Getting from Hotels in Rome and Florence to the train station

I would say more for certain that Florence has a higher chance of more bumps than Rome, because there is a chance the Rome hotel is on normal paved roads. I do think there is a high chance that they will be bumpy both places. I know in my travels, whenever I am lugging my luggage around every walk seems WAY longer. I would treat myself when arriving in town with a taxi if it could be squeezed in the budget, because then you're not even having to read street signs and find your way around as WELL as dragging your luggage. Do you have larger wheels on your bag? The sturdier wheels can handle the bumps a lot better.

We took taxis.

Keep your personal item:passport, wallet etc close or under your clothes and be aware of who is around you.
In Rome last time a couple of young girls tried to get my friend’s crossbody bag from her on our walk to Termini.
They were quite brazen.
I saw them reaching out to it and screamed at them, the older one just smirked as if to say “I’ll just get the next person”.
The streets in both can be quite rough and uneven, so maybe leave a little earlier to walk safely without hurrying.

If you had problems in London with your wheels or weight of your suitcase on the uneven pavement, you will probably have the same issue in Italy. Are they the smaller spinner wheels?

Which hotels, so maybe we can give you the best route?

For Rome, open Google Maps, locate your hotel, switch to street view and look at the sidewalks along the route as you navigate to Termini. Try the same for Florence.

Does your suitcase have two or four wheels? Two wheels tend to do better on uneven pavement.

We walked about the same distance in Florence. While the walk was fine, one of the suitcase wheels was never the same due to the uneven pavement. I definitely would take a taxi if I was to do it again.

I stayed in Monti a year ago. I split the stay to visit Naples and Salerno in the middle of the trip. I rolled my above-carry-on-size spinner bag between Termini Station and my hotel four times. It wasn't a lot of fun, because the sidewalks were really broken up in places, so I'd have to pick the bag up and carry it till I got to a better surface. I'm cheap and too stubborn to take a taxi when the distance is so short (less than a mile).

Conditions vary a lot from block to block, so the suggestion to walk the route on Google Maps is the way to go. In some cases the sidewalk on one side of the street is fine when the other side is really rough. I would say in general, though, that London's sidewalks are in much, much better shape, on average, than Rome's.

Thanks everyone!

Less of a direct suggestion but an observation. When we get into a town more and more I opt for a cab unless I know exactly where I'm going. Getting back to the train station to leave we almost always walk/bus our way to the station.

I think there's something about travelling and then getting dumped into the train station - often the most chaotic part of the city - and suddenly feeling like the directions that seemed really easy are suddenly less clear make me want to have someone else deal with that. One too many adventures wandering around trying to puzzle out Italian addresses (why are the dark numbers so different than the light ones) with my luggage has made me willing to pay to have someone else do it for me.

Once we've been there for a few days, know the buses and our way around it seems simple to having two bus tickets left over and getting to the station is easy. It's funny how a bit of familiarity with a city and suddenly it all makes way more sense.

Have a great trip,
=Tod

Thank you.

We had similar situations in both cities, slightly shorter walk Florence and longer in Rome.

Florence is very flat in the historical center. You’ll have some narrow sidewalks and rough streets however if you head SE from SMN station into the core of the city. We were staying on the western side closer to SMN so the walk was not difficult.

Rome, at least in the direction we went, was not flat at all despite Google Maps saying “all routes are mostly flat.” Plenty of ups and downs. A taxi would’ve been the better call.