Florence and Pisa in a day?

[sotong]

This has probably been asked before, but thought would ask those seasoned cruisers for some advice.

We are in Livorno for the day in August and would like to spend a short amount of time in both Florence and Pisa, have an 8 year old with us so no art galleries just seeing the key sights, Ponte Vecchio, David and the cathedrals / duomo in Florence and then the Leaning Tower in Pisa.

The Cunard trip is $100 dollars each and includes a guided walking tour in Florence (8 year old may die of boredom!).

 

The question is can we do all of this by train / bus? or can we get a taxi either all day or 3 trips for less than the Cunard trip?

 

Any advice / suggestion would be greatly appreciated.

 

Gillian.

 

first time cruiser but hooked already after having seen our in laws off at the weekend from Southampton

[CruiserBruce]

Yes, it has been discussed frequently, just look down the board.

 

The $100 fare for the excursion doesn't sound too bad. As Florence is about 90 mins away, efficient use of your time is critical. I wouldn't recommend trying to this on public transit with the timing issues.

[SuiteTraveler]

A full day private tour in Italy typically runs $500 plus tips for driver and vehicle plus entrance fees to the various sites. However, it is well worth the expense because you will see 2 to 3 times as much as people on ship shore excursions AND you will be dropped off closer to the attractions you want to see vs. getting off at a bus parking lot and walking for ages to get to the attractions. The walk for Pisa from the bus parking lot is VERY long and on a ship's tour you are stuck going at the rate of the slowest person on the tour. If the slowest person is someone on a cane or walker, you are SOL. I recall an especially tedious walk on our first trip to Europe with a lady who had no business attempting to walk from the bus into Pisa.

 

What I would recommend is that you get a group together on your cruise's roll call. Typically, you can fit 6-8 people in a private vehicle. At that point, the private tour becomes cheaper than the ship's tour and is the best value all around. But even if you pay the whole cost for the private driver yourself, consider that this may be a once in a lifetime tour, so why not pay the extra money to do exactly what you want to do and use your time to the best advantage without waiting around for other people?

 

BTW, the David is IN a art gallery: The Accademia. You need to buy advance tickets if you want to see it.

http://www.tickitaly.com/galleries/accademia.php

 

Also, there are long lines to get into the cathedral - so you might want to give that a pass.

 

If you want to climb the Leaning Tower in Pisa, then you need advance tickets for that.

[euro cruiser]

You're probably not going to find a car and driver for a full day for less than $300, so it looks like your options are the Cunard excursion or DIY.

 

You can get to both in one day by train, but you'll need to get going as soon as they let you off the ship and keep moving throughout the day.

 

The first issue is getting to the train station, which is about three miles from the port. You can use the shuttle bus to town, then a public bus to the station, but it's a lot easier and faster to simply take a cab from the ship to the station. You can share a cab with others (plenty of folks will be heading to the station) and split the fare, which was 20 Euro a couple of years ago but has probably gone up some with the increase in oil prices.

 

Trains from Livorno Centrale to Florence (Firenze) Santa Maria Novella station leave once or twice and hour and take about 90 minutes to get there. The fare one way, in second class, is Euro 6,70. I would go to Florence first, as it is your furthest location, then hit Pisa on the way back.

 

From Florence you can purchase a ticket to Livorno, yet still get off in Pisa and back on to continue your journey to Livorno. There's no need to buy a separate ticket.

[CtheW0rld]

If you want to climb the Leaning Tower in Pisa, then you need advance tickets for that.

 

there is a minimum age to climb the tower (i highly reccommend it). i believe it is 12, but please check their website.

[Keith1010]

This has probably been asked before, but thought would ask those seasoned cruisers for some advice.

We are in Livorno for the day in August and would like to spend a short amount of time in both Florence and Pisa, have an 8 year old with us so no art galleries just seeing the key sights, Ponte Vecchio, David and the cathedrals / duomo in Florence and then the Leaning Tower in Pisa.

The Cunard trip is $100 dollars each and includes a guided walking tour in Florence (8 year old may die of boredom!).

 

The question is can we do all of this by train / bus? or can we get a taxi either all day or 3 trips for less than the Cunard trip?

 

Any advice / suggestion would be greatly appreciated.

 

Gillian.

 

first time cruiser but hooked already after having seen our in laws off at the weekend from Southampton

 

If the price is really $100.00, my advice is to take the tour.

 

Keith

[euro cruiser]

The minimum age to climb the tower is 8. The web site for information and ticket reservations is here: http://boxoffice.opapisa.it/Torre/index.jsp

 

The bus parking lot in Pisa is one half mile from the Piazza dei Miracoli, where the Duomo and Leaning Tower are located.

 

There is often a line to enter the Duomo in Florence, but it moves quickly. A fun option with a child is to climb to the top of the dome. There is usually a line for this as well (and a small fee) but it's a lot of fun and quite interesting to see the interior of the dome as you climb. If you attempt this I would do it first, before the crowds get bigger and the temperature gets higher.

[Midlandscruiser]

We did both in a day. We got the ship shuttle to Livorno, then the local bus to the train station. We got the train to Pisa, and a local bus to the tower. We spent about an hour at Pisa before getting the local bus back to the train station and on to Florence. We spent a few hours in Florence, including climbing the Duomo, before getting the train back to Livorno, and the local bus back to the ship's shuttle. We had plenty of time, and no rushing

[chipmaster]

We did such a day with 3 kids ( 8, 12 and 14 ) and 15 people total in two private vans. It was a great day!

 

Its a busy/long day but IMHO well worth it. We did take the time to go to the Academia for 30' with pre-reserved tickets to see the real David, well worth it IMHO. We spent about 45' at Pisa including a climb. We made this work by being almost the first group off the ship and were the first group that climbed Pisa. Not sure if possible to do it all DIY . We did everything on your must list with private with our drivers dropping us curbside. The total cost was ~ $140 USD / person due to the larger group. I don't think walking is boring for kids but can be hot. There is a lot of cool stuff in Florence if you avoid the museum and churches for too long, including a gelato stop and fun kid stuff and you will be good.

 

 

 

This has probably been asked before, but thought would ask those seasoned cruisers for some advice.

We are in Livorno for the day in August and would like to spend a short amount of time in both Florence and Pisa, have an 8 year old with us so no art galleries just seeing the key sights, Ponte Vecchio, David and the cathedrals / duomo in Florence and then the Leaning Tower in Pisa.

The Cunard trip is $100 dollars each and includes a guided walking tour in Florence (8 year old may die of boredom!).

 

The question is can we do all of this by train / bus? or can we get a taxi either all day or 3 trips for less than the Cunard trip?

 

Any advice / suggestion would be greatly appreciated.

 

Gillian.

 

first time cruiser but hooked already after having seen our in laws off at the weekend from Southampton