Train to Florence/Pisa - few questions

[cruisecouple88]

We are in Livorno from 7 am - 7 pm in Aug. We want to travel by train to Florence and Pisa. My first question is, has anyone purchsed train tix in advance or can you even do this? I heard sometimes the train is full and you have to wait for the next one... sometimes an hour. I thought I would try to purchase the ticket in advance but the website says there are no tickets available.

 

I know that many people go to Florence first, but I thought we could get on an early train and be in Pisa when the tower opens so that we can climb early and maybe beat the lines and get good fun photos without tons of people around. Question #2 - Does this sound like a good plan or will the crowds thin again around 2-3 pm, which would allow us to go to Florence first.

 

 

Thanks.

[euro cruiser]

It may depend on when you can get tickets to climb the tower, that's the most difficult part of your plan.

 

Here's the web site for making reservations for the tower: http://boxoffice.opapisa.it/Torre/first.jsp?y=2011&m=8&g=1&Index=1

 

I wouldn't worry about the train tickets. The only way that I know of to purchase regional tickets in advance is to have them sent to your cell phone, and I think you need an Italian phone number to do that. The trick is to get off your ship ASAP and take a cab to the train station, not the ship's shuttle into town.

[LilTink13]

You don't even have to wait in line to get train tickets... we were able to purchase them from the convenience stores in the Firenze train station. You still get them validated the same, etc. ;) It's a bit of a walk from the Pisa train station to the actual leaning tower - I would say give yourself around an hour just for that. The lines to climb the actual tower were extremely long but we weren't interested in doing that so I'm not sure whether or not the option to buy advance tickets with a time to climb on it was available then. (This was June 2010). I'm glad we visited Pisa, but I probably wouldn't do it again. Grab some wine and cheese and enjoy the sunshine in the grass surrounding it!