We are cruising at the end of August and will disembark in Livorno on Sunday 3 September. We have 2 days at this port. Though Rick Steves advised not to combine Florence with other destinations, we are wondering if the exception may be on Sundays, when most stores and many restaurants are closed in Florence. Our next day in port is Monday, when Florence museums are closed. Ugh. So we are thinking we could take the train or TuscanyBus from Livorno to Pisa Sunday morning. Then take the train from Pisa to Florence to take in the Accademia and Uffizi Gallery. I am not seeing an option on TuscanyBus.com for the 2 cities in that order, so it looks like we would have to take the train from Florence to Pisa. Has anyone experienced the train service connecting Pisa, and Florence? Is it reliable? How often does it run on Sundays? What are trains like from Livorno to Pisa? I appreciate any advice you can give to help us plan. Thank you!
Posted by
Gettysburg PA
7024 posts
You can check the train schedule yourself at:
https://www.trenitalia.com/content/tcom/en.html
These are 2 major cities so as reliable as any train in Italy.
These are regional trains that have no reserved seating, can't sell out and the price never changes- so no need to purchase in advance.
You can if you want or purchase at the station at kiosk- be sure to validate that ticket
Or download the Trenitalia app and purchase on the app- no need to validate those tickets.
Regional tickets are good for 4 hours, so if you miss one you can take any similar train in next 4 hours.
There are trains from Livorno to Pisa almost every 20 min- take 16 min or so.
There are trains from Pisa to Florence about every 30 minutes and vice versa- takes a bit over an hour.
The station names you want are:
Livorno Centrale
Pisa Centrale
Firenze SM Novella
The Uffizi and Academia are both easy walk from station in Florence.
You will want to prebook your timed entries to both.
https://webshop.b-ticket.com/webshop/webticket/eventlist?production=4
https://www.uffizi.it/en
https://www.galleriaaccademiafirenze.it
Posted by
San Diego, California, USA
1040 posts
Hello plmadsen, and welcome to the boards,
The train service from Florence to Pisa runs all the time, takes about an hour with no changes and checking a Sunday in August I count about 30 trains that day. Making this transition is easy and busy even on a Sunday.
You can search trains directly here - although if you're on the Italian version of the site you'll need to search Firenze (not Florence)
https://www.trenitalia.com/en.html
Firenze S. M. Novella is the main Florence train station.
There is a Trenitalia app for your phone you can use to check schedules and buy tickets. You should really prebuy timed tickets for the Accademia and Uffizi Gallery. Budget about 1.5 hours for the Accademia and enough time to get across town to Uffizi when you book tickets. And don't forget time to rest and eat in this busy day.
Have a greta trip,
=Tod