lrice

Hi all,

With United canceling our return flight from Paris, I have to adjust our original plans.

After four weeks in Aix-en-Provence, we need to go to Florence to visit our college senior who was recently cleared to study abroad.

Has anyone ever taken the train from Nice to Florence?

Or from Florence to Paris?

Seat61 does a nice job of explaining it, and train travel sounds better than flying but these two routes seem long and a bit of a hassle.

Thank you!

Traveler_Nick

What you didn't mentioned is the train will almost certainly be more expensive.

If you don't mind slower and more expensive the high speed trains that run from Paris to Milan or Turin are a choice.

Nice and Florence makes flying a bit harder. The number of airlines doing that route won't be high. Flying into Pisa or Rome would increase flight options.

kleeblatt

There's a flixibus that goes from Nice to Florence for an incredibly reasonable price.

Time to destination: 5.45 hours
Departure time: 23.40 - 5.45
If you don't mind spending the night in a bus, this may be the best option.

Ryanair offers a really cheap flight from Marseille to Bologna. That would be the fastest option.

bilboburgler

The nice thing about the train is the loos, and being able to spread out the picnic a bit more.

thursdaysd

I have taken the TGV from Turin to Lyon, which is part of the Milan to Paris route. Very scenic, although I missed some of the scenery due to cloud. Right now it looks like that TGV is only running twice a day and if you're starting from Florence you will presumably not want the 6:00 departure, and the other train would put you into Paris after 22:00.

I once took a train from Barcelona to Milan, which undoubtedly went through France, but I was asleep at the time.

There is no way I would spend the night on a bus in Europe, where I could take the train instead (South America is another matter).

StuDudley

Depart Nice 9:30, arrive Florence 18:04 with 3 train changes.

I went the other way once, and decided to drive to La Spezia, return the car, and take the train from there. At the time, there were no-train-change schedules from Genoa to Nice. Now all trains have a change in Ventimiglia

Stu Dudley

lrice

Perhaps flying is best to get from Aix to Florence. I don’t see flights fr Marseilles to Pisa but yes there is one a day to Bologna on RyanAir and one a day to FCO.

I think if we took the train to Paris, we would need to spend the night in Milan or Turin so we could take the earlier train. I wouldn’t want to arrive at 22:00.

Perhaps flying is the easiest this trip.

I’m thinking we need to give ourselves an extra day to get to Paris from Italy to catch our flight home in case of weather, a strike or mechanical. Get there on a Thursday for a Saturday flight to the USA. Does that make sense?

StuDudley

IMO, if you fly from Aix to Florence, the door to door time and a train trip when you get to Bologna or Rome and perhaps an inconvenient schedule - would consume a lot more time than the 8 1/2 mid-day center of Florence train trip I suggested. I avoid all inter-Europe airplane trips.

Stu Dudley

bilboburgler

The whole getting there early, checking in, waiting for the aircraft etc nonsense and finally getting to an industrial park in the outskirts of your city of choice is basically awful.

Take the train, just rock up to the station, get on and get off in your city centre of choice. You may have to change but seldom with a long wait

lrice

Stu, what website did you use to get that schedule? Coming from Aix, I am guessing I will leave much earlier.

I can see on Trainline that we can go from Lyon to Turin in 3 1/2 hours leaving at 8:40 am.

it looks like we would need to spend the night in Nice or Lyon if we want to take the train to Italy. And same on the return, we would need to spend the night in Turin to get an early enough start.

StuDudley

https://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en

I first determined the schedule from Nice to Genoa, Then Genoa to Florence. I've been using this German train schedule for over 25 yours, and many other people use it for travel in Europe instead of other sites.

Depart Nice 8:36, arrive Genoa Principal 12:17, Depart Genoa Principal 13:19arrive Florence 17:04

Depart Nice 9:36, arrive Genoa Principal 13:05, Depart Principal 14:19 arrive Florence 18:04

Stu Dudley

michael_cain_77398

I took the train from Florence to Nice. It was a long day, but I liked it - the train ran along parts of the coast that were new to me, and the views were always nice. I remember having a couple hours break between trains in Genoa, which was just enough time to walk into town and have some pizza and beer. I think there was another transfer, either at the border or in Monaco, to a local train. It wasn't the most efficient or fastest way to travel, but it was enjoyable, and I was on a three-week trip so I had time to take a day off.

lrice

Thank you for the Deutsche Bahn website. Is there a reason to put in Genoa Principal? When I put in Nice - Firenze SMN, the following route pops up:

8:09 a.m. - 9:05 Nice to Ventimiglia
Transfer time 52 minutes

9:57 a.m. - 12:25 p.m. Ventimiglia to Genova Brignole
Transfer time 20 minutes

12:45 p.m. - 14:10 p.m. Genova Brignole to La Spezia Centrale
Transfer time 31 minutes

14:41 p.m. 17:05 p.m. La Spezia Centrale to Firenze SMN

I am intimidated to use the trains with quick transfers (I have ended up on the wrong train before.) This seems reasonable; do you think it works? We would have to go from Aix to Nice the day before and spend one night there but that could be nice.

Going from Aix to Marseilles Airport, flying to Bologna, a tram from the airport to Bologna Centrale, then the 37-minute Frecciarossa to Florence runs every half hour will take us 6 hours and also is a hassle.

lrice

I just found the Lyon-Turin-Firenze route. It is just over 7 hours and only 1 transfer; and we wanted to see Lyon! 8:40 a.m. - 16:04 p.m. Sounds perfect!

However, I see this route in August, I don't see it in October. Could the routes just not be released yet?

Thank you! Again!

thursdaysd

That seems like an awfully long (and seriously boring) time in Ventimiglia. Can't you cut it down to half an hour or even less? What date are you looking at? I don't see those exact times, but I'm looking at a date in July.

lrice

Thank you Thursdysd. I will take a look. I really like the Lyon-Florence idea better. Lyon is only 90 minutes from Aix versus Nice is 3 hours. We can pop up on Saturday and enjoy an afternoon and evening there. I wanted to see it anyway!

The Lyon-Turin-Florence route cuts through the Alps. It's probably a better choice for us. Italio has two trains that make the connection in Turin and hopefully FRECCIAROSSA will be out soon.

StuDudley

Lyon would be fine. However, it is a little more complicated to get in/out than Nice.

Here are my suggestions for stuff to do in Lyon. Also Provence

See attached

Stu Dudley

mrandmrs

i have taken the train from Paris to Venice via Milan twice. Overnight sharing with 2 other ladies. It was fun.

lrice

StuDudley Thank you for the itineraries! Very helpful!

mrandmrs While the train from Nice to Florence looks like it will have some prettier views, the train from Lyon to Florence has less stops and will take us through a part of France that we haven't been. Hmmm....

What do you think of going from Aix to Beaune or Dijon for 2 nights? We won't have a car, and we would be there from midday on Saturday to midda on Monday before heading to Lyon for one night, then catch the train to Turin/Florence. StuDudley I know Beaune and Dijon are two of your favorite places. Are there any Chateaux we could visit?

Besides Paris three times and the French Riviera twice, I haven't been anywhere else in France! Looking forward to the month in Provence!

StuDudley

Dijon will be quite dead on Sunday & Monday morning when shops are closed. Beaune will be somewhat more alive - but still many shops will be closed. Even if you don't shop - there won't be that much "life" in town.

Chateau recommendations are in my itinerary.

See attached

Stu Dudley