Travel to Florence via Rome

J Kern

Going on the Tuscany & Cinque trip in Aug 2018 with our family to celebrate our 30 wedding anniversary. Having some difficulty flying 5 people from Chicago to Florence due to the various connections. As a result, I thought about flying to Rome and taking the train to Florence. Has anyone done this? How complicated would it be? Also, if we choose to take this approach, we need to travel from Siena back to Rome at the end of the tour. How much time should we allow for the train ride and transport to the Rome airport?

Any help is much appreciated.

jk

Ken from Vegas

This is definitely doable. Tauck will happily take you to Florence's Santa Maria Novella train station from Siena at the end of your tour. From there you can get a high speed train to Rome (Roma Termini station). That trip takes about 1 hour and 45 minutes. From Roma Termini, you can take a high speed train (Leonardo Express), a local train, or a bus. The Leonardo Express is the best option, but twice the price of slower options. 32 minutes to the airport, it leaves every 15 minutes. The Rome airport (Leonardo DaVinci aka Fiumicino) is quite a way from Rome, near the coast. I would book the train from Florence to Rome in advance. Go to raileurope.com or see a travel agent. Remember that you will have to schlep your own luggage, so plan accordingly.

Florence airport is tiny, so it's not surprising that you're having trouble. We flew Swiss Air through Zurich, so check that as an option.

Enjoy your trip. You've picked a really good one.

AlanS

J Kern wrote:

Going on the Tuscany & Cinque trip in Aug 2018 with our family to celebrate our 30 wedding anniversary. Having some difficulty flying 5 people from Chicago to Florence due to the various connections. As a result, I thought about flying to Rome and taking the train to Florence. Has anyone done this? How complicated would it be? Also, if we choose to take this approach, we need to travel from Siena back to Rome at the end of the tour. How much time should we allow for the train ride and transport to the Rome airport?

Any help is much appreciated.

jk

Why are you having trouble getting from Chicago (ORD) to Florence (FLR)- did you wait too long, limited to a specific airline, etc.?

Delta/Skyteam has a few one-stop (usually AMS) flights each direction between ORD and FLR. At the end of the trip, Tauck provides transport to Florence. If the flights leave too early- book a hotel and spend the day in Florence- you can never spend too much time in Florence- then fly home the following day.

There are many options besides flying into Florence, but involve trains and other connections- Rome, Genoa, Bologna, Venice, etc. are all possibilities. Actually, Genoa and Bologna are closer than Rome. The Classic Italy tour travels by train from Florence to Venice- it was only about a two hour trip on the high speed train.

Also, at the end of your tour no need to depart from your arrival city. You could book it like you would for most Tauck European tours which necessitate 'open-jaw' flights rather than true round-trips. Even if you flew into another city at the start, you could still use Tauck's free transfer and fly out of Florence on the homeward bound flight. In fact, plan your trip so you spend a few days in Florence on the front or back end of the tour. You won't have enough time on the tour to see it all anyway.

Delta/Skyteam has at least three or more one-stop flights per day from ORD to Genoa or Bologna (stops CDG or AMS or FCO) and three or more one stop return flights from Florence.

J Kern

Thanks much for the feedback. After looking at the train schedule, we will fly to Rome and take a train to Florence. We arrive in Florence faster by flying to Rome and taking the train vs. a flight transfer somewhere in Europe. This will give us an extra day in Florence before the tour begins.

My trouble with booking the flight has to do with trying to find 3 economy seats and 2 economy plus seats while attempting to avoid the 20 hour plus layover. I must confess that in all my research, Delta did not appear on the list. However, we are flying out of Chicago so that could be the reason.