cybertraveler

Hello again,

Our trip to Venice, Florence & Tuscany begins next week! We've been there before, and taken the trains, but this time we need to book a train right after we arrive in Venice to take us for the first night's stay in Florence.

I have a couple of questions before I book that I hope someone can help me with...

Which train station should we leave from in Venice? We've always used San Lucia before, since it was close to our destination, but should we use the Mestre station for the airport?

Also, could someone tell me how we get from the airport to the station? Is there public transportation, or will we need a taxi?

And finally, if our flight is scheduled to arrive at 9:00 a.m, how much time do you recommend that we leave before scheduling our train?

I'd feel better reserving in advance, even though I know many people say that it is easy to buy at the station. I'm thinking that it might be easier not to worry about it in addition to being jet-lagged. My only concern is that our flight could be delayed and cause us to miss the train.

Any and all advice would be most welcome! Thanks in advance~

cybertraveler

I found some information on this site that said the best station is Mestre, and that there is a bus from the airport to the station.

I'd really love to hear from anyone who has done this before I make the reservation for the train. I'm concerned that there will be a delay getting on the bus, which could cause us to miss a tight train schedule.

OTOH, we really don't want to waste a lot of time in the train station...especially since it's NOT on the Grand Canal!

JudyC

From www.trenitalia.com site, it shows there are trains from Venice (Venezia) to Florence (Firenze) almost hourly, shalln't be hard to get tickets.

There are buses leaving outside Maco Polo airport to Mestre or Venice.

I have traveled by train a lot in Italy, never booking ahead oversea; especially with long filght, there might be some delay, to save the stress, I would buy the tickets upon arrival. It's easy to buy tickets, just hand a printout of your itineray to the cashier to prevent any confusion.

cybertraveler

Thanks, Judy,

That sounds like good advice. I think I'll bring a printout of the schedule with us. It looks like some trains are a lot better than others.

We have taken the EuroStar trains before, which are great, but there are some others listed. I'm not familiar with the 705 Matilde Serao train. Do you know anything about that?

Those trains seem to take longer and go to different stations. Are you familiar with the FI.RIFR or FI CAST stations?

The other question I have is about the bus from the airport to the train station in Venice. I was wondering how often it runs and what it is like. Would we do better to take a taxi?

Thanks again for your help.

ellenem

The bus is frequent local bus, looks like 3-4 times per hour, depending on the time of day. You can access a PDF of the schedule at the following link. From the table of contents, it looks like you want the schedule for route 5 DA AEROPORTO

http://www.actv.it/english/automobil....php?pagina=uc

If you're antsy about time, I'd just take a taxi.

ellenem

The 705 is an IC train that begins in Venice and ends at Firenze Rifredi. Rifredi is a station you pass through on the outskirts of Florence before reaching the more central Firenze SMN. Since it is an IC train, it makes more stops than an ES train. At Rifredi you could switch to a local train passing through to end up at SMN--I'd just grab a taxi from there.

I would expect that if you arrived on time at 9AM you would have a good chance of making any of the ES trains that go directly to Firenze SMN at 10:43 or 11:54.

ira

Hi Cy,

To get to Florence from Venice VCE or Treviso, take the bus to Mestre and the train from there.

No need to go into Venice San Lucia, and the trains from SL stop at Mestre.

ira

PS,

For Florence you want SMN.

cybertraveler

Thanks everyone,

I'm printing this thread out to bring with us. We're in packing & organization overdrive at the moment--leaving in 3 days!