Cheapest travel option(s) Germany to Florence, Italy

Kilo, That's a fairly LONG trip by train, but that would probably be the cheapest method. That trip ranges from about 9 - 15.5 hours with 2 -5 changes, depending on which train is used. I'm not thoroughly familiar with the budget fares on German trains, but hopefully Lee or one of the others can provide that information. One option you might consider is to travel by train to Stuttgart, and use a budget flight from there. From Karslruhe Hbf to Stuttgart Hbf is ~45M, and then the time to get to the airport. You could check either Air Berlin or Meridiana for flights. I briefly checked Air Berlin and they had a flight listed for US$167.39, including all taxes and fees. Flight time is 1H:30M. I didn't check Meridiana. Good luck and happy travels!

The reasons that you are not getting fares from German Rail are: 1. The connections you are looking at are probably going to somewhere in Switzerland, then by non-German trains on to Florence. German Rail does not usually show fares for segments entirely outside Germany. 2. Even if you use Munich as a stopover, so there is a segment from Munich to Verona, there are only Italian trains from Verona to Florence. Still no fares. If you book far enough in advance (max 92 days), you might get a Europe-Spezial fare as low as €39 from Karlsruhe to Verona via Munich. For Verona to Florence, you will have to take an Italian train. The full fare by Italian Eurostar from Verona to Florence is about €35, 2nd cl. With advance purchase online you might get a lower fare and there are probably lower fares on slower trains.

Thanks for the information; this helps me figure out options.

Or you can take a train/ bus to one of the airports serviced by a cheapie airline

The route through Switzerland ( Zurich) is 9 hours with 2 changes. The route via Munich and Verona (or Padua) is 11+ hours with 2 changes. You can get the best fares by buying discount tickets on the three national websites, bahn.de, SBb, and Trenitalia. I saw the following discount fares offered door a random date in late April: Zurich to Karlsruhe, 39 euro for the 8:00 train on bahn.de Zurich to Milan, Special Offer price of 36 CHF ( full fare is 82 CHF) on SBB Milan to Florence, mini fare of 29 euro on Trenitalia. Other days the mini fare may be more or less. They can be as low as 9 euro but those are probably all gone for April.

If you can get yourself to Frankfurt-Hahn airport, Ryanair will fly you nonstop from there to Pisa for a currently advertised base price of 9 euros. Flight time 90 minutes. From Pisa airport you can then take a shuttle bus to Florence city center for a currently advertised price of 5 euros. That's 14 euros and 90 minutes, not counting your travel time to and from the airports. (Of course you'll have some luggage & other fees from Ryanair).

Thanks for the information posted today, very helpful. I will look into one of the low cost airlines, as it will give me more time in Florence since I'm on a bit of a schedule.