Hello - first time posting, thank you all in advance for your help!

We are travelling from Toronto to Italy in late Sep-2024. Our plan is 4 nights in Florence, 4 nights in Rome, 4 nights in Sorrento. Originally we planned to fly into Florence and depart out of Rome, but now I see the flights between Rome and Toronto are both direct and cheaper, so I think we will fly into Rome instead of Florence, and then travel to Florence via rail or private car once we land in Rome.

There will be 5 adults. Can anyone recommend a good car service for the transfer? Or do you think the train is the better way to go? Just looking to keep things simple. I'm travelling with my parents and going from plane to train, to a different train, to taxi might be too much for them.

If the car service is more expensive than just booking a flight directly to Florence, then it's not worth it. The savings is about $300 CAD per person to fly into Rome vs Florence.

Any advice is appreciated!

Have you looked at flying into or out of Naples?

If you're flying in and out of Rome, I would suggest making it your first 4 night stay. Take the train into Rome from FCO and settle in for a few days before heading to Florence (again by train). The train trip from Florence to Sorrento will be a little more complicated in that you'll likely have to change trains in Naples, but not difficult. I would shave a night off one stop so as to be back in Rome the day before you fly home.

While taking the train to Florence on arrival is easy, if you're worried about that with your parents, airport shuttle rome | Airport Shuttle Rome, Civitavecchia transfer Cruise port, Fiumicino, Ciampino does transfers from Rome to Florence for 460 Euro for that many people, which is less than half the 1500 CAD extra to fly into Florence. I have never used them for transfers between cities, but I've used them many times for transfers from the Rome airport to my hotels in Rome and they have always been reliable.

If you do this and start in Florence, then Sorrento, ending with all your Rome nights, it elimimates a hotel change that would be necessary to get you back to Rome the night before your flight home. You definitely need to be in Rome the night before the flight.

Rome to Florence is train. Even if you had your own car just to visit Florence you take the train.

Book with either of the two train companies. Italo or TrenItalia

https://www.italotreno.it/it

https://www.trenitalia.com/

You'll need to wait until almost July for the tickets to be available. No rush.

Both companies hold sales. Italo basically every weekend puts tickets on sale. You should be able to get a ticket in advance for less than €20. With luck closer to €10

Just FYI, most of the main sights in Florence are not open every Sunday and/or Monday. If your 3 days there happen to include Sunday/Monday, you may have a hard time seeing everything on your sightseeing list. Check the open/closed days on their websites. Depending on your list and what will be closed, it would be worth considering changing the order of your destinations. Also, the most popular sights in Florence highly recommend buying timed-entry tickets in advance. Even in late September, it will be crowded, so I would definitely make reservations wherever possible to avoid standing in long lines.

Personally I would prefer to pay the extra $300 to fly into Florence; you will likely transit in Frankfurt, this is what I always do but maybe that's just me.
To me it just seems less hassle especially with five people than landing in Rome and then either taking the train or being driven to Florence.
And if you are doing Sorrento at the end it would make more sense to fly home from Naples. You can take the train from Florence to Rome and then from Rome to Naples on your way to Sorrento.
Also I agree with Jean about how busy it is likely to be at that time; was in Florence and Rome in mid to late November and it was still busy. Not the busiest I have seen either place but still surprisingly busy.

I have a related question.

We are visiting Italy in March this year from the US. We are flying in to Rome FCO after a 3 night stopover in Turkey. Our first night stay is in Florence.

Our flight from Istanbul reaches FCO at 635pm. And the last train from FCO train station is at 853pm.
Is that enough time to go through immigration, pick up our luggage and get to the FCO train station. Or should I look at alternate options. It is just two of us and we can move quickly if needed

This is for a trip in mid March.

I just hope the OP didn't search two one-way fares as opposed to a multi-city ticket.

kiranmehta5999, what will you do if the flight from Istanbul is delayed?

Here's info on flight cancellations and delays today and the past 2 days.

https://www.flightaware.com/live/cancelled/today/FCO

If the plan was always to go to Florence, I would have booked the ticket from IST to Florence (connect at FCO). At this point, I'd change the flight to an earlier departure from IST. I admit I'm a worrywort.

Jean - I see your point. Thanks for the input! It is a bit complicated in how the itinerary was created and the other option is 1pm flight which means I would lose the day in Turkey which I am trying to avoid.
That particular flight seems to be fairly on time. +/- 20 minutes at least for the few days I can see on the website but luck can work against us I am sure.

Back to the original question - is FCO a quick airport to get through customs/baggage claim?

I do see a ITA flight at 945pm from FCO. That would give me more buffer. Or to get a private cab.

kiranmehta5999, you're beginning to ask questions and raise issues beyond the original topic of this thread. You should really start a new thread, and you'll likely get more responses.

FWIW, whether FCO is a "quick" airport or not doesn't matter much if your flight is late or any number of other possible events occur that delay you. We once had to wait in our seats nearly 30 minutes after landing because a woman had fainted in the doorway of the plane and needed medical attention.

I traveled from Rome to Florence this summer with a transfer company (which I have used for several years when I go to Rome) www.transfers-rome-civitavecchia.com and I am very happy with it, low and fixed prices, impeccable vehicles and respond immediately for any information and assistance. There were 4 of us and they came to pick us up in a Mercedes minivan, the journey lasted about 3 hours and we made a couple of short stops to go to the bathroom and have a drink.

Cheapest option: bus (Flixbus)
Recommended option: train (I advice Italo train not Trenitalia)
By no means get a taxi in Florence, always had bad experiences...but unless you've a lot of money, take it....

I have taken taxis lots of times in Florence and nothing but good experiences.