Florence: a small airport on a fast railway

Florence has a small airport, 3,847,658¹ passengers in 2025, and one of the best served railway stations in Italy: Rome is 1 hour 35 minutes away and Milan 1 hour 54.

Peretola: 3.85 million, and growing fastest

Florence Peretola Amerigo Vespucci (FLR) recorded 3,847,658¹ passengers in 2025, up 9.4% on 2024, which places it 17th nationally. The operator is Toscana Aeroporti.

That 9.4% is the number worth holding, on a base small enough that the percentage flatters it: 3.85 million passengers is a regional airport, whatever the growth rate says.

In practice most intercontinental itineraries do not end here. They end at a larger gateway and continue on the railway, which for Florence is not a fallback but the better option.

48 direct Frecciarossa a day from Rome

Roma Termini to Firenze Santa Maria Novella takes 1 hour 35 minutes on the fastest direct service, with a median of 1 hour 41 and a slowest direct train at 1 hour 57, across 48 direct Frecciarossa counted on Tuesday September 8, 2026.

48 direct trains on a single weekday, on one relation, is the densest service in our rail dataset. It means the Rome to Florence leg needs no planning beyond turning up with a ticket for a named departure.

The figures come from a direct query of the Trenitalia booking system, counting only journeys without a change. Italo runs the same corridor and its times are not verified here. The timetable is rewritten in mid December.

Milan in 1 hour 54, Venice in 2 hours 14

Milano Centrale to Firenze Santa Maria Novella takes 1 hour 54 minutes on the fastest direct high speed train, with the same figure at the median across a sample of 17 direct Frecciarossa and a slowest direct service of 3 hours. Venezia Santa Lucia is 2 hours 14 away.

Milan is closer to Florence than Venice is, despite the distance on a map, because the Bologna to Florence line is purpose built high speed while the route east towards Venice is not.

The 17 train sample on the Milan relation may be incomplete, and it is single sourced. Take 1 hour 54 as the best case and read the departure board for the rest.

The station is the arrival point, not the car park

Firenze Santa Maria Novella is a terminus in the city center, which is why every time on this page is measured to it and not to a suburban parkway.

The counterpart is that driving in is a poor idea. The entire historic center is a limited traffic zone divided into 5 sectors with automatic plate reading at the gates, and fines arrive at home months later. See ZTL rules and Florence.

If you are coming by car anyway, park outside the zone and walk in. If you are coming by rail, you are already where you wanted to be. More at where to stay in Florence.

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