Florence and Pisa on a shore day possible DIY?

Thank you. I've found English

Should we plan on purchasing 2 one way tickets, or one round trip ticket, and just get off for that hour or so in Pisa?

Hardly an expert, just planning to do much the same. But what I've found out from this forum & the trenitalia site:

A one-way ticket between Florence (Firenze) & Livorno is good for four hours from when you validate it. So you will have towards 3 hours for a stop in Pisa, using that ticket.

But buying a single Firenze to Pisa, and another Pisa to Livorno costs within a few cents of a through ticket.

A through ticket will avoid the need to try out your best Italian on the station staff one more time, other than that I can't see a big difference.

But it's almost a half-hour walk from station to leaning tower, so I don't see an hour as being long enough.

Just to stress, this is only from research & not from experience.

JB :)

A through ticket will avoid the need to try out your best Italian on the station staff one more time, other than that I can't see a big difference.

Just a note: all the stations we visited on our Italy travels had ticket machines with English instructions available - so no need to actually talk to someone ;). Although, I can't say whether a US credit card (non-chip and pin) would work.

JB, thanks so much. I think we are going to do it in reverse. We'll buy a one way from Livorno to Florence & stop at Pisa on the way out (utilizing the 4 hr stop allowance).

We'll likely take a taxi from the train station to the tower to save that half hour walk. Simply take obligitory photos, climb the tower, and return to the train station to head to Florence.

Then, I suppose buy the one way back.

The round trip to which I was refering was from Livorno to Florence & back purchased in Livorno, instead of two one ways.

We did not go to Pisa, opting for Florence. Some of our tablemates did go to Pisa & found it disappointing (boring, actually). I remember it's a long bus ride to Florence & back.

Although, I can't say whether a US credit card (non-chip and pin) would work.

I can't remember - can we simply use Euros or do we have to have a credit card??? I was really hoping to just use Euros? :confused:

By the way, in 2009 we used our US credit card for the trains to/from Rome and we were fine, FYI

I can't remember - can we simply use Euros or do we have to have a credit card??? I was really hoping to just use Euros? :confused:

 

By the way, in 2009 we used our US credit card for the trains to/from Rome and we were fine, FYI

You can use cash. Oh - every ticket agent I've spoken to at the stations in Italy have English ability. It will be a very short conversation and they understand where you want to go, one way or round trip, and will tell you how much.

You can use cash. Oh - every ticket agent I've spoken to at the stations in Italy have English ability. It will be a very short conversation and they understand where you want to go, one way or round trip, and will tell you how much.

Thank you. We have never used a ticket agent for tickets... we always use the machines... quicker and easier! :)

This is one of the things we are thinking about for our day in Livorno. Take the train to Pisa and then Florence and back. Anyone done this recently? Our alternative is to take a tour that does the same thing - cost is about 100 euros a person.

Firenze + Pisa from Livorno, it's is doable; read my report AIDAperla Cruise - 7 Nights Mediterranean Pearls (Day 6). But it is always better to have a plan B for the transportation; there was a small fire on the railroad track, and train service was interrupted.

This is one of the things we are thinking about for our day in Livorno. Take the train to Pisa and then Florence and back. Anyone done this recently? Our alternative is to take a tour that does the same thing - cost is about 100 euros a person.

We used the train. Massively cheaper at under €20 round-trip but more importantly allowed us to set our own flexible itinerary and do our own thing.

We went armed with last suitable train times from Florence to Livorno, and from Florence to Pisa, and from Pisa to Livorno, so we could choose whether or not to fit in Pisa after we'd seen plenty of Florence.

So we went direct to Florence and stopped off at Pisa on the return journey.

We did it that way round because we didn't know how long we'd need in Florence - if we left Florence early enough we could stop off in Pisa but if we wanted to stay in Florence for the day we could simply put Pisa on the back-burner for another time.

Also there were a lot more trains to Livorno from Pisa than from Florence.

And we were very much closer to the port if plans went belly-up late in the day, so could even take a taxi back from Pisa if necessary.

Folk had recommended Pisa first "before it gets crowded". But mid-late afternoon wasn't crowded either, so I guess we were there after the crowds.

Others have said that both in a day doesn't give you enough time in either.

If you want an in-depth look, visit a museum or two, climb the tower, they're right.

But we weren't interested in going into museums & such, and we didn't feel it was a rush in Florence.

And we weren't interested in going up the leaning tower, so about 30 - 45 minutes on the Field of Miracles was plenty for the obligatory selfies etc.

Florence or Pisa or both?

Organised tour or DIY?

There's no right or wrong.

It depends on what you want to do.

JB :)