Train question

You're flying into Rome and then immediately jumping on the train to Florence on the same day?? I personally would never do that...what if your flight is delayed (maybe even a whole day). What if you land during one of those notorious train strikes??

Definitely just wait until you get there to buy a ticket.

There are 2 direct high speed trains from Fco airport to Firenze SM Novella station every day, one leaves at 11:08 and the other at 15:08.

A cheaper alternative would be the 8 € slow train from Fiumicino to Rome's Tiburtina station called FL1, followed by an high speed train to Firenze. Of course at Tiburtina I'd pick the cheapest train, it doesn't matter if it's run by Italotreno or Trenitalia. They are almost equal, except that Italo's complimentary wi-fi on board works better.

All trains going north out of Termini call at Tiburtina station, that is also easier to navigate and less crowded.

Train strikes are announced weeks in advance and "Express" airport trains are guaranteed to run even during strikes. I doubt Jen is going to take a 3 hours and 45 minutes local to Florence, during a strike if you hold an high speed train ticket the problem is Trenitalia's, not yours.

Jen, your question is a "frequently-asked question." The easiest thing to do is just buy the ticket when you get to Rome and pay full fare. Others will give themselves a few hours layover to account for possible delays so they can buy a cheaper ticket now and save money but guarantee they'll get to Florence later. The one time I had to make this choice in Rome (to take the train immediately to Venice after flying in to Rome), I opted to buy when I arrived. If you "guestimate" and leave yourself not a huge amount of time for possible delay, you may have to buy new full fare tickets when you arrive and throw the old ones away.

FYI, there are several DIRECT trains a day to Florence from FCO. Check the Trenitalia website. If by chance you would arrive near enough to one of those train's departure, it might be worth say waiting around to avoid changing trains in Rome. Also, you don't necessarily have to go all the way to Termini in Rome to connect to Florence - depends on the train. Check the proposed Trenitalia solutions carefully.

If you plan to have a working smart phone in Italy (highly recommended), you can also buy train tickets with the Trenit app (or other apps) on your phone and skip the ticket machine or ticket agent at the station in Rome. The ticket machines work fine if there's no line, if you aren't in a rush, and if you have cash (or a chip and PIN credit card). The phone worked great for me last month when buying train tickets a few times. You could buy your ticket to Florence from the train headed to Rome from the airport, for example, once you know which connection you can make having already left the airport.

here is another option

http://www.fiumicinoexpress.com/

Wait. International travel is not worth pre purchasing and second guessing...

Yes, just buy a ticket after you arrive so you won't have additional stresses/unnecessary delays. FYI, Trenitalia ticket machines DO take chip-and-signature cards (I bought day-of-travel tickets on five separate occasions in May 2017)

My chip and signature card did not work in the Trenitalia machine I tried it in. I even tried a PIN of 0000 when asked. Nothing worked. (Because I also have a chip and PIN card, I used that instead.) Last year, in the Baltic countries, I used a chip and signature card everywhere in machines without needing a PIN.

Not all of the Trenitalia machines seem to be the same. Maybe some of them work and others don't with various cards. (but my chip and PIN card worked in all of them.) Given my experience, I would certainly not count on the machines working with a chip and signature card, but it's worth trying.

This is the same question you asked last week. Full fare in the cheapest class of service on a fast train from Roma Termini to Firenze SMN is €47. I would not stress out (and risk loss) to save €10-15 per person. I also don't see any deeper discounts available on that route over the next few months.

Download Trenitalia app before departure, book tickets when you arrive. No worries about wonky chip-sig vs ChipnPin machines.

We just did this 3 days ago - flew into Rome on a Monday and took train to Florence. I also was worried about not buying the train ticket ahead of time. Our flight was on time. We did not check bags so we walked through customs/security very quickly. Now we are not super-experienced travelers and it was our first time to Italy so we opted for the easiest route and purchased a ticket at the ticket window for the direct train from the airport to Florence. There is a little cafe right by the track and we sat down to gather ourselves while we waited for our train - maybe about an hour. To me it was worth the extra Euro not having to experience of having to change trains. We got on the 11:08 train (plenty of seats) and arrived in Florence at 1:22 pm. We met a nice American onboard who was taking art classes in Florence and it was very reassuring to talk to someone who wasn't speaking so fast and could take the time to give us newbies some advice. Hope this helps!