Travelling to Tuscany

If you consider travelling to Tuscany, there are several ways to get to your holiday destination and to travel around.

BY CAR/MOTORCYCLE  

In the summer, mainly families with children are heading to Tuscany for longer summer holidays, and in that case the most appropriate way to get there is by car. For a longer stay a car is really indispensable to explore the extended Tuscan countryside. Once you've arrived, also visiting Tuscan cities of art like Siena, Pisa or Arezzo is perfectly possible by car. For Florence we recommend that you travel by train if you're staying near a train station which serves Florence. The train station Santa Maria Novella is situated in the centre of Florence and cars are not allowed inside the city centre unless they have a special permission e.g. a resident's permission.

Some people prefer to avoid driving the long route to their holiday destination in Tuscany and travel by train with their car or motorcycle on board. This service is still available on night trains to Livorno from Vienna, Austria, and from Den Bosch, the Netherlands.
 

Driving on highways in Italy is subject to paying toll, but also in the neighbouring countries by which you access the Italian highways you have to pay toll.
 

If you arrive from France, you can take the E25 and the Mont Blanc tunnel which costs around 28,00 for a motor cycle or 42,00 euro for a car. The Italian highway toll by the E25/A12 to Pisa costs around 50,00 euro. An alternative is the Fréjus tunnel, which has the same cost as the Mont Blanc tunnel but the Italian highway toll by the A21/A26/A10/A10 to Pisa (Turin-Alessandria-Genova) is only around 30,00 euro. Or you can take the A6/A10/A12 to Pisa (Turin-Savona-Genova) which would cost around 20,00 euro.
 

If you transit through Switzerland by the E35 you have to pay a vignette of 40,00 CHF (roughly 30,00 euro) which is valid for an entire calender year and you can use the San Gotthard tunnel. The E35 takes you further to Florence and the Italian highway toll to Florence costs around 25,00 euro.

If you transit through Austria by the E45 you need a vignette of 8,50 euro for a car or 4,90 euro for a motorcycle, which is valid for 10 days and the transit of the Brenner pass costs 8,00 euro. The Italian highway toll on the E45 to Bologna and after that the A1 to Florence would cost about 32,00 euro.

If you are coming form Eastern Europe you may transit by the E55/E70 Venice-Padova which would cost 25,00/35,00 euro until Florence.

Ferries to Elba

www.mobylines.com/

If you are going to the Island of Elba, you take the ferry in Piombino, which takes you to Portoferraio on Elba Island in about an hour. There are four ferry companies which serve Portoferraio but Toremar also offers departures for Rio Marina and Moby Lines also offers a service to Cavo.

www.toremar.it

The prices of the ferries and any other service on Elba Island depend on the season and July is usually considered high season and August peak season. A single course ferry ticket for an adult costs around 12,00/15,00 euro. 

www.blunavytraghetti.com

If your accomodation is well positioned so that you don't require a car on the island you can leave your car in a free public parking space near the port or in a closed car park at 7,00 euro per day. 

www.corsica-ferries.it

If you need your car on the island the transfer by ferry costs 40,00/60,00 euro one way. 

Another option is renting a scooter on the island. A model which can carry a passenger costs 35,00/55,00 euro per day.

BY PLANE
 

If you are living too far away from Tuscany, or for shorter stays, the most appropriate way to get to your destination is by plane. In Tuscany there are two major airports, Florence-Peretola (FLR) and Pisa Galileo Galilei (PSA) but also the smaller Umbrian airport of Perugia (less than 60 km away from the Tuscan border) is an option if you're heading to South-East Tuscany, or if you intend to spend your holidays on Elba Island there is a small airport on the Island in Campo nell' Elba.
 

You can fly to Pisa with Ryanair from different airports in Germany, Great-Britain, Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Poland and Hungary. 

Other airlines which serve Pisa airport are British Airways from London and Easyjet from Paris, Berlin, London or Bristol.

Germanwings flies from Germany, Switzerland, Austria and London and Lufthansa from Munich. 

Transavia flies from Amsterdam, Wizzair from Bucarest and Norwegian from Copenhagen, Oslo or Stockholm.

Florence is served from Frankfurt, Munich, Dusseldorf, Stuttgart, Vienna, Zurich, Geneva, Brussels, East Midlands, Leeds-Bradford, Newcastle, Belfast and has also incoming intercontinental traffic.

To the Island of Elba there are direct flights by SkyWork Airlines from Bern and by Intersky from Altenrhein, Friedrichshafen, Munich and Zurich.

Finally Perugia is served by Ryanair from Brussels-Charleroi and London-Stansted.
 

For a simple city trip or for a stay on Elba Island having a car at your disposal may not be indispensable. For stays in the countryside you really need a car and car rental is available in any of the airports. A small size car costs from 100,00 euro per week in low season to 250,00 euro per week in peak season.

PUBLIC TRANSPORT
 

Theoretically you can arrive in Tuscany by train from almost every European country, but nowadays train tariffs can barely compete with the comfort and the cost of the airplane.
 

Local public transport in Tuscany is just as efficient (or inefficient) as in most other European countries. All trains and buses, also local services, have air conditioning, timetables are usually quite reliable and prices are reasonable. For example a trip from Pisa to Florence by train takes about an hour and costs around 8,00 euro. Prices are usually more or less the same all year. Private airport bus services offer the same trip at prices that vary from 5,00 euro in low season to 20,00 euro in peak season and the transfer time is the same (approximately an hour).

For the exact calculation of toll and estimated fuel consumption charges we can recommend the use of the website http://www.viamichelin.com/

Wine estate in Cerreto Guidi near Vinci Florence Tuscany