Traveling to Italy this July with our kids 19 and 16. I've read all the past posts about getting from Rome to Florence via the LE from FCO and then to Florence. My dilemma is whether to purchase our train tickets in advance or wait until we land (8am local time). If it were off season I wouldn't worry so much. But being July it's stressing me out to wait until we land.
Thanks in advance for the help.
If you know the date you're traveling from Rome to Florence then why wait? Buying early saves you money and puts you on the exact train you want.
But something I never recommend is planning your trip by stepping off your plane and onto a long distance pre-planned train trip. You never know when your plane will be delayed by minutes/hours even days if you're caught in a worst case scenario of your flight being overbooked and no available seats on any flight until the next day or two.
Backing up Tim here: buying train tickets for arrival day is always a risk as you have to hope your flight is on time and there aren't any other delays, like holdups in baggage or a very long immigration line. This really only applies to the super-cheap, super-economy fares, though, as they're non-refundable and non-changeable. Sometimes these are SO inexpensive that it's OK to take the risk as long as you are willing to eat the price, if necessary.
Economy tickets can be changed but you have to pay the difference between what you paid for them and the price on the day of the journey.
Full-fare tickets can be changed at no cost.
What time are you getting into Fiumicino? There are two trains a day which go directly to Florence (S.M. Novella) from there - at 11:08 and 15:08 - so you might not have to take the express to Rome if you can catch that first one. That would be a cost saving of 56 euro (14 euro apiece for LE tickets) right there.
We land at 8am local in FCO. No one is checking bags so that's a plus. I'll check on the direct from the airport. 3 hours after landing feels like enough time barring the worst. Thanks for the tip.
One reason I did this post was because it surprised me how many people said the bought their tickets the day of travel at the airport. My wife and I have traveled to Italy before and always purchased in advance.
Advance is great when you can land those really cheap tickets and know you can commit to a particular train. It's just doing it for arrival day that can be sketchy. We haven't had any big problems with delayed flights to Europe (so far) but carriers have occasionally shifted flight times on us prior to day of departure. Our flights from Mpls almost always involve connections so that's another factor that could go awry.
So far, we haven't planned a trip abroad that involved leaving the city of arrival right away so super-economy advance tickets for trains some days later haven't been a risk.
Do not worry about purchasing ALL of your train connections before you arrive in Italy. But you can buy the routes that you have the precise time that works best for you and you can get them at a discount !
Day of arrival can be tricky, however, unless you build in enough lead time for mishaps.
Decide what will stress you LESS - buying them and worrying about making that particular train or not buying them to have the ease of flexibility when you land later than anticipated.
Buying train tickets at the station is easy, so don't stress about having everything set in stone.
Good stuff everyone. Thanks for the advice.
