Florence to Venice
 

Hello Fodorites,

I'll be leaving for Italy on Friday, spending 2 1/2 weeks in Rome, Siena, Vernazza and Florence. I wasn't planning Venice (too ambitious), but a friend was telling me she did a day-trip from Florence to Venice and it was great. I'll be in Florence for 5 days, and was planning on doing at least one day-trip.

What do you all think about Venice in a day? I'm sure I won't do the city justice, but it would be fun to see it even for a few hours. Does anyone know how long the train ride would be from the Florence station? Is it even worth it???

I love this site...you all have given me some great advice!

Thanks again!

the raileurope.com website has very detailed information on this. I think it might be too far. It took me 6 hours from Rome to Venice and Rome is about 1-1/2 hrs from Florence.

I didn't do it as a day trip, but I did take the train from Florence to Venice and I think it was less than 3 hours. If you took the first train out and the last one back at night you'd have a good number of hours to get a taste. You already know it won't be "enough" but it would be fun and as long as you can stand a rather longish day I'd say go for it.

Try to fit in at least one night. What is your current schedule?

train schedules, fares: www.trenitalia.com - about 3.5 hours with about hourly trains.

I would absolutely do it, in order to see Venice. With 5 days in Florence, I'd change & even plan 1 overnight in Venice if you can.

Never pass up an opportunity to see Venice even if it's for one day! I agree that it would be optimum for you to take the train to Venice early one morning but stay overnight and take a train back to Florence the next morning. If you can't do that...as long as you can figure out a way to spend between 6-8 hours in Venice it will be worth the excursion.

One more thing...we just got back from Italy and we were terribly disappointed in Siena this time. The Duomo has lots of scaffolding and cranes surrounding it. The lines to get into the Duomo were long. Il Campo was literally packed with humanity. It just isn't the same sweet city it used to be in my opinion. I'd suggest spending that extra day exploring more of Florence or Venice. Just my opinion though.