Train travel from Nice to Florence

Train schedules are available about 90 days prior to your day of travel. For general schedule information go here: http://www.bahn.de/i/view/USA/en/index.shtml Plug in the information such as cities and dates and you'll get the schedule. You may also want to read this: http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/tips/traintip.htm Each country has their own train system but some cross into other countries. It looks like the trip from Nice to Florence is a tough one. I checked an earlier date and the best I saw was 11 hours and 3 changes. But that could change.

For that trip, you'll need the following: - short hop (regional train) from Nice to Ventimiglia (first city after the Italian border) - regional train to Genova or Savona, depending on the time, - ES or IC train from Savona or Genova to Pisa or La Spezia, depending on the time - Train to Firenze (Regional or IC, depending on the time) It is a long trip that takes at least 8h40.

It is a long ride, but not as bad as what others have posted. You can go Nice-Ventimiglia-Pisa-Firenze, departing at 05:25 and arriving at 12:00. Or you can go Nice-Ventimiglia-Genova-Pisa-Firenze, departing at 07:55 and arriving at 15:07. See the timetables on the Trenitalia site. Enter an arbitrary date in the relatively near future. I chose one in January. The best site for timetables for virtually all of Europe is the German Rail site. However, it won't show the times I gave you until at least 11 December when new timetables will go into effect throughout Europe.

You asked about trains, but have you considered flying? Nice's airport is close to the city. If you can get a flight to Pisa or Florence, it would be quicker and simpler than taking the train.

There are no direct flights from Nice to either Pisa or Florence. Taking the train will be both faster and cheaper than flying.

The journey time from Nice Ville (the train station you want) to Florence varies from 6.0hrs to 8hrs17min depending on the run. I can see the fares on www.trenitalia.com from Venitmiglia to Florence. Ventimiglia is on the Italian side of the border with France and about 30 minutes from the Nice Ville train station. You will change trains there. Fares vary from 24.70Eu to 46.40Eu again depending on the run. As to the type of trains on the runs, most involve the slower and cheaper Regionale and intercity (IC) trains. These runs are the least expensive and they take the longest. The 24.70Eu run is on a Regionale train to La Spezia where you change trains to another Regionale to Florence. This is also the 8hr17min trip. Alternatively, some runs will put you on a Frecciabianca fast train from Genoa to Pisa. This is the 46.40Eu run that takes just over 6.0hrs. The quickest run departs Ventimiglia at 06:33 and takes 6.0hrs. One train change in Pisa. Fare is 34.90Eu 2nd Class. You would have to depart Nice Ville about 06:00am. Plus, the fare from Nice Ville to Florence will most likely be a bit more than the fares I show from Ventimiglia to Florence. Just a note on train systems in Europe. Many countries in Europe have their own train systems (i.e. Germany, France, England, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Spain). Some even have more than one system inside their country. You just need to learn the website addresses for these different systems. They're out there.

The fare from Nice Ville to Ventimiglia is €6.90. As I said in my first post, departing Nice at 05:25 will allow connecting at Ventimiglia and Pisa and arriving in Firenze at 12:00.

Have a look at the suggestions on your other Thread. You may not need to travel by rail from Nice to Florence.

Thanks to everyone's big help on my train questions:) I decided to skip Florence and fly from Nice to Rome suggested by Charlene.
Winny:)

Hi Everyone: We are back from our trip and thanks for all the tips. We took the Easyjet flight from Nice to Rome, skipped Florence. Then we took the train from Rome to Venice(4 hours train ride). We were glad that we reserved our seats because it was sold out on our travel date and people got on our train with different train tickets so the train was so packed but we were good and had our seats:) All other short train rides throughout Europe were easy and we could just bought tickets while we were there. Thanks again!!!
Winny