Travel Note
Below is the list of hotels recommended by our wedding planner, but there are also plenty of chains in Florence (Hilton, Marriott, etc.) if you want to go that route! Hotel NH Firenze 25Hours Hotel Florence Hotel Lungarno Vespucci Hotel Executive Hotel Anglo American Tivoli Palazzo Gaddi Sina Villa Medici Grand Hotel Minerva Hotel Number Nine Palazzo Alfieri
Flight
Florence Airport, Peretola (FLR) - Via del Termine, 11, 50127 Firenze FI, Italy In Italian: Aeroporto di Firenze-Peretola. It is also formally called Amerigo Vespucci Airport. This is the closest and most convenient airport to Florence city center. Once you arrive, we'd recommend taking a taxi or the T2 tram into the city center. Rental cars are an option, however, there are many ZTLs, or limited traffic zones, within the city, within which you are not permitted to drive without special access (typically given only to residents, public transport, and emergency vehicles). Common navigation apps (Google Maps, Waze, etc.) are not always reliable in displaying these ZTL zones, and failure to abide by these zones could result in your getting stuck or ticketed. Furthermore, once you are in the city center, Florence is a very walkable city with extremely limited parking. Just about every major attraction is within a 20-25 minute walk, so we'd highly encourage you to bring walking shoes and explore leisurely. For travel from the Florence airport into the city center: Tram: take the T2 tram directly from the airport to the Santa Maria Novella train station (in the city center). There are ticket machines available at the "Peretola-Aeroporto" stop, located a short distance from the terminal. Once onboard the tram, be sure to validate your ticket by scanning it on the validation machine on the tram. Tickets are typically about 2 euros for the trip from the airport to the station, which takes approximately 25 minutes. You will still need to walk, take a taxi, or take a train to your final destination. Taxi: there is a taxi stand located just outside the terminal. You might have to wait in line but there is usually an employee directing folks into taxis and moving things along. All taxis should take credit cards. The trip and fare into city center is usually about 25 minutes and costs around 25 euros, but this, of course, depends on your destination.
Train
Depending on your desired destination, we'd recommend checking both major train lines: Trenitalia and ItaliaRail, accessible via their respective websites. Tickets can be purchased at the station, but we'd highly recommend pre-purchasing them online on the website. In our experience, trains are very economical, easy to use, and reliable. Depending on the line, they can run quite often (usually every half hour to an hour) and there is no need to buy tickets significantly in advance (a couple of hours before or the night before is fine). We'd recommend arriving at the station 10-20 minutes before your scheduled departure time to ensure you have time to find your train on the sign, identify your platform ("binari" in Italian), and walk to that platform to await boarding. I'd keep your passport on you in case they check (sometimes they do) and keep your ticket handy as they might pass by to check those as well. There are no restrictions on bag size or quantity, but please be advised that the majority of train stations have several flights of stairs you must take to get onto and off the platform and very rarely will you see an elevator. The trains run across pretty much the entire country, so if you are planning to extend your trip, make sure to look at these two train lines as you make your travel plans!
Travel Note
Please note there is no Uber or Lyft in Florence. Taxis are by far the most convenient way to get around and they accept credit cards. You can always have your hotel front desk call you one (the wait time is usually 3-5 minutes) and all train stations will have a taxi stand outside as well if you're already out and about.