Is Urbino a day trip from Florence, and can we get there by train without too much trouble? Also is it worth more than a day, should we stay overnight? Our trip is in late Sept. thank you.
Posted by
Los Angeles, CA, USA
1449 posts
The region is wonderful to visit, as is Urbino in particular. Urbino hosts a university, so plenty of students around.
However Urbino is not served by trains. According to the Le Marche (region Urbino is in) website "The Ferrovie dello Stato (FS), the Italian State Railways has two main lines in the Marche - the coastal Milan-Bari line that links up most of the seaside resorts and the trans-Italy Ancona-Rome line that joins up a few of the larger towns in the central part of the region. The rest of the Marche, however, is poorly served." See http://www.le-marche.com/Marche/html/getaround.htm#
In short, if you're going to Urbino you're going to need a car. But a car lets you visit not just Urbino but the other great towns in the area, as well as the coast (Pesaro is one of my favorite places to visit).
One other thing -- Le Marche is not overrun with tourists. The good -- you'll get a real sense of Italy. The bad -- don't count on everyone speaking english.
Posted by
OP
Chicago
2 posts
Thank you Mike. Well, if we want to see Urbino at the start of our trip, but don't have a lot of time before we have to be in Florence (1.5 days) - where, if there is such a place, should we fly into in order to pick up a car and drive (a short distance) to Urbino for an overnight? We'd be coming in from the US via Germany (Frankfurt or Munich) and the airport would need to be international...? Perhaps this may need to be saved for our next Ital trip? thank you!
Posted by
Los Angeles, CA, USA
1449 posts
Jill, when I was there we started via car in Tuscany a few days earlier instead of flying into Le Marche. If you go poke around on the website I gave earlier they list a nearby airport or two. I would think it would be possible to fly into a city that has customs, then take a commuter flight to the area. Ancona is pretty close and is a major ferry terminal, so it has several flights into its airport. Take a look at http://tinyurl.com/27o3cu which lists 5 carriers serving it. One is Lufthansa so you should be able to get there from Germany w/o much trouble. That could be a nice trip, actually (if you're not too tired from the flight!) Pick up a car in Ancona, tool around the coast a bit and some towns on the way to Urbino and get there by the late afternoon. Leave the next day for Florence after a bit more sightseeing.
BTW if you go, another plug for Pesaro. Park by the beach and there is a long pedestrian-only street going inland, with shops and restaurants on it and side streets. It is also the birthplace of Rossini.