milan to florence

There might not be one. It'd be a twenty-minute flight which would burn more gas in the climb than it would enroute. What's the train take - - a couple of hours? You'd spend that much time getting back and forth to the airports and going through the airport crap.

One hour 40 minutes on the fast train, from €19 if you can book in advance, €50 if you can't.

Train is 3:12 --- thinking of renting a car out of Florence - then driving to SG (3 nights). Want to do a bike tour out of Siena. Then on to Lerici for 3 nights. Have you been to SG or Siena? We were told to stay in SG and take day trips to Siena ???
Ever been to Lerici?

The Frecci train is not 3:12, it is under 2 hours like Kevin said. you must be looking in th ewrong place for schedules. Try trenitalia.com. buy your ticket in advance to get that 19 euro price.

I took the fast train from Milan to Florence last September - quite a short ride - about 90 minutes as per previous poster. Much better than flying.

thanks much. I got my information on trenitalia.com (3:12) --- so must be looking in the wrong page on the site. thanks !

You may have seen a slow regionale train. The Freccia will be way faster. Even if, and I'm only saying, if it were 3:12, with half an hour to an hour to get to the airport, 2 hour check in, half an hour in the air, and half an hour to an hour into Florence - at 4 hours for the flying experience even that slow train is faster than flying.

High-speed trains between Milano and Firenze take 1h40 on direct runs. Check Italo or Trenitalia.