Fly into Milan or Rome for Tuscany?
 

We will be flying from Boston, and I have read flights go into either Rome or Milan. They appear to be equi-distant from Florence, our final destination before moving on to San G. for our first leg of the trip.<BR><BR>Which airport makes more sense, or does it matter? From Milan or Rome, do we then fly to Florence? I would think the train would take too much time. Then from Florence, I would assume we would rent our car there and drive to San G?<BR><BR>We would like the quickest, easiest solution.<BR><BR><BR><BR>

It might not matter, probably just go for best price. Many people would opt for train for Rome-Florence (only 95 minutes - - and very restful after a sleep-deprived transatlantic flight). An argument could also be made to connect in Paris, London or any other city in Europe to fly directly into Pisa or Florence.<BR><BR>Tell me dates, and I'll tell you how I would do it if I were in your shoes.<BR><BR>Best wishes,<BR><BR>Rex<BR>

Rex -<BR>No dates just yet...<BR><BR>Debbie

Lufthansa flies into Florence from Frankfurt. BA flies into Pisa from London, as does Meridiana. Air France flies to Florence from Paris. There's more than one way to do it!

We flew into Florence with a plane change in CDG. (Delta/Air France) The Florence airport is small and easy to navigate. We took a cab from the airport to the bus station, and took the bus to Siena. You could check the bus schedule to see about a bus to San G. For our return, we took the bus back to Florence and stayed there for several days. We flew out of the Florence airport, changed planes at CDG. This worked for us. Although we took a taxi from the Florence airport to the bus station, we met several people at the bus station who said they took a shuttle bus from the airport to the bus station. We didn't realize there was a shuttle.

Are all the flights into Florence little commuter planes?<BR>

My daughter lives in Milan and we drove to Florence form there. It is a pretty long trin ride to Rome from Milan so I think that Milan would be alot closer..

Debbie--It appears you are going to rent a car to get to San G., no matter where you arrive. I think arrival in Milan-Malpensa is probably easier for getting a rental car, and the drive to Florence isn't bad. So why not just go ahead and rent a car in Milan? Of course, if you have decided to stay in the center of Florence, getting a car into the city, and parking it, will be a hassle. If you're staying on the outskirts, no problem.

Parking in Florence is a nightmare.. I would take a train to Florence.. IF you can park outside of the city rent a car, but driving in Milan is a nightmare also, I do it with my daughter.. she has a car.. A

You asked for the quickest and easiest solution - fly to Rome, hire a car and then drive to San G.<BR>By train from both Rome Fiumicino and Milan Malpensa you have to go to the City center to catch the Eurostar trains to Florence.<BR>By car the road from Milan can be pretty horrendous depending upon the time of day and day of week especially on the Milan ring road, the section from Modena to Bologna, the Appenine section from Bologna to Prato/Calenzano and even the section from Firenze Nord to Firenze Certosa.<BR>Leaving Fiumicino (i.e. the airport) you can even avoid the Rome ring road or GRA by taking the route Civitavecchia - Grosseto - Siena - San G.<BR>Try using www.viamichelin.com to route this and it will also give you estimated travel time.

While I generally agree with what Ian says, you really have to look at specific schedules - - and of course there is that pesky word "easiest" that debbie uses. Which is "easiest?" a non-stop flight followed by 2.5 hrs of driving? or a one-change flight, foillowed by 1 hr drive?<BR><BR>And then there is the question of "quickest" - - versus "gets you there earlier in the day". A flight to Rome that arrives at 9 am will actually get you to Tuscany later than a flight to Florence (via London, Paris, etc) that arrives at 10 am.<BR><BR>Dates, time and budget constraints need to be known to answer this one.<BR>

I just took the train from Milan to Rome and it took 4.5 hours-very fast actually. Just fly into Milan since it's always a little cheaper then take the train down. This way you can see a little more up north. It's always interesting to feel the difference in energy between the North and Rome. I think the train ride from Milan to Rome is like 45 Euro.

Rotaka, do you realize that the original post is more than three years old?

Voyager - this person is drumming up lots of old posts, and only got a SN yesterday...

what is an SN?