Day trip to Venice from Florence?

Hmm, it's about a 4-5 hr train ride from Florence to Venice. I would rather just spend the night in Venice. This way you can have a little more time to spend and will not be as rushed. Also for most people 4 days in Florence is a lot unless you plan on visiting the nearby hill towns. It would be better to spend more time in Rome.

I thought the eurostar from Florence to Venice was 2 hours?

I'm going by a 4 year old memory, I may have been on a slower train. For me it was certainly longer than 2 hrs. If it is indeed only a two hour trip than sure do it if it interests you. I would rather spend the night though.

It now takes only 2 hours on the high speed train to get from Florence to Venice.

I think the Eurostar train goes to nearby Maestre and then you have to take a local train to Venice directly...I took the Eurostar to Florence back in 2009...makes a couple of stops and gets there in about 2 hours. You'll probably spend quite a bit of time just traveling. I took the Eurostar from Rome to Florence for 1 day but I had been to Florence once before so I only wanted to see a few things. I was just a single traveler when I went from Rome to Florence and back again. I got to Florence a little after 930AM and around 8pm. here's Rick suggestions for 1 day in Venice.... Venice in One (Busy) Day 9:00 Walk from St. Mark's Square to Frari Church (following my self-guided St. Mark's to Rialto Walk chapter), taking time to enjoy the Rialto market action. 11:00 Tour Frari Church. 12:00 Lunch near the Frari, then catch the vaporetto (boat) back to St. Mark's to wander and shop. 14:30 Correr Museum. 15:30 St. Mark's Basilica. 16:30 Doge's Palace. 18:00 Go up the Campanile bell tower for city view. 18:30 Pub dinner (crawl or stay put and munch). 20:00 Gondola ride (or follow my self-guided Grand Canal Cruise chapter). 21:00 Enjoy the dueling orchestras with a drink on St. Mark's Square.

Even though it would involve a bit of moving your stuff I would cut a day out of Florence and spend the night in Venice. There is nothing like being there first thing in the morning and watching the city wake up. Also, evenings after the day tourists leave is so wonderful.If it were me I would cut yet another day off Florence and add it to Rome or Venice.

Have you booked your flights? If not, this is a classic example of when an open jaw ticket works best. Personally, I would reduce Florence to two nights, two nights in Venice, and back to Rome. Three teenagers are going to get very bored in Florence for four nights. If stuck with a RT to Rome, I would go directly to Florence for two nights - that is easy to do and the first day is always wasted anyway. Then to Venice for two nights, and back to Rome for the balance which is four or five nights (?) That is a more gradually introduction to Italy and Rome. And the last night in Rome could be very special.

Well, I didn't mention that 2 of the Florence days are actually day trips. We were hoping to do one to CT (walkabout tours) and the next day walkabout tours again for 'Best of Tuscany' which is Siena, Pisa, San Gimiano and a winery.