Train from Florence to Venice
 

We will be arriving in Florence, renting a car, and staying in Val D’Orcia for a few weeks. We will then return the car to Florence airport and take a train to Venice ( we will fly home from there). Everyone says to book the train tickets early but how early can you book? We are going in September. Is taking a taxi from the airport to the train station in Florence the best way to get there? Thank you for your help.

Book at Acquista il biglietto con le nostre offerte - Trenitalia or www.iatalotreno.com - two competing rail companies operating similar trains over same tracks and using same stations. Booking in advance times vary sometimes but simply go to above sites and see how far out they are booking.

Yes Florence SMN the main station in Florence is the one to go to from airport. www.seat61.com has sage advice on booking in advance yourself; www.ricksteves.com and BETS-European Rail Experts for general train info.

I think when I booked my train ticket from Florence to Venice for last July, I was able to book 3 months in advance. You can get deals online in advance. I can't help with the parking situation, as we took a train from Lucca to Florence.

taxis or buses

I would keep the car and drive to Venice. It probably wouldn't be any faster, but it would involve fewer steps.

Tickets typically become available around 120 days in advance. The correct website for Italo (the competing private operator that also services this route, and may sometimes be more competitive than Trenitalia) is https://www.italotreno.it/en

If you are in the southeast corner of Val d'Orcia, you can drop-off car at the Chiusi station if your rental has an office there. You can then take a regionale train from the Chiusi station to the Florence station and then take a Freccia train to Venice. The total trip is about 4.5 hours. Chiusi car rental offices, like many other rental offices in Italy, are closed during the lunch time, half day on Saturday, and closed on Sunday.

ANUJ - thanks for catching my error - about www.italotreno.com being italotreno.it/en!

I'm with Jean here. Why spend half a day dropping the car at Florence airport then getting to SMN? For me, I would eliminate the extra step and drop the car in Venice. Watch for the closing times at the drop off in Venice.

Yeh why not drop car in Venice at car rentals - probably at Piazza Roma and take public boats to your hotel area. Or water taxis.

We are dropping the car in Florence as we have to drop friends at the airport anyway. Just figured the train would be the easiest way to get to Venice. I know we won’t need a car while we are there. Thanks for the train information.

Book your train tickets ASAP as mentioned above and check both train sites.

If we did decide to drive to Venice and drop the car should we drop it at Mestre or Piazzale Roma? We are considering the train and driving options.

I myself hate the drive from Florence to Venice; heavy truck traffic and lots of tunnels, so I probably would drop the car at the airport in Florence. If you do drive to Venice, I think Piazzale Roma is the best place to drop the rental car. You can get a vaporetto there. I live in Italy, so have never rented a car here, but we've parked at Piazzale Roma.
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drop the car in Piazzale Roma, not Mestre

It can be bumper to bumper on the causeway so dropping at Mestre could be a good idea and take shutle train to station.

Looking at the ItaliaRail site today is the first day I can book for September 22. It only shows four direct trains to Venice. One at 6:30 am and the next one is not until 13:30. Will there be other trains put on the schedule in the morning if I wait a while? I was hoping to take a train between 10:00 and 12:00 so as not to get into Venice too late. The traffic to Venice doesn't sound too appealing to me but I don't want to hang around Florence with my luggage for 5 or more hours either.

Use the official Trenitalia site. They're showing many trains for that date, even though it's officially too early to book.

http://www.trenitalia.com/tcom-en?

You need to use the Italian names, Firenze and Venezia, and don't forget to specify an early time of day to prevent it from rolling over to the next day.

ItaliaRail is a third-party middleman -book direct from the sources of the two train companies serving Venice-Florence - www.italotreno.it/en and Acquista il biglietto con le nostre offerte - Trenitalia. Always book from source unless that is not possible as was once with trenitalia.com folks here say but now reports are it and especially italotreno.com are easy to get to work.

Sorry to ask again but want to make sure I am leaving from and going to the correct stations. I am leaving from Firenze S. M. Novella and going to Venezia S. Lucia correct? There are 5 Venezia stops. I see an 11:30 train now but I think it is still too early to book.

Is there a big difference between standard and premium seating?

Yes Firenze SMN in schedules if not Santa Maria Novella and Venezia Santa Lucia - Venice Mestre is las stop on mainland before trains trundle over causeway to terminal station Santa Lucia.

Is there a difference in seating of classes - depends who you ask. Check www.seat61.com; BETS-European Rail Experts and www.ricksteves.com for more on general differences.

Sometimes first class is not much more than 2nd class - in discounted tickets so many might say how much extra would premium be over standard and also the length of the train ride.

Frecciarossa trains have "Premium" and "Standard" (as well as Business and Executive). They don't have 1st and 2nd class. Premium and Standard are the equivalents of 2nd class on the other Freccia trains.

It doesn't depend on who you ask. Premium and Standard seats have identical configurations, legroom, width and seat pitch.The only difference is a slightly fancier upholstery (fake leather instead of cloth). They also offer a beverage, but in my experience, they never get around to it on a short trip, and even on a long trip they may try to sneak past you without attracting your attention. I would choose Premium only if there is no price difference at all, on the off chance that it might be less crowded. However, I almost never encounter a crowded car on a Frecciarossa train.

Thank you. It looks like it’s open for booking in September now and there are tons of seats available so I think I will book them 39 euro seems like a good fare for 2 people. Now I just need to figure out if we should sit side by side or next to each other! Tough to tell which direction the train is going. I don’t know why but feel like it would be better to be forward facing. I guess if we sit across from each other we can switch. Thank you for all your help.

It's impossible to know which direction the train is traveling, because they change direction at some stations, such as Rome, Florence, and Venice, where they pull in and back out. (The new station they're building in Florence, though, will be a drive-through station).

I find that it makes no difference at all which way I face. It's not like a bus. However, you're right, sitting across from each other will allow you to do heads-or-tails to see which way you face.

And €39 is an excellent price.

bv - thanks for mentioning the new high-speed train station being built outside of Florence (and connected with trams to existing SMN one - major inconvenience it seems but the trend in Europe as many locals drive to stations I suspect).

Striking architecture:

https://www.fosterandpartners.com/pr...ilway-station/

The majority of Florence-Bologna high-speed line it says is in tunnels so which way facing on that section could be indifferent?

39 euros for 2? Wow. Wonder what ItaliaRail would charge - what site did you use - trenitalia.com or italotreno.it or ItaliaRail.com?

That €39 fare would be for one, not two.

I think the real reason for the new station is to shave some time off the trips. Pulling into the old station and then backing out is a time waster.

I used this one Trenitalia - Homepage English - Trenitalia. Of course I just tried to go on and it is down for maintenance. I'm pretty sure I was reading it correctly and it was 39 euro for two people. Maybe because I am not going until September 22? I hope I can get that fare tomorrow! My trip is getting closer and I'm getting excited.

You can also use https://www.italotreno.it/en

Italo is a private company running their own trains on the same tracks. Using the same stations. They only run highspeed trains to highspeed train stations. Italo is often a little cheaper. They also run sales fairly often.

The reason I think it's for one person is that it's an odd number, and they don't show fractional euros. Also, all their single fares usually end in 9. They do run 2-for-1 sales, but they're usually not that cheap. However, maybe you were lucky!

Do they take bookings that far in advance- Sept?

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...367b00ec67.png

This is what the site says. I'm assuming it is for 2 people. Am I wrong? The weird thing is there is a 2 for 1 for 50 euro which is why I am questioning it.

That certainly looks like it's for 2 people. Great price!

I used to prefer Italo, but I noticed recently that their trains have limited space for 22" bags - a lot of the upper shelf space won't hold more than an 18 or 19" bag, which doesn't work for most travelers. And I don't like leaving my bag at the end of the car, so will probably go with Trenitalia from now on.

Do they email the tickets?

www.seat61.com may have all those answers or bvlenci will if she/he returns.

€20 from Florence is an okay price but it's not exceptionally low. I've paid €20 from Rome. It's cheaper from Florence.

That certainly seems to be for two people, so it's a fantastic price.

Lately I've noticed that they have tickets on sale sooner than the 120-day limit. Also, even though they still group the prices into the categories Base, Economy, and Super Economy, in reality they have different prices within those categories. They may be moving to the airline pricing model, and the prices may be be going up and down in an unpredictable manner.

I also have reservations in September at the same price Sberg found. I suspect Italo may be having an influence on Trenitalia.

Sberg--When you complete your purchase, you'll get an email from Trenitalia showing your PNR. There should also be a pdf of your tickets attached that will have the PNR and a barcode. Print the tickets at home or have it on your phone.

Thank you everyone. I know I asked a lot of questions but this is my first experience with train travel. I am going to book today with full confidence thanks to all your responses. One last question. How long should I leave to get from Florence airport to the train station in Florence? I read that you don't have to be there too early but not sure of the taxi or bus distance.

Honestly there is no rush to book for September. There will be seats. There will be a sale between now and then. Right now for July Italo still has seats at €15.90 per person. Without a sale. Italo routinely has 50% off sales.

OTOH if you're happy with the timing and the price no reason not to book. For a single trip the money you save on the sale is less than a cheap lunch.