When I research train travel in Europe, my starting point is always the website with the curious name the Man in Seat 61. This is the Bible of rail travel information. From there I can always jump off to research prices and routes – but this is where I always begin.
There are two high speed trains run in Italy. One is called Frecciarossa, operated by Trenitalia, and the other is operated by Italo. I’m not sure which is better – I researched my routes, prices and schedules on both websites and bought what fit my needs best.
Like Amtrak, the price of train tickets in Italy shoots up in price as you get closer to the travel date. However, because we were planning to take a train right after our flight landed, we needed to wait and see our arrival time before buying a non-refundable train ticket. Our BA flight was scheduled to arrive FCO at 14:10 p.m. Most routes from FCO to Florence were not direct but rather required a change of trains in Rome. However, I was shooting for the 15:20 train that went direct from FCO to Florence without changing trains. Luck was in our favor. We landed early and rushed to the train station at the airport.
The tickets were not cheap, approximately €55 per person, one way, 2nd Class.
It looked like it was so much simpler to just go directly to Rome and I questioned whether we should have planned to go there first, rather than Florence.
Anyway, they made us wait until a few minutes before departure time to go through the turnstiles to our train platform.
We boarded the assigned train and took our assigned seats. Neither the air conditioning nor the wifi were optimal, but we were on our way to Florence.
Shortly afterwards, we stopped and picked up passengers at the Rome Stations, but we did not have to change trains.
We sat back and enjoyed the train ride. I think we each slept a little since we had been flying all night.
And then, we arrived in Florence. We stopped in at an Info Center and got a map and directions to our hotel (I like actual maps but I also Google Map everything). It was about a 15-minute walk to the Hotel Orto de Medici.
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We did the same train route this past July after arriving from JFK on AA 236. However, we took the airport train to Termini and changed trains there. We booked with the booth at the airport as well asking them to give us a few hours in Rome to walk around, have lunch and do a quick tour of the coliseum. We looked at the luggage check inside the station but it was a complete zoo so we went across the street where it was 3.50 for a few hours.
Like your train, the A/C in our train to Termini sucked. It also sucked on our Freccia Rossa to Florence. All the seats on the fast trains are assigned and being last minute meant we were split up on a very crowded train. Ugh. In retrospect we should have spent a few more bucks for the business class option as it was miserable.
At SMN Firenze we switched to a local train to Lucca. Again, pretty lousy A/C on a crowded train. At least it cleared out after a short while.
Going in the general direction of Pisa from FCO it’s really a tossup over going through Rome/Florence or up the coast through Livorno. However, I think next time I would try Italo as the Trenitalia service was a stinker.
Thanks so much for sharing your experience. We took Italo from Florence to Rome 3 days later and spent 5 nights in Rome. I booked the train a month in advance in Prima. It didn’t really feel like a first class experience (like when I took the train from CDG to Brussels and they served a nice lunch and wine!). Actually, it was nondescript – I’m having a hard time remembering it!
Thank you for letting me know that there is a direct train from FCO airport to Florence (I wasn’t aware of it). Taking the airport train to Termini to buy a walkup ticket to Florence sounds miserable after an overnight flight, even if it is the most flexible strategy.
Being the cheapskate that I am, I just purchased advance tickets for the direct train 1st class for 40 euros a person. I will have a 2 hour cushion between scheduled-landing and the train departure. Hopefully it works out, but if it doesn’t, I eat the costs and pay the walkup fares.
And yeah, Italian trains are varying degrees of garbage. Believe it or not, Frecca-anything is one of the better options.
Yes, I believe there are two direct trains per day. Let me know how it works out for you.
We did not buy advance tickets and I’m glad of that. Our flight from JFK was delayed more than 2 hours at the gate due to maintenance issues. I would not have wanted to be sitting there in a comfortable business class seat drinking champagne and worrying about missing a stupid train. No. Thank. You.
The booth at the airport will sell you just about any itinerary within Italy you please. They speak quite good english there so it was easy to convey what we wanted to do.
There doesn’t seem to be much of a difference between classes on italian trains but I can tell you that after a long redeye and a hot train we would have been very, very glad for the upgrade.