I've planned my entire trip in Italy next year. We start in Rome, then 3 days on Sardinia (OLB), then 3 days in Florence, and end in Rome for 3 days.

My problem is I was going off of Meridiana's schedule to put my faith in a flight being available from OLB>FLO (Sardinia to Florence) on May 27th (Sunday). However now when the booking time frame has opened on Meridiana's website, it only allows flights on the 24th or a few days later. So cutting the trip down to 2 nights really doesn't make sense to go through all the trouble.

I'm looking for any alternative suggestions on how to get from Sardinia to Florence on May 27th.

The only other options I see right now are the following:

1) flight from OLB>FCO (Sardinia to Rome), then take the train to Florence.
-I see this trip taking about 4-5 hours, including getting from the airport to trainstation. Any help with this option is greatly appreciated.

2) flight frmo OLB>BLQ (Sardinia to Bologna), then somehow get to Florence.
-This option could possibly take less than option 1, however I have no idea of how I would get from Bologna to Florence. Any help on the transportation from Bologna to Florence would be greatly appreciated.

3) Is anyone aware if there are any ferries that are safe/reliable/comfortable to the PISA area?

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

Flyfarfar

There are ferries from Olbia to Livorno, which is about an 1-2 hours by bus from Florence. It sounds like you're on a fairly tight schedule, though, so I'm not sure that a ferry will be the best option. The "fast" ferry from Olbia to Livorno is about six hours.

In terms of trains, from FCO to Florence, I believe you have to make one train change. So you'd take the train from FCO into Termini, then change to the Florence train. It's fairly easy, and should take about 2.5 hours total.

It's similar from Bologna - you'd take a train from the airport to Bologna, then change for the train to Florence. I don't think the train leaves directly from the airport, though, so it might be a bus ride from the airport to the train station.

One final option - there is another discount airline in Italy called Alpi Eagles - you might want to double check to see if they have flights on your preferred date from OLB to FLR.

I checked Alpi Eagles however they don't fly into/out of Florence.

One other option I saw, was to drive 2 hours on Sardinia to the Alghero airport, then take a flight to PISA. The cost here is about 13 Euro on the flight as opposed to 97 Euro from OLB>BLQ. This option would save about 150 Euro's.

Have you ever taken a train from PISA to Florence?

FLyfarfar

I checked Alpi Eagles however they don't fly into/out of Florence.

One other option I saw, was to drive 2 hours on Sardinia to the Alghero airport, then take a flight to PISA. The cost here is about 13 Euro on the flight as opposed to 97 Euro from OLB>BLQ. This option would save about 150 Euro's.

Have you ever taken a train from PISA to Florence?

FLyfarfar

I've taken the train the other way, from FLR to Pisa. Very easy, so if you can sort out the drive to Alghero, this sounds like a good option.

From Pisa Airport to Florence there are some direct trains, so no changes needed. There are many more options with one change in Pisa Centrale.

Train times and connections can be found on http://www.trenitalia.com/en/index.html

Sometimes this site is picky with english vs. Italian spellings of names (though it seems to be getting better) - so if searching for "Pisa airport" to "Florence" doesn't give you any results, try "Pisa aeroporto" to "Firenze".

I've planned my entire trip in Italy next year. We start in Rome, then 3 days on Sardinia (OLB), then 3 days in Florence, and end in Rome for 3 days.

My problem is I was going off of Meridiana's schedule to put my faith in a flight being available from OLB>FLO (Sardinia to Florence) on May 27th (Sunday). However now when the booking time frame has opened on Meridiana's website, it only allows flights on the 24th or a few days later. So cutting the trip down to 2 nights really doesn't make sense to go through all the trouble.

I'm looking for any alternative suggestions on how to get from Sardinia to Florence on May 27th.

The only other options I see right now are the following:

1) flight from OLB>FCO (Sardinia to Rome), then take the train to Florence.
-I see this trip taking about 4-5 hours, including getting from the airport to trainstation. Any help with this option is greatly appreciated.

2) flight frmo OLB>BLQ (Sardinia to Bologna), then somehow get to Florence.
-This option could possibly take less than option 1, however I have no idea of how I would get from Bologna to Florence. Any help on the transportation from Bologna to Florence would be greatly appreciated.

3) Is anyone aware if there are any ferries that are safe/reliable/comfortable to the PISA area?

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

Flyfarfar

Just a quick thought, if possible switch Florence with Sardinia. I would imagine that you would have no prpblem going from Sardinia to FCO. Florence is FLR.

Train from Pisa, Bologna, and Rome are very easy to Florence. You can book the ticket online, although you have to register. Train from Bologna to Florene on the Eurostar take about an hour or so. Rome is about an hour and a half on Eurostar to Florence. Pisa will be a little over an hour to Florence.