Originally Posted by
whimsey
Hi All,
I've got a work trip coming up this summer to Tuscany (where I've never been), and I'm trying to figure out how to make the most of it.
It looks like I'll fly in one day, have a meeting the next day in Pisa, a meeting the following day about 1/5 hours south of Florence, and then fly back to the US. Given that Florence is (sort of) centrally located between my two meetings, I figured I'd plan to stay there for at least the first two nights. I need to fly OW, so my choices are to fly in/out of Pisa or Bologna. Flight timings on BA are relatively similar, and from my reading, it sounds like the time from each of those airports to Florence is roughly the same (assuming the bus from Pisa to Florence and the trains between Bologna Airport, city, and then Florence). Any thoughts on whether one of those airports is a better choice than the other for any reason?
Also, should I fly out of Bologna, I could conceivably spend the night there on my third night rather than Florence. Given that I'll only have my first afternoon/evening and then the next two evenings free, I'm guessing I should just stay in Florence to maximize my (little) time there. But if Bologna is worth an evening for dinner and gelato vs. spending the extra night in Florence, please let me know...
Thanks much -I appreciate any advice you might have.
Its a little hard to answer. Are these two meetings 9-5, or just an hour or two? What is the city 1/5 hours south of Florence, and what does that mean? It's impossible to give reccomendations with these unknowns.
You arrive and have a jet lagged first evening. Then you have two days of meetings in two different cities, Pisa, and the unknown city some distance south of Florence. Then the next morning you fly out, but want to squeeze in visits to Florence and Bologna into this 2.5 day trip, in addition to being in Pisa and the unknown city during the day.
Florence to Pisa is an hour and a half by train. Florence to Bologna is also an hour and a half by train. Getting to the station, waiting for the train, getting back and forth to the hotel, figure two hours each way, or four hours of travel per day on a two and a half day trip.
If the meeting in Pisa ends at 5 and you have a meeting the next morning in the city to the South, it seems as if you just have time to get to the other city to be ready for the next morning's meeting. Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't know how you can be in four cities in 2.5 days.