We will be traveling from Provence to Florence in September. Our first trip over, so pardon my amateur questions in advance. What would be optimum for least amount of time and not arriving in the middle of the night? We're looking into staying at an agriturismo (tbd) in the Tuscany area ideally for a few days.
Thank you!
Posted by
Seattle
4637 posts
Provence is a region. What town are you leaving from going to Florence?
Posted by
OP
4 posts
Not decided yet. Aix or Avignon seem to be in the running right now. Will be researching that a bit more. Any suggestions? We'd like to do some local sightseeing and spending time in local villages meeting locals, seeing markets, architecture, and just taking it all in. I guess I'm off the train question a bit.. sorry I'm reading that St. Remy might be most centrally located and maybe not quite as busy as the other two?
Posted by
Seattle
4637 posts
Train connection to Florence is quite better from Aix or Avignon than from St.Remy. If you leave Aix at 9:29 - the same train leaves Avignon at 9:51 - you will arrive in Florence at 19:15. You will have to change trains in Lyon, Grenoble, Torino. This looks like the best connection. You can find detail of this connection and other connections on Deutsche Bahn website.
Posted by
OP
4 posts
That's really good advice; I'm getting a bit sleepy, but I'll look at this over the weekend. If you wouldn't mind continuing the thread, I would be most-grateful!
Posted by
OP
4 posts
OK, so here's our overall destinations that we'd like to hit:
Paris 3 nights 4 days
Provence region 3 nights 4 days
Florence 3 nights 4 days
Rome 3 nights 4 days
It seems like this is the most cost-effective and time-efficient ways for us using our air mileage plan coming & going to LAX. The sticky wicket that I'm trying to resolve is to minimize the time & costs between Provence & Florence. What I'm concluding is that it's probably best to do the train as you suggested above which is basically a whole day.
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19240 posts
You can find detail of this connection and other connections on
Deutsche Bahn website.
This is the URL of the Deutsche Bahn website
Posted by
Seattle
4637 posts
Don't consider using train a lost day. You will see a lot of countryside and possibly meet some interesting people. It happened to me several times.
Posted by
Boston
4132 posts
Have you investigated flights from Marseilles?
St Remy is charming, and brilliantly located as a base from which to visit most of the Rhone Valley sights. You will really need a car, however, if you want to see much in such a short time. Without a car I would prefer Arles to either Avignon or Aix.
Posted by
Toledo, Ohio, US
11613 posts
You seem to be adding days that don't exist. Three nights/four days followed by three nights/four days needs another night in between. It's better to just count nights. Travel eats up about a half day every time you change locations.