Maintain Base in Florence and Visit Northern Italy
Replies: 9 - Last Post: Jan 24, 2012 3:20 AM Last Post By: lucapal
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Maintain Base in Florence and Visit Northern Italy
Hi, we are a group of 4 freinds who are visiting Italy in end of May. We wanted to book an apartment in Florence for 8 days and do day trips to Cinque Terra, Venice, Pisa, Sienne etc. Is this possible?Secondly, should we take a eurail pass for 8 days for these day trips? Will that turn out cheaper than booking individual tickets. Please advice.
Thanks in advance
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1 you can rent an apartment no problem...and you can use it as base to visit Pisa,Siena plus other places in Tuscany. Florence to Venice is 2 hours each way by fast train-not impossible but a long day(and not cheap).Getting to the CT (and doing anything there)on a day trip is also very problematic.
2 If you are going to visit only the places in Tuscany (with maybe a trip to Venice)...no need to get Eurail..it will be cheaper and easier to buy local tickets when you need them (and book the ticket to Venice in advance).
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http://www.trenitalia.it .....for your Venice tickets....you can do it a month or 2 in advance for better prices.4
For Florence - Siena I always advise using the bus - in Siena it terminates by the city walls (the train station is about 3 km away down hill) and unless you are unlucky with the traffic, the bus is quicker - see http://www.sitabus.it/sita-toscana/Firenze-Siena2010.pdf.For Cinque Terre its about 2 1/2 hours each way - the most direct route is via Pisa. See previous comments on this site about damage during last October's storms - it will be worth checking just what is open before you go
Apart from Venice, your trips are likely to be mostly on local trains - these are cheap, book when you are ready to go and remember to validate your ticket in the yellow box at the end of the platform before you get on the train.
5
the base in Florence idea is possible but i don;t think it makes sense. Florence is an expensive place to stay and you will be spending as much time in transit going to and fro as in the day trip destinations.6
The idea is good. Some of our tours starts and are based in Florence, because it's close to many excellent places and it's just beautiful. For example you could visit the towns of Siena and San Gimignano (in one day with private driver/rented car), go wine tasting, take a half-day tour in Pisa an see Cathedral of learning. Your plan seems easily doable. Have fun!7
Hi there,I think you can manage everything by train or bus, in the case of Siena is definetly a better option, but I'd consider renting a car for the Cinque Terre day,
if you cannot I'd skip it, you might visit Bologna instead
8
There are no direct road links between the five 5Terre villages, but local trains every 30 minutes or so. The visit of 5Terre makes only sense if one hikes from village to village (may be on the higher (and more strenous) trails if the coastal trails are not yet repaired). It's then possible to go back to the initial village by (may be Florence bound) train, walk to the parking, pay the parking fee and drive back to Florence, but it doesn't make much sense.
