Italy Planning a Trip

Italy Q&A: Getting from Fiumicino to Florence

Here’s question I got via email, so here’s another post in my Italy Q&A series. Allan wrote:

I arrive into Rome at about 7pm on a Friday night and need to connect to Florence to meet up with my family.

I note trains are about $65 and leave every hour or so, which would be fine, but I was wondering what alternatives I have.

eg Is there a bus service that runs to Florence, perhaps departing from the airport? I arrive into Fiumicino.

If not, do I have long way to travel to a train or bus station that would take me to Florence?

Thanks for the question, Allan. The good news is that Rome’s Fiumicino Airport is so busy that it is pretty well-served by multiple transportation options. Here are the options I’ve found that would get you from your arrival at Fiumicino to Florence.

Train to Termini, Train to Florence - There’s an express train that connects Fiumicino Airport with Termini Station and the ride takes roughly 35 minutes. It’s called the “Leonardo Express,” and it runs every half-hour between roughly 06:00 and 23:30. As I write this, the ticket costs €9.50. You can find out more about the Leonardo Express (including specific timetables) from the Trenitalia website here. From Termini, you’d then take a train directly to Florence S.M.N. - and you can choose either the high-speed Eurostar or a slower train, depending on your schedule and budget. (And by the way, second class is the way to go to save money, especially on the Eurostar - the second class cars get there just as quickly as the first class cars!) Find out about train ticket prices and schedules here.

Date: May 8th, 2008 | 1 comment

Rome Transportation 101

Unlike some of the great cities in the world, where the tourist attractions are all concentrated in one or two specific and compact areas so that - if you feel like it - you can hoof it from one sight to the next without ever having to figure out the public transportation system, Rome is spread out. It’s so spread out, in fact, that if you don’t get used to using the bus and metro you’ll miss out on half the things there are to do and see in Rome.

Okay, yes - you could walk everywhere in Rome, too, resolutely avoiding learning which bus to take where, but you’d wear yourself out in no time and just might end up not having a very good time in The Eternal City. So, here’s a quick guide to Rome’s public transportation system.

Your Transportation Options in Rome
There are several ways to get your body around Rome to see the sights, not to mention getting to and from your hotel or hostel in Rome. They vary in terms of cost and speed, so you’ll have to figure out which one balances the two to your satisfaction.

Taxi - There are almost as many taxis in Rome as there are tourists, so you’ll have no trouble finding one if that’s your style (at the right, that’s not a parking lot for white cars - it’s a small army of taxis waiting outside St. Peter’s Square - and they moved through the lines pretty darn quickly). Rome’s traffic can be horrible, however, so taking a taxi isn’t necessarily the fastest option from Point A to Point B. It’s often the most hassle-free option when you just arrive in the city, either by train or plane, because you’re tired and disoriented and not interested in mastering the bus system just yet - and there are taxi queues at both Fiumicino Airport and Termini Station just waiting for you. But unless your hotel or hostel is way off the public transport beaten track or you’ve got an allergy to buses, taking taxis on a daily basis probably isn’t the smartest choice.

Shelley of At Home in Rome once published an excellent guide to help you not get ripped off by taxis in Rome, which, if you’re planning to take a cab (especially from an airport or the train station) I highly recommend you read.

Date: May 6th, 2008 | 1 comment

Tips for Flying to Italy: Open-Jaw Tickets & Flying into the Venice Airport

When most people plan trips to Italy, they only search for “airfare to Rome” or “airfare to Milan” and pick the cheapest options from those - sometimes without regard to what their actual itinerary might be. How many people fly in and out of Milan every year, but spend absolutely no time in the city? I mean, why bother flying into a city you’re not interested in visiting?

At any rate, my own personal preferences for flying to Italy include two things many travelers may not consider - flying into one city and out of another, and flying into Venice’s airport if at all possible. Let’s go over these one by one.

Date: April 29th, 2008 | No Comments

“Italy Basix” Tour from BootsnAll World Adventures

The fine folks at BootsnAll (who host this website) are into lots of travel-related things, including an entire division of the company that puts together package tours to destinations all over the world - it’s called BootsnAll World Adventures. Most of these trips are geared toward adventure travelers who may have once been hardcore backpackers but who have gotten to the point where they’d like someone else to take care of the details now, thank you very much. Because of this focus, BootsnAll World Adventures (BWA for short) doesn’t tend to focus on places like Italy. Their bread and butter is more in places like Africa, Asia and South America.

To their credit, however, they’re trying to branch out and include places like Italy - even though they’re definitely on the beaten path - because, let’s face it, there’s only one Rome on earth, and even most hardcore backpackers will eventually want to see the Colosseum! There’s an Italy tour available through BWA right now, with departure dates stretching from now through November, which I thought I’d take a moment to highlight.

Called “Italy Basix,” this tour lasts 14 days and includes Venice, Lake Garda, the Cinque Terre, Florence, Naples and Rome - in that order - and starts at $1,605 per person (not including airfare). This isn’t the kind of trip where you get booked into 3- or 4-star hotels and shuttled from attraction to attraction in a big air-conditioned bus, though. Instead, the accommodation is in really basic hotels or hostels, some of which aren’t private rooms and don’t have private en suite bathrooms, and transportation is on local trains and buses. Essentially, what you are paying for (aside from the actual costs of things like the hotels and trains) with this tour is the luxury of someone else planning everything for you.

Date: April 25th, 2008 | No Comments

Italy in May

Italy in May can be the stuff that dreams are made of, even if the prices are hiked accordingly. The weather is more reliably good than it is in April (though still not too hot), and tourists are flocking to Italy in droves starting in May. No, unfortunately you are not the only person who woke up this morning and thought, “Y’know what we should do? We should go to Italy in May.” Still, if you’ve had that thought, you’re in good company - and there are lots of good reasons to see what May is like in Italy.

Prices, as mentioned, are likely to be higher in May than they are in February or November, so be prepared to pay more for everything from your Italy airfare to your car rental to your hotel room. You can save money on accommodation by staying in hostels rather than hotels (many have private rooms that are still less expensive than most hotel rooms), and taking the train rather than renting a car. But if you are hoping to get off the beaten path - which is always a good thing to do, especially as more and more tourists start coming to Italy - you may need to have a car to get into the countryside to towns that don’t have train stations.

There are festivals and events going on throughout Italy year-round, and if you can participate in one or several during your trip you are bound to come away with a better understanding of the real Italy - not to mention some amazing vacation memories. Check out this Italy festival finder for some ideas of festivals that may be taking place in May near where you’re visiting. For instance, who can resist the allure of something in Cortona called the “Festival for the Elderly and the Sick?” Seriously, some events are actually worth seeking out, including the 19 days in May when Florence’s Iris Garden is open to the public (the only days it’s open to the public all year), or the festival of sailboats in Venice, or the White Asparagus Festival in Cimadolmo in the Treviso area. To use the festival finder, just choose the month and the region(s) you’ll be visiting from the drop-down menu and click the “Search” button for a few highlights of festivals and events you may want to add to your itinerary.

Date: April 9th, 2008 | 1 comment