Here is a partial list of tourist cities which can be visited by EITHER train or bus (one or the other) as DAY TRIPS out of Florence:
Parma Modena Bologna Ferrara Livorno Viareggio Pisa Lucca Montecatini Pistoia Prato Volterra San Gimignano Siena Roma Napoli Orvieto Cortona Arezzo Foligno Spello Assisi Perugia
I am not recommending that ALL of these cities be visited as day trips out of Florence. Some require too much travel time, in my judgment. Nevertheless, some very "intensive" travellers might attempt to visit ANY of the foregoing as day trips. Note that in the case of Naples, the round trip train from Florence takes 7 hours!!! In the same general category of Naples, we could also add Venice, Genova and Milano (too far for a day trip for most travellers).
Originally posted by WSB: Presumably, Prato too. Although it is a large industrial town, the historic centre is attractive and well worth a visit.
We found Prato to be a great day trip. It is less than 30 minutes by train and the Lipi frescoes in the cathedral are breath taking. There is an archeological museum next to the cathedral that was also every interesting. NO CROWDS. We had a great lunch and wandered around the city and were back in Florence for drinks before sunset. I highly recommend Prato.
Originally posted by itarchivarius: There are several lines radiating from Florence. Going clockwise:
Direction Faenza - no feasible trips, the line is slow and Faenza is too distant
I solved this "problem" by running there in May 2004- the Passatore is a 100K race starting from Florence and going to Faenza.
I think assuming a week visit in florence I might save one day for a daytrip On the above mentioned 04 trip I rented a car and we took 4 people to 3 wineries in Tuscany. I life to stick to a place with occasional breaks in route to somewhere else. RR
Thank you all so much for your replies! I've a great list which will have to be narrowed down. Right now I may be looking at staying in Florence for 10 days and venturing out from there. I'm looking at going to Berlin for 7 days then the Ligurian coast for 8 days and then Florence. My head is spinning! We're suppose to be meeting a friend in Berlin (otherwise I would skip it) but if that doesn't work out I'll just add Berlin's 7 days to the Ligurian coast and Florence. I already have our flights into London. Now I just have to decide where I'm going from there! We always did the buy back lease van rental option whenever we were in Italy but it has gotten so expensive. I'm trying to avoid renting any vehicles.
Last October we took a day trip (actually spent the night - wonderful but not necessary) to Pietrasanta and highly recommend it - we're going back with our daughter and family in May. Details and photos in the blog Anne
