Nice to Florence by Train

Neil, Could you provide a bit of further information? When will this trip be taking place? Where have you been trying to "book" this trip, and with which rail lines? I normally just buy tickets after arrival in Europe, as it's very easy. The trip from Nice Ville to Firenze SMN will be a minimum of 7H:10M with two changes. I'm sure some of the others will have information in pre-purchasing tickets. Happy travels!

If you are trying to find schedules, the German Rail (Bahn) website is the place to go. To find out what fares will be will be more difficult because you are going between two different countries. You can find fares, and presumably book on the Trenitalia website by using Ventimiglia to Firenze, but you would have to book the part from Nice to Ventimiglia on the French Rail website. Actually, the train from Nice to Ventimiglia is a regional train. You can buy tickets online as far ahead as you want, or buy the just before boarding. It won't matter because you can't reserve seats on regional trains. So if all the seats are taken when you get on, you'll stand no matter when you bought your tickets.

If you're an early bird, you can leave Nice at 05:25, connect in Ventimiglia and Pisa, and arrive in Florence at 12:00. The total travel time is 6hr35min. Buy your Nice-Ventimiglia ticket in Nice. Buy your tickets from Ventimiglia to Florence when you get to Ventimiglia.

The key questions are those asked by Ken. Are you trying to book tickets before the booking horizon? Which company are you trying to use? You won't say Rail Europe, will you?

Thanks everyone for your generous input. It is very helpful. Ken and Nigel, My wife and I will be traveling from Nice to Florence in April. We tried Rail Europe first then Renfe and Trenitalia. We heard that it's much less expensive to pre-book tickets so that's what we were trying to do. We have since heard that there isn't a difference in price by pre booking so we thought we'd follow Tim and Lee's advice and just purchase them when were in Nice.
Thanks both Tim and Lee for the information and for the Bahn website. We'll pick up the tickets there and by using Bahn we able to coordinate a tentative schedule that will allow us a short stop in Pisa as we travel to Florence. Again Thanks Ken, Lee, Tim and Nigel for taking the time to help us out. It was a great help. Before I got on the travelers help line I pretty much wasted a day trying to figure out a plan.

You're welcome, Neil. I don't know for sure, but you may not be able to buy tickets in Nice for your legs that are entirely within Italy (Ventimiglia to Florence). There are at least two trains/hour between Nice and Ventimiglia. If necessary, you could take an earlier train to Ventimiglia than you would if you had all your tickets in hand. Then use your extra connection time to buy your Ventimiglia-Florence tickets.

Thanks again Tim and everyone Great suggestions. We now have a working plan thanks to your generous input. Happy Traveling Neil