I will be traveling with friends to Italy in April and looking to get the train from Venice to Florence, but I have an issue with tunnels due to anxiety. I have heard there are numerous tunnels on the train route that we will be taking. Could someone provide some perspective on the number of tunnels and the length/time spent in the tunnels (30 seconds, 10 minutes, etc) so I can understand what it might entail and what to do? Thank you!

Bologna and Florence are separated by the Apennine mountain range. The high speed train from Bologna to Florence is 78km, 73km of which are in tunnel. Total travel time is 35min, so plan on about 30min being in tunnel essentially continuously. I believe the leg from Bologna to Venice is all (or mostly) above ground.

Hi, thank you so much for this, this is really helpful! Can I ask then are there no long tunnels on the Venice to Bologna part of the journey?

Probably none because you will be traveling in the Po valley.

None from Venice and then switch to local train to Florence - still some tunnels but not the long long ones on the high-speed route.

The Porrettana line has many short (100-200m/350-700 ft) tunnels, plus 4 longer ones's (1-3 km/0,5-2 miles).
Journey time from Bologna: 1 hr up to Porretta, 2-3 hrs up to Pistoia, 3 1/2 - 4 1/2 hrs up to Florence