Florence to Venice by rail

Sally, it's the reverse. The train stops at Mestre before Venezia Santa Lucia. Santa Lucia is the last stop on the main islands. I can't think of a train run to or from Santa Lucia that doesn't stop at Mestre as you come or go. It just works that way.

Hi Sally,

To add to Larry's excellent answer, there are trains that run pretty much hourly from Florence SMN (Santa Maria Novella - the main station) to Venice Santa Lucia station. These routes are mostly serviced by the Eurostar Italia, which means that even if you have a rail pass you will need to pay a reservation fee for the seat.

The only thing is that not quite every one of those Eurostar Italia trains goes to Santa Lucia - although rare, I have seen one that only stopped at Mestre. Regardless, do not worry about it. Although it is ideal to get a train directly to Santa Lucia, if you need to get off at Mestre there are local commuter trains that leave about every twenty minutes. Although those trains are old, they are efficient.

If you are taking a Eurostar train, there will be an automated sign board in each car listing all of the stops on the way. Just make sure the last stop is "Venezia Santa Lucia" or "Venezia SL" and you are fine. If the last stop is not Santa Lucia, then just switch at Mestre.

Thanks all... my brain was fuzzy on that and I thought Maestre came 2nd. One last blank to fill in... our friends are driving from Lucca back to Florence to return a rental car and catch the train. How wise is it to buy your train ticket the day of? That was they wouldnt have to stress about their timetable. Or if you have a ticket, do you have to be on the exact train you purchased it for? I am certain they want reserved seats. If you can let me know about these issues as well... thanking you in advance!

Yes, on the Eurostar Italia you need a reservation for a specific seat on a specific train. I would not recommend booking in advance, with one exception.

The day I took the train from Florence to Venice was during August, so we could assume that this was one of the busiest times for the train. Although I had a rail pass, I finished booking my reservation about five minutes before I hopped on the train, and there still were plenty of seats left.

In other words, there is no need to book your reservation in advance. The only problem is that the Firenze SMN station is notorious for the long lineups at the ticket windows.

That being said, if you have a credit card then completely bypass the ticket windows and head closer to the train platforms. There are a number of Trenitalia automated machines that are easy to use to book a ticket and pay with your credit card - you can get it all done in about five minutes.

To book a full ticket with reservation is easy on those machines (and they work in English). The trouble I had was that I was using a rail pass and just wanted a reservation, not a full ticket, and I had trouble figuring out how to use the automated machine to do that. Fortunately, there was a small desk with two Trenitalia employees there. I asked one of them for help, and he graciously used the machine with me to get it all reserved.

So, book at the train station... just give yourself some time to find a person to give you a hand if needed.

The self serve machines at Santa Maria are easy to use. I would agree that your and your friends could use these on the same day to purchase your train tickets.
I did so over the Xmas holidays without any problems.

Sally, to answer your new question and the one you sent me by PM, I have a few answers. 1) By all means, buy your ticket when you get to the train station. You can use the ticket machine that will prompt you in English and will accept your credit card. It will also assign a seat reservation. 2) There is no such thing as a "non-stop" from Florence to Venice. Adding to my above post, all trains from Florence to or from Venice will stop at Bologna and Padua as well as Mestre. You're just not seeing the intermediate stops on RailEurope.

CLICK HERE to see a sample train schedule. Click on "Details" and then on the train number under "Train". You'll see the stops.

3) You're train ticket will have a departure time on it. It is a specific train that you must catch. There are high-speed trains departing Florence for Venice about hourly during the day. If your friends freak about having to have advance tickets, stop by the train station when they get to Lucca and buy them. 4) Do you know what a ZTL is? Do your friends want to pay a 150Euro fine? If your answer is NO, do not drive into the Florence train station area to return a rental car. Almost all of Central Florence is in restricted traffic zones. Instead, save some real grief and turn it in in Lucca. If driving to Florence is a must, turn it in at airport and take the bus into the bus station near the Florence train station.

Great information in this thread!

What do you do if you have, say, three people traveling together and you want seat reservations together, next to each other? Do the ticket machines at track-side accommodate this?

Thanks!

Yes, the machines permit you to purchase multiple tickets at once. Additionally, when making a reservation there actually is a feature to reserve a seat with a "near this seat..." option. You select that, enter the seat number that has already been reserved, and the system will let you know if it can reserve a seat right by it. For example, I had to use the reservation system twice for the two of us, and it gave us two seats facing each other.

My husband and I have traveled several times by train in Italy, including Sicily, and love it. We usually do a dry run at the train station (sometimes the day before we leave) to locate the ticket window and a validation machine. This certainly helps, especially in the larger cities where the stations are huge. And keep an eye on your luggage throughout your trips, including in the station. We've been ripped off twice by gypsies in Rome in the Termini station. A different situation in each case, so we didn't see it coming.

Michelle,

The Trenitalia site can be quirky .... also, I'm not sure how far out you can check schedules. I think they adjust them twice a year -- June and December.

What you can do is pick a closer date, sometime in March or April, on the same day of the week you want to travel. That should give you an idea of what's available. Even though schedules may be different by June, they usually don't make major changes between big cities.

Rumiko, thank you so much. Was getting a little stressed out there. I think you must be right about when they change the timetables as I have found other sites that date schedules up to June 13th and trains run throughout the day up to then anyway.

Michelle, Trenitalia updates their schedules twice a year - June and December. You are looking out too far and that schedule is not complete. To see what the schedules look like, use a date about 7-10 days out. You'll see all of the train runs. When the schedules are updated in mid-June, they'll mostly be the same or if they change, it's a minute or two.

As a side note, about 30 trains a day run from Venice to Florence.

Thanks for that Larry, thats reassuring to know!

Just a small query on this topic. I'm trying to find the schedule for trains leaving from Venice to Florence on the 17th june 09 from the trenitalia site and all that keeps coming up is one train leaving at three in the morning!!! Is this the case, or a problem on the site does anyone know?

When I am in Italy and taking the Eurostar somewhere, I usually drop by a travel agency (in Italy) to get my tickets. For other trains, I use the automated machines or the ticket window.