Florence is small. Genuinely small, about a mile across, and after three days most people have seen the Duomo, the Uffizi, the Accademia and the Ponte Vecchio and are wondering what’s next.
What’s next is that Florence sits at the centre of the best regional rail network in Italy. You can be in a completely different medieval city in half an hour, for the price of a coffee and a pastry.
No car, no tour, no booking weeks ahead. Here are the ones worth doing.
How the Trains Work
Two things to know and then it’s easy.
Regional trains, marked R or RV, don’t need booking. You buy a ticket for a route rather than a specific train, turn up, get on. Cheap, frequent, slow-ish.
Fast trains, Frecciarossa and Italo, need a seat reservation and cost much more, but get you to Bologna in 35 minutes or Rome in 90.
Validate paper regional tickets in the green machines on the platform before boarding. Digital tickets bought in the app don’t need it. Inspectors do check and the fine is real.
All of these leave from Santa Maria Novella, which is a ten minute walk from the Duomo.
Siena, the Obvious One
90 minutes by regional train, and worth every minute.
Siena is Florence’s ancient rival and it looks it: brick rather than stone, medieval rather than Renaissance, built across three ridges. The Piazza del Campo is a shell-shaped sloping square that’s one of the great public spaces in Europe, and everyone sits on the ground in it.
Climb the Torre del Mangia for the view. The cathedral has a striped marble interior and an inlaid marble floor that’s only fully uncovered for a few weeks a year.
Note the station is below the town and you take a series of escalators up through the hillside, which nobody warns you about and is quite fun.
▶ Watch This Before You Go
Pisa, in Half a Day
An hour by regional train, and here’s the honest version: the Piazza dei Miracoli is genuinely extraordinary, and the rest of Pisa is a normal working city.
The tower, the cathedral and the baptistery sit together on a lawn and the whole ensemble is much better than the photos suggest. The tower leans about four degrees, which is more alarming in person.
Book the tower climb ahead if you want it, since slots are timed and limited.
Three hours covers it. Which is why you should pair it with Lucca on the same day, thirty minutes further on the same line.
Lucca, Which Should Be More Famous
80 minutes direct, or half an hour from Pisa, and it’s my favourite of these.
Lucca is completely surrounded by intact Renaissance walls, four kilometres of them, wide enough on top to be a tree-lined park. Hire a bike at the gate and cycle the circuit in about half an hour.
Inside, the streets are quiet and largely free of the tour groups that fill Siena. Piazza dell’Anfiteatro is a ring of houses built into the shape of a Roman amphitheatre.
Climb the Torre Guinigi, which has oak trees growing out of the top of it. That’s not a metaphor, there are actual trees up there.
Bologna, for the Food
35 minutes on the fast train, which is genuinely absurd, and puts one of Italy’s best food cities within easy reach of lunch.
Tagliatelle al ragu, tortellini in brodo, mortadella, and the Quadrilatero market streets. Walk the porticoes, climb the Asinelli tower if you fancy 498 steps.
Book the fast train a few days ahead for a decent price. Booked on the day it’s expensive; booked in advance it’s often cheaper than the regional to Siena.
Arezzo, the Quiet One
An hour by regional train and almost entirely free of tourists, which after a few days in Florence is a genuine relief.
Piazza Grande is a sloping medieval square that hosts a jousting tournament twice a year. The Basilica di San Francesco holds Piero della Francesca’s Legend of the True Cross fresco cycle, which is one of the great works of the early Renaissance and requires a timed ticket that is never sold out.
The first weekend of every month brings a large antiques market that fills the whole centre.
Life Is Beautiful was filmed here, if that means anything to you.
San Gimignano, With a Bus
The one with the towers, and the only entry on this list that isn’t purely rail. Train to Poggibonsi, about an hour, then a local bus for twenty minutes.
Fourteen medieval tower houses survive out of an original seventy-odd, built by competing families in the 13th century. From a distance it looks like a small Manhattan on a hill.
It’s very touristy in the middle of the day. Arrive early or stay late and it’s a different place entirely.
The gelato in the main square has won world championships and there’s usually a queue to prove it.
Fiesole, for Almost No Effort
Not a train, a city bus, and about twenty minutes from the centre.
Fiesole sits on a hill directly above Florence and gives you the best view of the city and the whole Arno valley. There’s a Roman theatre still used for summer concerts, and an Etruscan site older than Florence itself.
Half a day, costs the price of a bus ticket, and it’s what Florentines do on a Sunday to escape their own city 🙂
What to Skip
Cinque Terre as a day trip. It’s technically possible, around two and a half hours each way with a change, and you’d spend five hours travelling for a few hours in extremely crowded villages. Give it an overnight or leave it.
Venice as a day trip. Two hours each way on the fast train and it deserves at least one night.
Chianti wine villages without a car. The rail doesn’t serve them well and you’ll spend the day on buses. Take a tour for that one, it’s the exception.
Common Questions
Do I need to book regional trains in Italy? No. Buy a ticket for the route, turn up and board. Only fast trains need a reservation.
What’s the best day trip from Florence? Siena for the medieval city, Lucca for a relaxed day, Bologna for food. Pisa and Lucca pair well in one day.
How much do day trips cost? Regional returns to Siena, Pisa, Lucca or Arezzo are typically 10 to 25 euros return. Fast trains to Bologna vary with how far ahead you book.
Do I need to validate my ticket? Paper regional tickets yes, in the green platform machines. App tickets no.
Can I do two towns in one day? Pisa and Lucca, easily, on the same line. Siena and San Gimignano is also doable but a long day.
