Train to Fiesole
 

Is the Fiesole train station really as far from the town as it appears on the map?

Almost closer to walk from Florence?

The village of Fiesole is up on the hill. The train station is down at the bottom, in the valley. To travel to Fiesole you take a bus from Florence. I believe the bus departs from right near the Florence SMN train station. Someone else can chime in with the bus # and more details.

Yes, I know the #7 bus goes to Fiesole.

I'm just looking into a train option.

Does anybody know how far the train station is from the town?

Trains don't do well at climbing hills... To get to Fiesole, you take the Florence No. 7 bus. Look up ATAF.

You can try to use viaMichelin or mappy.com to get the answer. You plug in the name of the train station and then a landmark or address in central Fiesole, and you will get the number of meters, kilometers. etc. If you don't have an Fiesole address, look up a centrally-located Fiesole hotel on the internet and use its address.

Just as a general piece of information, almost train stations in Italy are located outside the walls of ancient towns, which means you'll almost always have a healthy walk to the town center. And others have pointed out, this goes double when the town was built up on a hill and the train tracks can only be laid on a valley floor or alongside a flat riverbed.

It is possible that a non-stop taxi ride from Firenze would not be prohibitively expensive and more comfortable than a public bus ride, but the road up is switchbacks and turns.

as well as gonig from the bus station near the train station, it also stops at the piazza san marco at the top of via cavor. [south side of the piazza just round the corner from the accademia].

the cafe just by the bus stop sells tickets plus a great cafe corretto, and the cafe on the corner with via cavor has a very good menu plus the most elaborate waitresses' uniforms I've seen outside films.

a good day's itinerary could be the accademia first thing, then the monastery di san marco [only open in the mornings] followed by either lunch in the cafe [depending on how long you took in the accademia and the monastery] or the bus up to fiesole, followed by lunch up there. [we liked the restaurant in the square, as did a lot of local workmen, we noticed].

in the afternoon, tour th cathedral in the square, then walk up to the monastery di san francisco via the road that goes up the side of the hill, stopping for the views of florence, tour the monastery and the museum in the basement [extraordinary nativity scene and artifacts from the monks' journeys] then walk back through the park, which will bring you to the road leading to the roman amphitheatre[turn right when you come to the road next to the council offices].

the tourist office offers tours of local gardens in summer.

at night there are lovely views over Florence - allegedly. [we were already back in Florence by then].

the bus stops for about an hour at lunch-time so the driver can get his lunch.

I think I can.

You can see the location of the bus & train stations on maps.google.com. Fiesole Caldine has direct service from Florence SMN, while Fiesole Pian del Mugnone has regional train from Florence Campo di Marte. Both of those are at the base of Fiesole.

Google has done a great job cataloging public transportation in Italy. Zoom in on Fiesole Caldine and you'll see its location. Click on any of the bus / train stop icons and you'll see more info for each one.

I thought I could.

Fiesole FI, Italy
4.2 km – about 51 mins
Suggested routes

Fiesole Caldine

1. Head northwest on Via Stazione Caldine toward Via Faentina/SS302 83 m
2. Sharp left at Via Faentina/SS302 2.3 km
3. Slight left at Via Faentina 0.3 km
4. Slight left at Via Fontelucente 0.3 km
5. Slight left to stay on Via Fontelucente 0.2 km
6. Slight left to stay on Via Fontelucente 0.2 km
7. Sharp left toward Via Angeli 27 m
8. Turn right at Via Angeli 0.3 km
9. Continue onto Via Vecchia Fiesolana 0.2 km
10. Slight left at Via Angelico/SP53 77 m
11. Turn right to stay on Via Angelico/SP53
Continue to follow SP53
Go through 1 roundabout 78 m

Piazza Mino50014 Fiesole FI, Italy

That's of course if you feel like walking along the edge of a Strada Statale for 2.3 km...

I thought I could.That's of course if you feel like walking along the edge of a Strada Statale for 2.3 km...>>

exactly Zerlina - why would you want to?

FWIW.

Someone I travel with quite frequently gets motion sickness quite easily so for us trains are often preferable over bus. She uses wrist bands with a knob on them that applies slight pressure on the wrist. I think they're called sea bands, and claims this really helps motion sickness. She gets them on the internet.

On our last trip to Italy this gave us added flexibility to get to some of the hill towns w/o walking up hill 2km on a busy road or needing to find a taxi at a small town train depot.

Myer, this is what we did the last time we went to Fiesole. We met up with another couple at the Four Seasons Hotel on Borgo Pinti, looked at the public rooms of this former palazzo and had coffee in the bar. Absolutely gorgeous hotel. Then we strolled around the Giardino della Gherardesca behind the hotel. What an amazing oasis in Florence. This garden is part of the hotel and not public, but no one stopped us from taking a quick walk around. We took a cab from the hotel up to Fiesole. I don't remember the fare, but the ride was only 5-10 minutes at most.

Those two train stations for Fiesole are outside the town of Fiesole that most travelers visit. In fact, I believe they are on the other side of a hill and would not offer the view of Florence that many visit Fiesole to enjoy. I suspect that, unless you enjoy a hilly walk, it would be more troublesome to get to Fiesole proper from these town than from the center of Florence--you'd end up on a public bus you are trying to avoid since few taxis would be available. If a bus ride is not for you, then I agree that it would be quick and easy to take a taxi from central Florence to Fiesole.

Myer, the short answer is yes, it really is as far as it appears and no, it is not closer to walk from Florence.

Myer has posted a bunch of times in other threads that his wife is very sensitive to motion sickness and bus rides -- even short ones, with all their stop and go -- can spoil a day.

I think Jean's suggestion of a 10 minute cab ride might be the answer.