Milan to Florence Train

tb,

Where are you looking for the train information? I checked the Trenitalia website and there are hourly high speed Freccia trains departing at about fifteen minutes past the hour. If you're travelling this Thursday there's little point in pre-purchasing tickets since you'll probably be paying Base fare anyway. Just buy your tickets when you arrive at the airport rail station, either from a Kiosk or the ticket office (although there may be a long queue there as everyone else that has just arrived will be doing the same thing).

You'll first have to take the Malpensa Express from the airport to Milano Centrale. That's a Regionale so DON'T forget to validate your ticket prior to boarding the train, or you'll risk hefty fines which will be collected on the spot! Note that the M.E. has two routes, one going to Centrale and one to Cadorna, so BE SURE to board the correct train.

You'll arrive at Milano Centrale on one of the "outer" tracks (Binario 1 / 2). Walk from there into the main hall and check the electronic board for the departure information on your train to Florence.

Thanks Ken..I was on ItaliaRail. Perhaps I was just spelling it wrong. I see that they are hourly which is great. Why is the price and ability to buy them blank?

Also, will I be able to buy the Centrale to Florence ticket at the same time I buy the Malpensa Express ticket?

I see lots of trains on trenitalia site leaving from Milano Centrale for Firenze Santa Maria Novella.

I also see lots of trains on the italotreno site leaving Milano Porto Garibaldi to Firenze Santa Maria Novella.

The Italo train appears to be a good deal cheaper at the time.

tb,

Yes, you should be able to buy both tickets at the airport rail station. The only departure that is "blank" is the 09:15 train. You're not going to be able to make that one anyway. Unfortunately, at this late date the remaining tickets are on the "pricey" side (€83 PP) in the Business Salon.

In order to get slightly cheaper tickets, an alternative would be to use the suggestion in the previous post and use Italo Treno to Florence. In that case, I believe you have to use the Malpensa Express that goes to Cadorna station. Buy your ticket to Milano Porta Garibaldi, which is where you'll connect with the Italo trains. Your destination in Florence will be the same as Trenitalia - Firenze Santa Maria Novella. There's a departure at 10:27 that you may be able to connect with (€71 in Prima Class).

I don't think you can buy the Malpensa Express portion (MXP to Milano C.) on Trenitalia. That train is operated by another company (Trenord). You can buy that ticket online on the Malpensa Express website, but in your place I wouldn't buy anything online. It's too late for discounts and you don't know if your plane will arrive on time. So just wing it and buy tickets at the airport station on the spot when you get there. Seats don't run out. Trains from Milan to Florence will be half empty especially since you'll get to Milan Central late morning well after rush hour when lots of business travelers and tourists take the trains.

In hindsight, should have taken the chance and bought the tickets in advance. So many people said dont buy and wait. Should have bought the 12:15 tickets and would have had plenty of time to spare.

What nightmare it was. We got into Milan at 8:30 am and went right to customs. Got bag and took Malpensa Express. Get Tokelau Crvtrane and all trains to Florence sold out all day. We had to wait to 5:45 and it didn't get into Florence until 9:20 pm. We were tired and the Milan station not the best place to try and sit comfortably.

Lost our first afternoon and evening in Florence :(

"Get Tokelau Crvtrane…" ????????

I haven't heard of ALL trains being completely sold out for that many hours unless, possibly, during a major holiday. But even if direct trains were full, there should have been multiple, alternate ways to get there. Did you explore, say, trains to Bologna and then on to Florence from there? Or the Italo trains?

So the best advice of this forum led you astray. Obviously, no body factored in that Thursday afternoon was a lead in to a 3-day holiday weekend and with many people wanting to be in Rome for Easter. The trains to Rome pass through Florence, so looks like you were shut out for a while.
Now that that is over with, hope you have a good time in Italy. But now we know. Sunday afternoon is likely to be quite a busy on the rails as well.

Aha. So it was a busy holiday period that was the culprit!

I still would think that there would have been trains via different routings that would have worked, abet taken longer.

No Italo from Milano PG?

Or First Class on the Freccias?

We would have gone another route if available but there were nj e. We tried at the ticket machine and thought maybe we were doing somethjng wrong. We even got a ticket to stand in line and speak with agent. The number was 448 when we got on line and we were 559 so you can imagine how long that line was and at most times only 3 agents working. We even went to taxi line to get a price but that was unreasonable. The 5:45 was the only option left for the day.

Wow, that is freaky. Every train full, probably because of the holiday. Who would've thought that?

We rode that exact line on March 2. Because we were coming by train from Lucerne into Milano Centrale, for the tickets I booked in advance I made sure we left Lucerne plenty early enough to arrive at Milan to make the connection, with time to spare. And we needed it because the supposed only change of trains at Arth-Goldau, Switzerland did not go straight to Milan as advertised, but only to Chiasso at the Swiss/Italian border--no understandable reason was given. So we still had time to make the connection at Milano, but only 45 minutes instead of 90.

Hindsight 20/20, we bought the deep discount advance tickets about 75 days out to Florence SMN from Milano Centrale for 23 Euro apiece. My thinking was that if, for whatever reason, we missed that connection, we'd pay base fare and only be out the 46 Euro--it was worth the gamble. Coming in on planes is a tougher call, for sure. Didn't even give a thought to what would've happened had we missed and everything else was full.

tb,

Sorry to hear that you had problems.

Although it doesn't help now, I have the same question that Nigel posted. Did you check Italo Treno from Porta Garibaldi or first class on the Freccia trains?

I assume you're still in Italy?

Assuming there really was no other way to get to Florence, another idea would have been to store your luggage at the station and head out see a little of Milan. For instance, we've stayed very near Milano Centrale and walked from there to the duomo; it's a little hike but it would have been a good way to stay awake, and beats hanging around Centrale for hours - although that's an architecturally impressive station.

Cimitero Monumentale is closer to the station than the duomo, and would have been an interesting wander.

Just in case anyone else gets stuck in Milan…?