Planning to fly home out of Florence airport (Peretola/Amerigo Vespucci). The flight we're looking at leaves at 7 am. Rick's guidebook says the airport is compact and manageable. However, guidebook says its 20-30 minutes from town by taxi and isn't open until 5 am. Given those times, the need to arrive well before flight times, and the potential difficulty of finding a taxi at say 4:30 am, does it make sense to go with a 7 am departure, or should we look for a later flight? Thanks for your knowledgeable comments on getting to Peretola.
Posted by
Toledo, Ohio, US
11613 posts
You can make a reservation for a taxi to pick you up at any time of the day/night, I do it all the time. I ask the reception desk the night before to reserve a taxi for the next morning (as early as 4am). There may be a small surcharge for the night rate, or there will be a flat rate to the airport from points in the city. Your reception desk staff can get the cost for you when they make the reservation. I've never had a taxi not show up at the appointed time, usually they are there a few minutes ahead of time.
Posted by
Rick Steves' Europe
16895 posts
Our staff experience has been the same as Zoe's. For instance, Rome is another city from where many of our tour members take early flights and early taxi reservations made by the hotel.
Posted by
Firenze
500 posts
It depends on you if you can make it, taxi travel time is short no matter where you leave from town. Of course leaving later in the day would be more confortable, but many companies offer feeder flights from Florence to their hubs around 7am or so, so you will find the airport surprisingly crowded at that time.
When I leave from Peretola I always reserve a taxi the evening before and I always find the taxi waiting for me at the agreed time.
Just in case, you can reserve at these phone numbers: 055-4242 or 055-4390 or 055-4798.
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area (USA)
16243 posts
I've flown out of Florence airport so many times since it first opened, I can't even count.
From the city center early in the early morning it's a 10-15 min taxi ride (4 miles).
The airport is tiny, with a short runway, therefore only regional jets (Embraer, A318/319, etc.) operate from there. There are only about 30-40 flights a day departing from FLR (on small jets) and the number of flights between start (6:30am) and 8:00am is a whopping total of about 5 flights. It used to look crowded because the check in area was smaller than most American living rooms. But 2 years ago they rebuilt the new departure hall and now there are 40 check-in positions (counters), (for the same 5 early morning flights on small regional jets). Since in the meantime they also installed the self service check-in machines, it now takes 5 minutes to check in, when it's really crowded (like in summer when the early morning flights increase from 5 to maybe 8).
The total daily departures out of Florence ranges from about 28 flights to a maximum of 44 departures (a day! Not per hour). There were 30 flights departing from FLR all day today, 9 of them between 6:30 and Noon. So, not exactly the traffic of O'Hare.
So, moral of the story, for my 6:30am departure to Munich I show up at 5:30 or later, and still have plenty of time for my cappuccino and some shopping.
Posted by
OP
Seattle
255 posts
Thanks to all for the expert advice. We'll reserve a taxi for an early morning pickup, do our short hop out of Florence and be home in time for a late lunch.