Arriving in Venice from JFK but leaving for Florence upon arrival asap. Only doing Venice and Florence in this trip. Do we need to book the train in advance or can we buy upon arrival? How frequent is the train from Venice to Florence? The last few days of itinerary is spent in Venice so is it relatively cheaper to buy a RT train ticket when we buy the Venice-Florence since we are certainly coming back to Venice or not that much difference anyways? Any thoughts is appreciated.
Posted by
Minneapolis, MN, USA
8700 posts
High-speed EuroStar Italia trains run directly from Venice to Florence at least once an hour. The trip takes just over two hours. Strictly speaking, you cannot book roundtrip tickets and there is no price break for booking both directions at once. What you book are single tickets each way. If you book well in advance (up to 120 days) at trenitalia.com, you can get a Mini fare as low as €9.00. Those fares go up in 10-euro increments as the allotted number of Mini fare seats are sold at each price level. Mini fare tickets are for a specific departure date and time and are non-exchangeable and non-refundable. Because you cannot guarantee that your plane will arrive on time, if you want to take advantage of a Mini fare you will need to allow lots of extra time to get from the airport to the train station. If you want to take the first available train, then wait and buy tickets at the station. The standard 2nd class fare is €53.00. Book Mini fare tickets for the return to Venice.
Posted by
Elk Grove, CA, USA
6898 posts
It looks like you may be arriving on Delta at 11:15. You can go out front and catch the ATVO bus to the Venice-Mestre train station and catch the next high-speed to Florence. Here's the link to the bus schedule. http://www.atvo.it/images_doc/linee/Linea_35_b__(dal_25.03_al_19.05.2012).pdf You could possibly catch the 12:15 or 12:51 bus. This will put you at Mestre about 20 minutes later. As Tim explains you can plan ahead for a specific train and lock in a great mini-fare but if you miss the train because of a later plane, your ticket is toast. But, 9E may not be much of a loss. The other option is to arrive at Mestre and buy ticket on the next high-speed. If 2nd class is full, which it usually is not, you can jump to 1st class or wait for the next train which should not be more than an hour or less.
Posted by
OP
Manchester, CT, USA
69 posts
This is very helpful, thank you very much!