Is Eurostar Italia the only train from Rome to Florence? I'm having a hard time navigating through Trenitalia's website to find a train from Termini Station to Florence. Is it necessary to purchase tickets ahead of time, or can I do it once I land in Rome?

Any help is greatly appreciated. I will be visiting in July 2011.

Summer schedules for Trenitalia aren't online yet. I think current schedules are only through June 12. Some trains may be showing up, but not all. They probably won't be posted until sometime in May, but keep checking. If you can buy online in advance, you will probably be able to snag some discounts, but those may change with the schedule updates.

No reason ot buy in advance other than a potential discount on the " mini" fares. The trains run twice hourly---currently at :15 and :45 past the hour and you can buy tickets at the automated kiosks in the station.

There are ES trains from Rome to Florence at least twice an hour, all day long. You can check schedules for April if you want to see what they look like. Summer schedules won't change much, if any.

No, you don't need to buy tickets in advance, but as kyb said you may get a discount with an advance purchase.

Thank you for all of the great feedback!

>>>Is Eurostar Italia the only train from Rome to Florence? <<<

The fastest trains are AV/ES, ESCity. A bit slower are IC trains and slowest are the R trains. On Trenitalia, enter a date within the next 7 days for all trains/prices to show.
http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/inde...003f16f90aRCRD

The unreserved and undiscountable "regionale" trains cost only 17.05 Euros between Rome and Florence. This is clearly the "budget" option, which does not require an advance purchase!

The ultrafast Frecciarossa AV trains cost 45 Euros, but discounted "MINI" fares are available with an advance purchase. BEWARE that if you MISS your reserved train with a "MINI" fare ticket, you lose your money!!!

The IC trains between Rome and Florence go to the Firenze Rifredi station (for the most part), where you much connect to a local train to the main Firenze SMN station. For that reason, I usually recommend taking EITHER the nonstop Frecciarossa train (95 minutes), OR the unreserved "regionale" train (four hours), which makes over a dozen stops, but which is otherwise a good train.

Because train service between Rome and Florence is so frequent throughout the day, I recommend that travellers arriving by plane at FCO Airport do NOT purchase tickets in advance, but do so at the FCO train station. That is because there is too great a risk of missing your train if you book in advance, and if your plane arrives late. The cost advantage of finding one of the "MINI" advance purchase fares is lost if you miss your train and are required to purchase a new ticket.