GAC

Travellers need to be aware that most long-distance Intercity (IC) trains which transit through Florence NO LONGER STOP at the main S.M. Novella Station, but rather at the outlying Rifredi or Campo di Marte Stations, which require a regionale train connection to reach S.M. Novella.

This also means that travellers needing to connect in Florence to other trains may face a similar need to connect to (or from) S.M. Novella Station.
For example, if you are taking the IC train from Venice to Florence to connect to Arezzo, Cortona, Perugia, Assisi, Spello or Foligno, you won't be connecting in Florence at all, but in Arezzo. If you want to get to Naples (or Chiusi or Orvieto) from Florence on the IC train, you'll have to take a regionale train to Rifredi Station to board the IC. And only two of the seven IC trains between Rome and Florence go into S.M. Novella Station (the other five stop only at Rifredi).

By contrast, if you're connecting from the IC train to a regionale train to Viareggio, Lucca, Montecatini, or Pistoia, you can connect at Prato Centrale. If you're going to Pisa, connect at Firenze Rifredi.

So, BEWARE when travelling on any IC train to, from or connecting in Florence. Check the Trenitalia schedules to verify whether your particular IC train goes into S.M. Novella Station. If you're connecting, determine your correct connection station.

The reason that most IC trains skip over S.M. Novella Station is to save time: to reach this station requires branching to a dead-end line, whereas the Rifredi/Campo di Marte stations are on the main through line going from north to south. Hence, IC trains originating in Milan or Venice (southbound) or in Naples or Rome (northbound) stop at Rifredi on the main line and not at S.M. Novella on the dead-end line.

www.ferroviedellostato.it

cathies

That's a very good point. We got caught in that situation last year when we travelled from Napoli to Firenze on the IC. The annoying part was that Rifredi wasn't well signposted as to how we could get back to S. M. Novella. Or if it was we couldn't work it out. We eventually found a bus and made our way that to where we needed to be, but it involved dragging our luggage up a flight of steps and that awful feeling of "where are we and how are we going to get to where we need to be?" BTW we don't travel with much luggage but these stairs were a pain to negotiate. We probably could have caught a train but couldn't work out how.

We made our way back to S.M. Novella as we had a fair idea of our bearings from there, then we caught a taxi for the 5 min ride to our apartment, only to work out later that we were a 15 min walk to Rifredi!! Ah, the joys of travelling!!

Connie

A good reason to take the bus. We found them to be very nice, clean and uncrowded. We took a bus from Rome to Siena and later from Sienna to Florence. It's a lot easier to get to central Siena by bus since the train stops at the bottom of the hill and you then have to take a taxi up to the city center.

Graziella5b

For me it was a blessing we could take an Intercity train between ROme and Firenze, it took a little longer ok, less than an hour more that we used to have a good picnic on board the train The saving was tremendous, we paid 64.80 eu for three adults with the Amici discount while a return ticket even with a 20% discount was 36 euros.
Arriving at Rifredi meant only 4 euros more in the taxi fare to the hotel.

Graziella5b

To make myself very clear we paid for three adult tickets in the Intercity 64.80 euros
and 36 euros, including a 20% discount, if not it would have been 40 euros for the
return ticket in the Euro star.

Graziella5b

Good Lord, I am sorry , I paid 36 euros for only one return ticket.

LoveItaly

Cathies, your post has me laughing. We were in our rental car and were going to go to a very small village east of Chiavari to spend a few days. We drove up a mountain road and at some point one could either go left or right at the "Y" in the road. We went to the left and ended up where we started. So we went back again up the mountain and this time turned right at the "Y" and again ended up where we started. What the heck? One more try and we again passed a tiny cafe with some elderly Italian men sitting outside at a table playing cards. We stopped and my husband went over and talked to them. When he came back to the car he said he now knew which road to take. Evidently not as we again ended up where we started! For crying out loud. The fourth time as we approached the tiny cafe one of the men came running out into the road and flagged us down and gave my husband a handwritten map. There was a little road we should have taken which we had never noticed! Oh, mille grazie!

Sooooo, we had a delightful three nights in the tiny village and when we went to leave the elderly lady of the hotel where we stayed handed us a map. For crying out loud, the street that went past her hotel took us to where we had started out each and every time we tried to get to the hotel. The road took us about 10 minutes to get back to Chiavari where we than headed to Genova. LOL. Who knew? Not us, that is for sure. We spent about two hours going over the mountain again and again and again. It was a beautiful drive however and a fun memory!

cathies

LoveItaly, your story is much better than mine!! I have a very funny mental picture of you driving around and around and getting nowhere fast!!

However, as long as you keep your cool these are often some of the best travel memories.

nancicita

wow, I did not know this. But then again, I never paid attention to check if the trains I took were IC or not.
Thanks for the info.