My husband and I will be taking our first ever international trip together to Italy from April 26-May 7, 2009. We're planning on traveling from Rome to Florence on May 1, 2009 via train. Will we have any issues traveling on that day, as it's a national holiday? Will the trains run as normally scheduled? I was just thinking about this tonight as I was looking over our travel plans. Thanks!
Posted by
Bay Area
3551 posts
why not check with www.italiantourism.com.
It is Labor Day for Italy. even if public transit is operating you never know when a strike might be called with little or no warning. Happened to me in Spain, totally unannounced! Fortunately it was a basically a threat only and 2 hrs later all was running fine.
Posted by
Wodonga, Australia
440 posts
Lisa, I have found than on any public holiday, things become rather quiet. I will again be in Italy for Easter, Liberation Day and May Day next year,though in the South, and will work my itinerary so that I don't travel on those days, if possible. Florence, being such an important tourist mecca (and tourist dollar) should not be too affected. Perhaps Ron in Rome can give you an in situ response. Happy travels. Pat
Posted by
San Jose, CA, USA
424 posts
Hi Lisa, I had the same concern for my trip in May 2007. I chose to travel on May 2nd from Rome to Florence instead. There is a huge rock and roll concert in Rome (it started around 2pm to about 11pm I think and was televised). In addition, all Rome museums only charged 1 Euro entrance fee on May 1. When I arrived in Florence on May 2, my hotel told me that in Florence, all the museums were closed (possibly because the museum employees didn't want to work that day). While many stores were closed, I had no trouble finding places to dine.
I'm sure as was suggested, you should be able to determine what train challenges you may have.
Good luck! May is absolutely glorious in Italy!
Gela
Posted by
Macungie, PA, USA
59 posts
We arrived at Milan on May 1st this year and were able to travel around w/o problem - express train, metro's, bus all on Holiday schedule, but moved smoothly.
There was a fairly large May Day parade at the fashion streets area, but it went very peacefully. There were occassional strike in Italy during out trip last May. I remember there was a "4 hour" strike when we go to Venice, but all the workers came back once the declared time is over.
Posted by
Henson, Florida, USA
466 posts
There are train strikes on a weekly basis in Italy so you never know. Usually they strike for a few hours or a day and then it's business as usual. You cannot control this so you'll need to be flexable and go with the flow!!! Have fun and don't let these inconviences ruin your trip!!!