Livorno to Florence and Pisa by train

[Freddie]

When you went from Livorno-Pisa-Florence did you take the train? We are considering a taxi service to visit the same areas in Sept 09. Would like someone's advice who has recently been there.

Thank you,

Freddie

[Jim C.]

Freddie.. taxi service to Florence from Livorno would not come cheaply.. If you booked a "tour guide" to drive you around for the day, you probably are looking at $300 to $400...

We took the train, went to Florence first and stopped at Pisa on the way back to Livorno. The only thing of interest is the tower in Pisa, so if you do it in this order you can determine if you have enough time after seeing Florence. You will have to pick and choose a couple of major things to see in Florence and there is no way to do the whole place justice in 1 day.

[Hank]

Jim has it right and might actually be underestimating the cost of a taxi. On our most recent visit to Livorno (April of this year) the taxis were asking for 350 Euros for a full day hire (this would be a little more than $400). If we plan on going to more than just Florence we personally prefer to rent a car and drive ourselves. The local Hertz franchiser will deliver cars right to the pier for about $150 a day and some of the other local rental dealers charge substantially less, but can be a problem since they cannot always deliver to the pier. For simply going from Livorno to Florence I recommend using a train from port to Livorno train station and the train to Florence. The cost of doing this would be less than 25 Euros per person (this includes the cost of a taxi) if you have 4 for the taxi. If you are only two, it is usually easy to find another couple to share a taxi from port to train station. If you do not have another couple, the taxi drivers will usually help find another couple on the pier. As to using the shuttle bus to get into town (and eventually to the train station) we strongly recommend not using this method since it wastes a lot of valuable time (often as much as 2 hours) just waiting for a shuttle bus to depart the pier (they often do not even run until after 8 am) and than you still need to use a local bus or taxi (or a long walk) to get from the drop point to the station. A very important part of going to Florence on your own is getting a very early start and trying to get a train by 8 am. Keep in mind that it takes more than an hour each way on the train or by car or bus.

Hank

[Uwe]

Hi pink845,
we did it in the early june this year. We learned from the tipps from froute and nedstar. The tipps are all correct. We payed about 20 Euro for the taxi from the pier to the railway station in Livorno. That ist more better than to take the shuttle an than the bus to the trainstation. It is very easy to go to Florence by this way - and cheaper than the offers from the shipcompanies.
Regards
Uwe