Travel from Milan airport to Florence

Take the Malpensa Express train to Milano Centrale (12 euro, every half hour). At Centrale, switch to a Freccia train to Firenze S. M. Novella, (hourly about 50 euro walk up price). You can buy your ticket at the Malpensa train station, just make sure you get on the train to Centrale, NOT Cadorna.

The easiest way to get to Florence will be by train. I assume you are coming from Malpensa airport and not Linate. You can take either the Malpensa express train the the Centrale train station or a shuttle bus. I would allow about 45-50 minutes to get from the airport into the city.

Once at the train station you can board a train directly to Florence SMN station. Your flight comes in at 7:45am so I wouldn't plan on any trains before 10am at the earliest.

You can find train schedules through the www.bahn.com. Tickets can be purchased from www.raileurope.com.

I hope this helps some.

Thanks, is it best to get tickets ahead from the U.S.?

You can purchase the ticket from Milano Centrale to Firenze Santa Maria Novella online ahead of time up to 119 days ahead of your travel day. Purchasing sufficiently in advance gives a chance to snatch a discounted ticket (called SUPER ECONOMY or ECONOMY) instead of the full fare (called BASE).
However discounted tickets come with restrictions. Basically if your plane arrives late and you miss the train you purchased the ticket for, you will lose your money as the tickets are non refundable and non changeable. Actually even if you buy a full fare ticket, you will be able to get it changed at no penalty only prior to the departure of the train. So if you arrive late with your plane you lose your money regardless.
Now since some SuperEconomy tickets sell for under €10, rather than the regular full BASE fare of €50, you could buy one of those and take a chance. If you miss the train, it will be a small loss, and if you make the train, it's substantial savings.
Just make sure you give yourself enough time to get to Milano Centrale. Basically you'll need at least 1 hour for deplaning, baggage claim and immigration, another possible 30 min wait for the train at the MXP airport, and almost one hour for the Malpensa Express to reach Milano Centrale. Then at Milano Centrale give yourself 1/2 hour to find the platform for the Florence train and make the transfer. Therefore if you decide to pre-purchase a SuperEconomy and take a chance, make sure the departure from Milano Centrale is at the very minimum at least 3 hours after your expected landing at MXP (better if at least 4 hours after landing).
The segment from MXP to Milano Centrale is only 12 euro, so don't bother to pre-purchase (not even sure they have discounts for that).

For Nov 4, the cheapest advance purchase tickets available are 29 euro, vs 50 euro at time of travel. Given that you are only "saving" 21 euro and chancing that you'll either lose it if you are late, or need to hang around Milano Centrale for several hours if you leave adequate cushion, I see no point of buying now. Just get your ticket when you arrive in Italy. With a little luck, you'll be zipping your way to Florence 2 1/2 hours after you land.

Thanks again!

Maplensa Express timetable

http://www.malpensaexpress.it/en/malpensa-express/timetable.aspx

Trenitalia

http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=ee13721bdd69a110VgnVCM1000003f16f90aRCRD

Note...Use Italian spelling.. Milano Centrale-Firenze SM Novella

kathleen,

As Roberto mentioned, if you pre-purchase tickets for the trains with compulsory reservations and miss the train because your flight was late (or whatever), the tickets will be worthless and you'll have to buy more at full price (Base fare). A "safer" approach when arriving by air is to simply buy your tickets at the airport rail station when you arrive.

You'll be issued two tickets......

• One ticket will be for the Malpensa Express which is a Regionale train so you MUST validate your tickets prior to boarding the train, or you'll risk a hefty fine which will be collected on the spot! The trip to Milano Centrale is ~52 minutes (I know that as I travelled that route a few days ago). One important point to note is that the M.E. has two destinations, Milano Centrale and Milano Cadorna. BE SURE you board the correct train!
• The second ticket will be for the Freccia train from Milano Centrale to Firenze SMN. The ticket will be specific to one train, date and departure time and can only be used on the one train specified on the ticket. If you board another train by mistake, again hefty fines collected on the spot. You'll be assigned a Carozza (car) number and a Posti (seat) number. Your trip will likely be via the high speed FrecciaRossa which travels at up to 300 kmH, and the trip will be 1H:40M. Note that a few of the runs from Milan to Florence have a change in Bologna. You can see the details on the Trenitalia website.