parma. Once in Firenze Rifredi there are trains running every 10 minutes to SMN and it is a 5 minute trip.

Has anyone ever switched at Rifredi? Any opinions and/or experiences would be appreciated.

ellenem

I think any train headed to SMN passes through Rifredi. You might have to use the underpass to chnage to the SMN-bound train, but even if you miss the next train, as you noted another will soon arrive.

Depending on where you are staying in Florence, it might even make sense to skip the change at Rifredi and just get a taxi from there.

BarbaraJ

Thanks Ellenem. We're staying in the heart of the tourist area, between Duomo and the Uffizi. Maybe we'll splurge on a cab.

I though all the ES trains from Milan (which pass through Parma) went onto SMN directly. I almost didn't notice the diffent stations.

kybourbon

There's a train at 12:50 that goes from Parma to Florence SMN without any changes. When you are looking at trains on Trenitalia, click details and on the next screen, click the train number. That will display all the stops that train makes.

BarbaraJ

Kybourbon - I did notice that. There is also one at 6:45 am that is direct to SMN. However, we would like to get to Florence earlier in the day. I think we may just go into Rifredi and catch a train to SMN or take a cab.