Myer

I expect to take a few day trips from Florence.

On a few of them I will make stops of a couple of hours and then continue on.

Should I buy individual tickets for each segment or one ticket to the farthest point?

Once validated, for how long is a ticket valid?

Is this explained anywhere on the trenitalia web site?

kybourbon

In Italy, the majority of train tickets are for a specific seat on a specific train at a specific time. Your ticket is only valid for that particular train/seat/time. The only exception would be the slow R trains.

J62

I believe the trains OP is referring are in fact R trains - Florence to Pisa, Lucca, etc.

kybourbon

Tickets validity
National trains
The tickets are all sold with place reservation and are valid for the day and the train booked. Booking changes are allowed according to the formalities applied by the type of ticket.

(The above would be for AV,ES,ESCity,ICPlus,IC trains)

Regional trains
Regional train tickets are valid for up to two months from the date of purchase. There are no time-use limits for distance-validity tickets or the self-adhesive voucher tickets.
Remember to validate your ticket before boarding. After validation, the time validity starts depending on the journey length. You must validate all parts of self-adhesive voucher tickets.
Regional tickets bought online are valid for 4 hours and do not need to be validated.


>>>Note: The Leonardo Express does sell some time specific tickets even though it's an R train with no seat reservations.

kybourbon

This link explains more in-depth if you are only intested in R trains.
http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/inde...003f16f90aRCRD

Myer

I believe we'll only be taking "R" trains.

I imagine they have to be validated.

From the time of validation, for how long are they valid?

Can I get off, spend a couple of hours and then get back on using the same ticket as long as I purchased it from the starting point to the farthest point?

kybourbon

Yes, your R ticket will have to validated, but how long you can stop somewhere depends on the ticket you purchase (cities selected/distance). Typically, it's valid for 6 hours once validated, but you would need to ask as it can vary. For R tickets, there is really no point purchasing like that. If you want to travel from Florence to Pisa and one of the train stops in route is Empoli and you want to stop there, just buy a ticket Florence/Empoli (3€)and another ticket Empoli/Pisa (3.60€)instead of Florence/Pisa (5.70€). The price really isn't much different. None of the R trains you would use for day trips near Florence will cost much. Often a bus is the better option such as for Siena since sometimes train stations aren't close to the city centers.

To view train stops on Trenitalia, select cities, select train, click details by selection instead of continue, click info and scroll down for the list of stops.
http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/inde...003f16f90aRCRD

Turtlehead

Along those lines, do Italian trains typically run on time?