Rome Airport to Florence: There Is No Direct Train

Ask Google whether there is a nonstop train from Rome airport to Florence and it currently answers, in a box at the top, that there are two direct Frecciargento a day. Two of the first six results are people asking the same question on Reddit and on the Rick Steves forum, which is usually a sign that the confident answer above them is not working.

So we ran it ourselves. Not once: on three separate midweek dates, sweeping the whole operating day each time.

There is no direct train, and we checked three times

The claim Google features comes from a ticket reseller and says there are two direct Frecciargento services a day. We looked for them on Wednesday 21 October, Wednesday 18 November and Wednesday 7 October. Each search returned 70 itineraries. Across all three, the number that were direct was zero, and the number that used a Frecciargento at all was also zero.

We are not going to tell you that page is lying, or that the service never existed. What we will tell you is that it carries no date, that we could not reproduce it on any of three dates two months apart, and that the practical consequence is the same either way: plan on changing trains in Rome, and if a direct service does turn up in your search, treat it as a bonus rather than the plan.

The full-day sweep for 21 October found 63 distinct itineraries. The quickest took 2 hours 23 with one change and cost 41.90 euros. Thirty-eight of the 63 were the same shape: a regional train into Rome, then a Frecciarossa, between 2 hours 27 and 2 hours 38, from 33.90 to 58.90 euros.

The Leonardo Express, from the operator

Since you are changing in Rome, the first decision is how to get off the airport. The answer everyone gives is the Leonardo Express, and these are its terms, taken from Trenitalia’s own page rather than from a reseller.

It runs non-stop to Roma Termini in 32 minutes, departs every 15 minutes, and costs a flat 14 euros. Our own query of the booking system returned exactly the same: 32 minutes, 14.00 euros, no variation by time of day.

Four details from that page that matter more than the headline:

• Large luggage carries no surcharge. Worth knowing because the tram from Florence’s own airport does charge extra for a big case and refuses anything over 80 by 45 by 25 centimetres, which we set out in our Pisa airport guide.
• Metrebus tickets are not valid. If you have bought a Rome transport pass, it does not cover this train. Trenitalia states that in capitals on its own page, which tells you how often people try.
• Four tickets cost 40 euros instead of 56 under their mini-group fare, bought in one transaction. That is 10 euros a head rather than 14.
• Under-4s travel free, and one child aged 4 to 11 travels free with each paying adult.

The cheaper train nobody mentions

Fiumicino has a second train, and in the eight pages Google returns for this route we did not find it recommended once. The FL1 regional does not go to Termini. It goes to Roma Tiburtina, and it costs 8.00 euros.

Six euros cheaper and sixteen minutes slower. On its own that is a mild trade. What makes it interesting is what happens next, because the two stations are not equal for the onward journey either.

From Roma Termini we found 46 direct trains to Florence out of 57 itineraries, the quickest taking 1 hour 35, with direct fares from 12.90 to 44.90 euros.

From Roma Tiburtina we found 26 direct out of 50, the quickest taking 1 hour 27, with direct fares from 19.90 to 35.90.

So Tiburtina is eight minutes quicker to Florence and its fastest service costs 27.90 against 39.90. The cheap way off the airport leads to the quick way to Florence. That is not the story anybody tells.

The four routes, added up

Both legs, both stations, cheapest and fastest of each. The last column deliberately excludes the connection, for a reason given underneath.

The headline is the bottom two rows. If you want the fast version, going via Tiburtina costs 35.90 against 53.90 via Termini, and the train is quicker. Eighteen euros a head, or thirty-six for two, for choosing a different station.

The honest caveat, and it could swallow the whole gain. We have not measured how long the connection takes at either station, or how far it is between platforms inside them. Tiburtina runs 26 direct services to Florence against Termini’s 46, so your wait there is likely to be longer, and a bad connection turns an eight minute saving into a forty minute loss. If your flight lands at an awkward hour, check the actual departure times before you commit to the cheaper station.

One ticket or two

You can also buy the whole thing as a single journey from Fiumicino to Florence, and it is worth knowing how that compares, because on other routes we have measured it costs exactly the sum of its parts.

It does not here. The through ticket ranged from 27.90 to 58.90 euros, with the quickest at 41.90 for 2 hours 23. Against that, buying the two legs separately costs 26.90 at the cheap end and 35.90 for the fast version via Tiburtina. Buying separately won in both cases on the day we looked.

What the through ticket buys you is one booking, one reference and a protected connection if the first leg is late, which is not nothing when you have just got off a plane. Our own view: if you are arriving tired or with a tight schedule, the extra six to fifteen euros is a reasonable price for not having to think. If you are watching the money, the two-ticket route via Tiburtina is the best value we found.

For comparison, the Pisa route behaves differently: there the through ticket costs precisely the shuttle plus the train and not a cent more, which we show in our Pisa airport guide. And Rome to Florence from Termini has its own booking curve, worked out in our guide to Rome to Florence by train.

Fiumicino against the other three airports

We have now measured every way into Florence by air, each from the operator that charges for it. This is the table nobody else has, and Fiumicino does not come out well.

Fiumicino is the most expensive way into Florence of the four, and it also involves the only change of station in a city you may not know. What it has in exchange is flights: Fiumicino is far better connected internationally than the other three, and if the fare difference on the plane is more than about fifteen euros, none of this matters.

The practical rule: add roughly 27 euros a head to a Rome flight, 23 to a Bologna one and 16 to Pisa before you compare them, and remember that Florence airport costs two euros and no changes when the route exists. The Bologna arithmetic is in our guide to Bologna to Florence.

What a taxi costs, and why we will not quote one

Google’s People Also Ask for this route includes how much a taxi costs from Fiumicino to Florence, and the two figures in circulation are 450 to 700 euros, from a comment in a Facebook travel group, and 550 to 650, from a company that sells airport transfers.

We are quoting neither as a fact. One is an anonymous comment and the other comes from a business with an interest in the number. Neither is a published tariff, and unlike the Rome to Fiumicino leg, which has a fixed fare set by the city, there is no official rate for a 280 kilometre intercity taxi that we can point you at.

What we can tell you is the thing that makes the comparison easy anyway. The train costs 26.90 euros a head. Even taking the lowest figure either source gives, a taxi is somewhere north of sixteen times the price for one person, and still around four times the price for a family of four.

Questions

One last note on what is not here. We earn a commission on tours booked through this site and there is nothing to book on this page, because the only product sold for this journey is a private transfer at several hundred euros for something the train does for 26.90. What to do once you arrive, and what to book before you fly, is in our guides to things to do in Florence and Florence tickets. Which of the three Florence stations your train uses is in Florence train stations.