Trenitalia strike

Some trains will still be running, but they likely will be more crowded, or the strike will be settled by then. Check rome2rio.com for alternatives, they will show trains, buses, taxis with approximate fares, with links to timetables. I took a bus from Lucca to Pisa for a daytrip, and I know there are buses from Florence to Lucca as well. Worst case scensrio is the schedule won't mesh well enough and you do two half-day trips.

Just because a strike is called and announced doesn't mean it will happen, or that it will happen everywhere.

Go to http://www.trenitalia.com/ and click on the little British Union Flag in the corner to change it to English.

About 3 inches down find where it says "In Case of Strike" and it will inform you. Click on a region, Toscana in your case and see what it says. Google Translate can help because it will go back into Italian, or maybe you can read the Italian.

First you get an extract of the law which will tell you how the service must be preserved and then those services on a PDF which are guaranteed to run, usually in the morning and evening commutes.

Can you work your day around so that if the strike does go ahead you can travel on the guaranteed trains?

It has been my experience that in most cases strikes are solved, at least in part, before the scheduled date and time, sometimes close to the time.

Regional trains will be canceled if the strike does indeed happen. As mentioned above, there are trains that will run, usually during rush hour in the am and pm and are certain high speed trains.

Hopefully the strike will not happen.

Thank you everyone for your replies.

Nigel, I had a look at that PDF and the 8.05 train we were intending to take is still running. It is saying on weekdays. I am not sure if Italians class Sunday as a weekday as weekday to us is Monday to Friday and the 21st is a Sunday which is a weekend to us, I am uncertain about that.

We have decided to swap our Saturday and Sunday. We will go to Pisa and Lucca on the Saturday and do our exploring of Florence on the Sunday. The only thing is the Dome will be closed on Sunday so we will have to fit that in on Friday when we arrive. We can’t go on Monday as that is our Sienna and San G day and we can’t change that as the buses aren’t as frequent on the Sunday. If only I didn’t already book our Academia tickets for Tuesday, we could have done Pisa and Lucca on that day. Sometimes it does not pay to be too well organised. Lesson learnt!

I have read that trains strikes can get postponed or cancelled but as we are leaving for Italy this coming Sunday I would like to buy my Leaning Tower ticket before we go, so I need a definite date. Thankfully, I wasn’t able to buy them last week.

If this is the only hiccup we have in our 5 week holiday of Italy it’s no big deal. Cross my fingers the strike does not get postponed to a day that we are travelling from city to city in which I have already bought my train ticket for.

Zoe, what a terrific website rome2rio is. I will definitely be using that when we plan our Central European holiday next year. Thank you so much for that.

If the trains are on strike, you're in luck, because Florence, Pisa, and Lucca are well connected by buses. In fact, the bus to Lucca gets closer to the center than the train, so it's a good choice even if the train is running. Of course, if there's a train strike the buses are likely to be very crowded, so you should get to the station early.

Thanks for that Harold. Yes, I was planning to catch a bus from Pisa to Lucca and Lucca to Florence but it's the Florence to Pisa that I can't find a bus for, unless we were going to the airport.