Train to Florence/Pisa

[JennCandi]

We are traveling one week from tomorrow and I was looking for information on traveling by train from Livorno to Florence. There are two train stations in Livorno. Which one is closest to the port? How far is it? Any other information about using the train here would be great. Rome looks pretty easy by train, but this seems a little more difficult.

[tlf]

The train station is Livorno Central. The easiest thing to do is take a cab. When we went 5/21 there were cabs waiting right on the pier. They charge flat fee of 15 Euros. You probably will find others willing to share a cab. When you come back, taxis are lined up in front on the station and there was someone directing people based on what ship you are on. We had enough time on the return trip to get off at Pisa and have a taxi take us see the leaning tower wait and come back (15 Euros round trip). If you buy round trip train ticket to Florence you can get off/on at Pisa with no extra charge.

 

We took the train to Rome as well, so when I purchased the tickets for Rome, I purchased tickets to Florence at the same time. It's easier if you have the information written down so you can just show them what you want.

 

tlf

[KBDubai]

The train station is Livorno Central. The easiest thing to do is take a cab. When we went 5/21 there were cabs waiting right on the pier. They charge flat fee of 15 Euros. You probably will find others willing to share a cab. When you come back, taxis are lined up in front on the station and there was someone directing people based on what ship you are on. We had enough time on the return trip to get off at Pisa and have a taxi take us see the leaning tower wait and come back (15 Euros round trip). If you buy round trip train ticket to Florence you can get off/on at Pisa with no extra charge.

 

We took the train to Rome as well, so when I purchased the tickets for Rome, I purchased tickets to Florence at the same time. It's easier if you have the information written down so you can just show them what you want.

 

tlf

 

Thanks for the info TLF.

 

is it EURO15 for Livorno-Florence-Pisa-Livorno by cab ?

 

How long does it take to Rome by train ?

 

Sanjay

[Hlitner]

Whoa.. I believe the 15 Euros refers to the taxi cost from the Livorno pier to the Livorno Centrale train station. If you want to take a taxi to Pisa and Florence it will cost you over 200 Euros (sometimes a lot more) based on your negotiations with the taxi drivers. From Civitavecchia to Rome it will take anywhere from an hour to 1:20 depending on the train. Trains will always be a lot cheaper than taxis,, and often faster. There are some here who will suggest that the trains are often on strike, late, etc. The truth is that the Italian trains are usually very reliable....but they do have ocassional 1 day strikes. Hence, you always need a back-up plan...which is to have enough money so that you could always grab a taxi in an unlikely emergency situation.

 

Hank

[tlf]

Hank is correct. 15Euros is cab fare from port to Livorno train station. Train ticket is 12Euros round trip.

tlf

[CAC104]

I only want to go to Pisa, do you know if the trains schedule stops there often? Does anyone know the price to Pisa via train?

[ehogan]

CAAC104:

 

We were in Livorno in May 2005 and the cruise ship (RCCL Brilliance) provided a shuttle from the port to central Livorno where we walked 1/2 block to the bus that took us to the train station. Quite easy to do and the shuttle only cost a few dollars. We took the train to Pisa and it worked out very well. You might want to ask your cruise line if they will provide a similar shuttle, but my experience is that most of the cruise phone reps don't know this and you may have to wait till you are on board to find out.

 

I don't really remember how much the train was from Livorno to Pisa, but it was not much, maybe 4 Euro return. When you get off the train in Pisa you should walk from the station to the Leaning Tower, it is a wonderful walk along a pedestrian only series of streets with lots of shopping (if you are interested) and cafes. When you exit the station, you walk straight ahead (there should be a large map right outside the station), the "Field of Miracles" where the Tower is will be on your left after about a half an hour walk.

 

If you go to http://www.trenitalia.it, you will be able to pull up the schedule and the fare.

[CAC104]

thanks so much for the info...If I can convince my friends to take the train, I will follow all of your instructions. I went to Brugge via the train when we were docked in Belgium and I followed instructions someone posted on CC and they were wonderful, and much cheaper than doing the ship tour.

[varisian]

Florence and Pisa from Livorno

Take the shuttle bus from the ship to the town centre.

Turn right when alighting from the bus and walk to the bus stance. At the magazine stall buy a ticket to the railway station. 1 Euro. Get a number 1 bus from the same side as the magazine stall, ie for buses going to your left as you arrived at the bus station. It is about a couple of miles to the railway station.

A return ticket to Florence (Firenze SNM) is 12 Euros and Pisa is 6. Again remember to validate your ticket. It is about 1½ hours to Florence and 20 minutes to Pisa. Pisa doesn’t have much other than the leaning tower but this is worth seeing. Florenec is beautiful and with very little traffic so it is easy to walk about, unlike Naples.

Remember to validate your tickets in the little yellow or orange ticket machines at the platforms.

[kruzin']

:) thanks for you great info..I'll be on the Liberty 9/2006 do they have a free shuttle towne center and if not what is their fee? I noticed on trenitalia.com that some florence trains stop in pisa do you know how far the leaning tower is from the train station, can we walk (how far) or do we need a taxi when we get off in pisa? I would love to do both pisa and florence by train on our own since we will be in port from 8am to 8pm what do you think?

Florence and Pisa from Livorno

 

Take the shuttle bus from the ship to the town centre.

 

Turn right when alighting from the bus and walk to the bus stance. At the magazine stall buy a ticket to the railway station. 1 Euro. Get a number 1 bus from the same side as the magazine stall, ie for buses going to your left as you arrived at the bus station. It is about a couple of miles to the railway station.

 

A return ticket to Florence (Firenze SNM) is 12 Euros and Pisa is 6. Again remember to validate your ticket. It is about 1½ hours to Florence and 20 minutes to Pisa. Pisa doesn’t have much other than the leaning tower but this is worth seeing. Florenec is beautiful and with very little traffic so it is easy to walk about, unlike Naples.

 

Remember to validate your tickets in the little yellow or orange ticket machines at the platforms.

[JennCandi]

Thank you everyone for the information. It is very helpful. I'm a little nervous about taking the bus to the train station. Do a lot of people speak English?

[Kroosin]

:) thanks for you great info..I'll be on the Liberty 9/2006 do they have a free shuttle towne center and if not what is their fee? I noticed on trenitalia.com that some florence trains stop in pisa do you know how far the leaning tower is from the train station' date=' can we walk (how far) or do we need a taxi when we get off in pisa? I would love to do both pisa and florence by train on our own since we will be in port from 8am to 8pm what do you think?[/quote']

 

From one Kroosin to another, you have voiced exactly my questions! We'll be on the Liberty in July. There was nothing on my down payment invoice that referred to free shuttles, so I'm afraid they don't offer them. I hope I'm wrong.

[CAC104]

With such good info on the trains, I am wondering if you can also help me out about the Isle of Capri....The liberty tour to Capri doesn't seem to include the Blue Grotto, which is something I really want to see. We would like to take the Ferry/hydrofoil on our own and then see about getting to see the Blue Grotto when I get there. Does anyone know if there are boat rides to the Blue Grotto when you arrive at the Capri dock?

[kruzin']

:) great to hear you'll be doing our cruise but only in July. Hope you will post a great recap of you cruise as other have done to pass good info onto your fellow Liberty cruisers. So far we will do nice/eze excursion in cannes and taormina excursion in Messina the other ports we feel we can do on our own..Another thing that has helped me with Florence is that every1 says the large buses used by the cruise lines for their city tour can't get close to the city center so you are left to walk and hook up with the bus at a certain time and place and who wants that..that

is why we want to do Florence on our own so we can be in the city center for the day..Barcelona is another city to do on you own and we are going to try to make use of the hop on hop off buses too

From one Kroosin to another, you have voiced exactly my questions! We'll be on the Liberty in July. There was nothing on my down payment invoice that referred to free shuttles, so I'm afraid they don't offer them. I hope I'm wrong.

[cdfev]

We just did the train trip from livorno centrale to florence on June 11, 2006.

 

We took a taxi from Galaxy after being the first off the ship at 0700. We took the taxi from the ship to livorno centrale for 20 euro for 6 people. The ship offered a shuttle for 7 euro RT to the center of Livorno but it did not start running until 8 AM. Even if we took the shuttle, we would still have to taxi to the train station from the center of Livorno.

 

We made the 0735 train from livorno centrale and arrived in Florence at 0903. The total cost for the adults was 12 euros RT and for the children, 6 euros RT.There was a 10 minute stop in Pisa Central station. There were 4 or 5 other shorter stops on the way to Florence.

 

We spent 6.5 hours in Florence and made the 3:27 PM train in Florence back to livorno and arrived at 4:49 PM. We took another 20 euro taxi ride for the 6 of us back to the ship and arrived at 5:10 PM. In retrospect, we could have jumped off at Pisa for the walk or ride to the Leaning Tower but opted not to do this.

 

The most fun in Florence was the flea market near the San Lornezo church on the Sunday afternoon that we were there. My teens loved this and purchased several items for themselves and their friends. There were loads of colorful people and interactions with the merchants. The prices were cheap and the merchandise was undoubtedly not of the same quality as the stores; nevertheless, this was very fun and there appeared to be good bargains to be had.

 

I can't imagine that the ship's excursion of "Florence on your own" was worth nearly the six time cost per person that we spent on doing this train trip on our own.

[tom_uk]

Thank you everyone for the information. It is very helpful. I'm a little nervous about taking the bus to the train station. Do a lot of people speak English?

 

We did exactly this last Sunday from Galaxy. Get the ticket from the newsagents across the road from where the shuttle bus drops you - they speak english. (I'm not sure you can buy a ticket on the bus, but I might be wrong, so look for the newsagents - they have a helpful friendly sign outside with 'Bus & Train tickets to Pisa' on it, in english.) They can sell you train tickets as well. Then find the #1 bus stop in Piazza Grande - it's easy, the stops have the timetables for their routes on them. The bus ride takes 10 minutes or so, and the station is the end of the line - if it doesn't look like you've arrived at the station, then don't get off! Remember to validate your bus ticket in the machine near the front of the bus.

 

At the station, use one of the automated machines to buy a ticket if you haven't already got one. They work in English. Trains are every 30 minutes - you need to look for trains to Firenze (Florence), those are the ones that stop at Pisa. The timetables at the station have lots of info on them. And once again, remember to validate you train ticket, this time on the platform. (bus tickets - validate on the bus; train tickets - validate on the platform). At Pisa you can walk - we did, it's about half-an-hour to the Campo dei Miricali where the Duomo & Tower are, and that way you'll walk past some cafes. We had a simple meal at the Cafe Sfizio (?), which was OK. There were other restaurants nearer the tower.

 

Enjoy it! - it's cheap and easy, and you'll feel a real sense of acompishment if you do.