Budget Travel - Best travel option from Lyon, France to Florence, Italy?

Greetings all,

My wife and I will be in Lyon for a wedding this April. We're hoping to head into Italy (she has never seen Florence or Rome), but don't have a lot of extra time.

I've searched through a few low-cost carriers and through France's train schedules, and it seems like we (basically) lose a full day traveling, whatever our option.

The only airline that seems to serve Lyon to Florence is Air France (through AMS).

Does anyone have other recommendations about the best travel option that would reduce travel time as much as possible? A quick, direct flight would rock (e.g., like Vueling, from BCN to Paris), but AFAIK, there aren't any...

OR an overnight train, so we don't kill the daytime in transit?

Thanks so much!
--Dave

easyjet is flying from Lyon to Milan and to Rome - I'd take that and try to find a train in between ... :)

Ahhh -- thanks for the tipoff! That's one of the airlines we hadn't checked :o)

Looks much better, and the connections are possible

easyjet is flying from Lyon to Milan and to Rome - I'd take that and try to find a train in between ... :)

Regarding the train between Milan and Rome, I've had fine luck just buying tickets from the machines in the stations. If I'm going to be in a city a couple days, I do usually buy the outbound ticket right when I arrive. That way I can plan my visit time without not quite knowing when I'll be departing.

Romelle

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

Ahhh -- thanks for the tipoff! That's one of the airlines we hadn't checked :o)

Looks much better, and the connections are possible

easyjet is flying from Lyon to Milan and to Rome - I'd take that and try to find a train in between ... :)

Easy Jet also flies LYS-PSA, and PSA is just an hour away from Florence. PSA-Florence ground transfer information available here:

http://www.terravision.eu/pisa_price_timetable.html

Sounds obvious but if you have enough air miles it may allow you to book the more expensive non stop flights to your preferred destinations rather than paying expensive fares for them, saving you $.