What is the best way to get from Florence city center to the airport?

Where are you staying?

Hotel? If yes have them arrange transport.

AirBnB? BnB?

Phone one of the radiotaxi head offices +39-055-4242 or +39-055-4390 a day in advance and reserve a taxi for a set time.

We just flew back from Florence on a weekday in early December at 6:35am. We called for a taxi the day before for 4:00am and it arrived a bit early and was waiting for us outside our apartment. This has been our experience with booking taxis in Italy, that it's actually more reliable than at home. We had checked in online and when we got to the airport we tagged our own suitcases at a machine.

There was a long, long line already at 4:30am. I do not know if there was a staffing problem that morning, but there were only two agents working, and they were handling all of the airlines. We do not mind waiting in lines when we know that is what we have to do, but it was never clear what was happening and if maybe we should be waiting somewhere else, like at the self-check-in desk where there was no agent yet. Or at the desk for our airline? No helpful signage, no helpful person to ask. We were not the only people who felt unsure and a bit anxious --- the line got longer and longer behind us, and many people with luggage came up to the front of the line trying to figure out what to do and got shrugs and advice from the people already in line to just go get in the line. My guess is that a lot of those people had come on the airport tram instead of taking a taxi.

Someone who flies out of Florence airport more often than we do can report if this was typical or not. Our last early morning flight out of Florence was seven years ago and all I remember is that the taxi was on time and that the airport was not fully open so early. It's a nice, small airport, so you will not be walking much at all, but I wanted to prepare you for a possible long line. We were glad that we arrived two hours early and were towards the front of the line.

Calla a taxi a day ahead to pre-arrange or even on the same morning. They will come within 5-10 min. If you are at a hotel you can ask the hotel desk to do it for you.

Florence airport is small, with a short runway therefore only small regional jets (Embraer 190 or Airbus 319) with no more than about 100 pax can fly there therefore the check in procedures will be quick. The check in position for your flight will open exactly 2 hours prior to departure but generally with only one person, then as the time of departure approaches more agents will show up. As a result the earlier you go the longer the wait. If you get there at about 5 you will have time to spare. The taxi ride is 15 to 20 minutes depending on your exact location.

We had an early flight this fall and booked a taxi ahead which was there early as others have noted. We were staying out past Porta Romana and so even if the tram was running, it would not have worked for us.

We got there two hours ahead for a flight to Paris and lucky thing as the lines were really long. There were at least 100 people lined up for Vueling for several different flights and there was no self check in. We had priority check in and even so we waited half an hour as they put people with babies in our line and also pulled people out of line who had earlier flights. So while we were 4th in line to check in, many people were pulled ahead of us. They would ask for people going to Madrid for example and then pull those to the front etc. I had thought 'small airport; few flights; we don't need to get there that early' and that was WRONG. Luckily I had asked here and others had recommended giving it the full 2 hours which was the right idea. We had a 7 am flight -- the cab only took 15 or 20 minutes at that hour.