I have already booked a villa just outside of Florence for myself and family. I am now searching airfare and find that both Rome and Milan are less expensive than Florence. My delima is I am not sure if it is better to fly into florence, get a driver to the villa and rent a vehicle if we need it or fly into Rome or Milan? If I fly into Rome or Milan, is it best to rent a car and drive from either one of those airports to Florence or try to take the train? Because this is our first trip to Italy, I am not sure how easy it is to get a train with luggage in tow.
Please express any help you can.
Train is the fastest, most comfortable and cheapest way to get between cities. The main axes (Naples - Rome - Florence - Milan - Venice) have high speed trains, with 1 or 2 departures per hour.
If you are staying at a villa, you probably need a car. I would fly into whichever airport offers the best service with direct flights, then take the train to Florence or a town nearer your villa, and get a hire car there.
You can look up trains times and buy tickets on the Trenitalia (Italian Railways) website: http://www.trenitalia.com/tcom-en
Tickets are a lot cheaper if bought in advance.
For info on the Italian train network, see here: https://www.seat61.com/Italy-trains.htm
Thank you, can you tell me is it difficult to access a train while carrying luggage. By that I guess my question is the amount of space on a train for luggage while traveling.
Luggage on trains. First read this webpage: https://www.seat61.com/luggage-on-european-trains.htm
The important point is that there is no checked luggage, everything is hand luggage. It is your responsibility to carry the luggage through the station (which may involve stairs), onto the train and stow it in your coach. There are 3 places in a coach to store bags (as you can see in the above-mentioned webpage): above your head, between seat backs, and on long distance trains, racks at the end and centre of the coaches.
Space is usually not the problem, it is carrying the luggage. That is why everybody says "pack light", if you can easily carry your own luggage it makes everything so much easier, not just on trains, but in hotels and airports as well.
I have seen so many tourists struggling with their luggage, holding everybody else up, and you can see on their faces what they are thinking: "Why the §&%~ did I bring all this?".
P.S. If you have never been by train before, one common misconception needs removing: There is no check-in! There will be nobody to tell you where to go, or stop you from going the wrong way. You just walk off the street in to the station, follow the signs to where your train is and when it arrives get on. Some time after the train has left the station a ticket inspector will come round to check tickets.
And don't expect other passengers to help you with your oversize luggage. If it's too big for you to handle then it's too big for them to handle too.
Anita, you've left a significant detail out of your post above. Picked this up from one of your previous questions:
there will be 10-12 of us
You would need multiple rental vehicles for a group this size. Luggage on the trains will not be an issue IF all of you pack only to bag sizes and weights you can easily handle by yourselves. Aside from managing trains, accommodations in Italy quite often do not have lifts and involve managing flights of steps to the rooms.
If you rent, all of your drivers need International Drivers Permits and must do their homework on the ins-and-outs of driving in Italy: it is different than in the U.S. (if that's where you're coming from). I highly recommend trains into Florence and for your potential day trips as well, although you could move your group to stations on the outskirts with your rental vehicles or with a hired driver with a commercial vehicle large enough handle 10-12. You may also benefit from private tours that'll get the group from place to place, although I've no personal recommendations there.
Just how far outside Florence is your villa? Rental vehicles will be necessary just to go to dinner if its in a rural area not walkable to anything nearby, and the villa's host either doesn't provide transport options or not for a group your size.
I would like to thank everyone for your input it is quite helpful and kind of what I was thinking as far as renting a car. I know that taxes are high as well as fuel so I was trying to stay away from car rentals unless there is an absolute need.
My concern was that it would be a long distance from the airport to the train station with luggage, but from all of your comments it doesn't seem like that is the case.
Again, thank you for all of your information everyone and the websites for the trains.
Both Rome FCO and Milan MXP airports have train stations with lines leading to the main station in town, where there are trains to Florence. There are a few direct trains from FCO to Florence but all other solution involve a change at Milan Centrale or Rome Termini or Tiburtina.
Trains are much faster than driving - a train runs from Milan Centrale to Florence SMN in less than two hours, the same itinerary driving would be 3 hours 1/2 or 4. Travel time would be much longer as you have the airport transfer and a car transfer at destination - that sometimes are longer and more expensive than the high speed train covering most of the trip.
As everybody has pointed, you have to pack lighter for train than for airplane. In airport you usually have to do only the short and flat path from the entrance to the check-in point, boarding trains means lifting you luggage over three steps, sometimes walking a long way around the station.
Just to help us a bit -- just how much luggage per person are you anticipating? One carry on bag per person is easy to handle. It goes up geometrically after that.
We made the drive from the Rome airport to a castle outside of Florence. It was tougher than we expected -- staying awake was a serious problem requiring several stops with espresso shots. We would not do that again. Should have picked the car up in Florence. When you add in the additional costs of getting to Florence is it still cheaper than flying?
Thank you for your information. I am hoping just a small carry on with airplane necessities, book, etc. and one bag for each person checked. I am hoping light luggage as I have read several articles on what to pack and because we will have a villa with facilities to wash we shouldn't need to bring a lot of extra.
Just a thought or two...
Compare the price difference of flying into Florence versus flying into Rome/Milan and adding additional transportation to your final destination. There may not be enough of a "net" savings to bother with the hassle. Besides, how much of a delay are you going to incur?
Additionally, I'm assuming (for better or worse) that you're originating in North America and you will arrive in Italy (wherever you ultimately decide) at a time when your body clock says you should be sleeping. This is not the best time to crawl into a train, bus or car seat for another 2 or 3 hour journey. Speaking from experience, the motion and "white noise" of the train/bus/car can quickly put you to sleep. At best, you delay recovering from jet lag; at worst, you miss you stop (said from a position of personal experience)...
I fly to Florence unless the airfare to Rome or Milan is at least $200/$300 cheaper (or unless I need/want to go to Milan or Rome to visit places or family there).
The cost of ground transportation to/from Florence, the extra distance and time involved in using Rome or Milan makes it more convenient for me to fly to Florence (which is my final destination).
Since Florence is your last destination, you might want to take all costs and time into consideration.
If you fly to Florence, you might be able to go to the Villa on the day of arrival. But if you fly to Rome or Milan you may be too tired to drive 4 hours and you might have to spend an extra night in those cities, and hotel costs can easily amount to 150€ in both places. Even if you don’t plan to drive, the train alone costs over 65€ ($80) each way per person.
Flying to Florence is probably the way to go unless airfare savings are massive if you fly to MXP or FCO.