ikonos

Hi,

I have an upcoming 8 day trip FCO-Florence-Venice-Rome-FCO and looking at my options for travel. I have 5 adults and 2 infants (1 and 3) in our party. I looked at the Italo trains but they go from Roma Tiburtina station and was hoping to get some help with the travel back and forth to the Train stations and attractions.

1) How do I get from FCO to Roma Tiburtina station
2) Florence Novella to the hotel (Hilton Garden Inn) and back to the Train Station
3) Might take a half day trip to Pisa.
4) Venice Santa Lucia to the Hotel (Hilton Stucky) and back
5) Roma Tiburtina to Hotel (Hilton Garden Inn Claridge)
6) Hotel to FCO

Where can I find which trains/bus, timetable, fares etc? I have not booked any of the trains yet and was initially thinking of booking P2P or two RT between Rome-Florence and Florence-Venice. Are there any passes for the metro to make it easier on wallet? Will any of those passes double up for entrance to attractions? Thanks in Advance.

slawecki

it looks like you are doing this on hilton points

can't you get an open jaw ticket and start in rome and leave from venice?

the stukey is on a separate island, not venice. you have to get on a boat to get there. trips to venice are by boat. there is a direct one from the stukey to venice.

the rome hilton is sort of close to stuff. they may offer shuttle, but chances are you will have to cab everywhere.

the florence hotel is in tuscany. i presume they have a shuttle to get you to florence and the tourist sites.

ikonos

I can't do Open Jaw as this is part of a bigger trip and you are right am using Hilton points for our stay in Italy. Any links on the boat we need to take to get to Stukey? Thanks

stut

The Hilton Stucky is on La Giudecca island, and you have the options of using the hotel boat or the public boats (vaporetti).

The shuttle boat details are here. Vaporetto route 2 serves the railway station and Ple Roma, as well as St Mark's and the Grand Canal. 41/42 also serves the railway station and Ple Roma (and S Zaccharia) but then heads around the outside and off to Murano, so make sure you get it in the right direction!

The location seems to generate quite a debate, but I've stayed on the island before (in an apartment in a building adjoining the Hilton) and rather enjoyed it. There's a couple of decent places to eat further along, too, and it's very restful in the evenings, too.

stut

As for some of your other questions:

From FCO to Tiburtina is easiest on the local service (which goes direct), rather than the Leonardo Express. It takes 48 minutes, but the trains do run 4 times an hour (as opposed to the express's 2) and are significantly cheaper.

From Florence SMN, I'd probably take a taxi to the hotel with luggage - it's not far. There are some bus routes to the surrounding main roads, although they're not that close. Google Maps has all the details (note that the Bing map on the Hilton website is inaccurate).

Florence to Pisa is easy by train - only 49 minutes on the airport train, and no need to pre-book.

The Hilton GI in Rome is on multiple tram (streetcar) routes (stop Liegi/Ungheria) on routes 3 and 19. There is a metro connection for Tiburtina at Policlinico, or alternatively bus 168, which starts/ends at Tiburtina, will take you directly. Also not a long taxi ride. http://www.atac.roma.it/ has all the public transport details.

To FCO you could take the tram to Ostiense and the local train from there. Or you could take a taxi to Termini and take the express.

ikonos

Thank you stut. I travel a lot with in US with some foreign travel every now and then and travelling with family is bringing me anxiety. I can't imagine what it would be like for folks that do not travel often. Posters like you help us a lot and thank you once again.

slawecki

the stucky shuttle is not of use to get from the train sta to the hotel. the shuttle stop is a couple miles away from the train sta. you can take a vaperetto, or when i was last there, there was another company running from stuckey to train sta, and a few other places. call the hotel and ask. there is a thing called a VENICE CARD or some such. you can google search it. includes public transport, and some museums and the like. you will have to use water transport to go anywhere from the stukey. when you get off the train in venice, look for the handicapped exit. it is on the east side. if you use it, you do not have to drag your luggage down the stairs. i think it might be reasonable for you to take a taxi to the stucky with 5+2. the taxi stand is directly in front of the handicapped exit. ask the hotel how much a taxi is from train to hotel. i do not like the stucky, and the location. it looks and feels just like the convention hotels for name brand resorts i have stayed in. cannot tell naples from kanapoli from palm beach, etc.

Helen123

Hi, we just did a Rome & Florence tour on our own, so I can answer your ques 1 & 2 -

1) How do I get from FCO to Roma Tiburtina station
2) Florence Novella to the hotel (Hilton Garden Inn) and back to the Train Station

For ques 1 - We actually stayed at Hilton FCO (one night) then move to Hotel Eden (for rest of our Rome stay) - then take Italo train to Florence.

We booked a car from Rome Shuttle Limo (see link below) trips from FCO to downtown Rome (40 Euro for sedan) and downtown hotel to Tib train (30 Euro for sedan). We made reservation on their site and paid driver when they picked you up on day of travel. The driver spoke good english, on time, and I think they also have van (for bigger party) for slight higher rate. Their web site only stated they picked up at FCO but if you emailed them to request pick up at Hilton FCO airport, they can confirm and ask driver to pick up at hotel instead... =)

http://www.romeshuttlelimousine.com/en/aboutus.php

For ques 2 - We stayed at downtown Florence hotel, so didn't know exact taxi fare to Florence Hilton Garden Inn. I think it's about 20 Euro (plus bag fee). The taxi charged 1 Euro per bag. If you take Italo train- once you exit the platform, turn left and look for taxi sign, and turn right when exit train station, the taxi stand only 50 feet away. You may need two taxi to go to hotel. Similarly, you may ask hotel to book a shuttle/van to pick u up at station.

The Italo train was v comfortable/clean and we booked the "Prima" seats online. You can also pre-selected your seat during booking.. ^ And, my hubby was able to connect his cellphone using their free wifi on board.

Two side tips - If you will take metro in Rome, you can either buy day pass or go ahead and buy number of one way metro tickets you need ahead (It's 1.5 euro one way) so you don't need to go buy ticket each time. The ticket machine has english instruction, so it's pretty easy. And, it accepts coin and I think up to either 5 or even 10 euro (not 100% sure for 10). And, if you have extra time, consider this food tour in Rome, it's lots of fun and we enjoyed it - http://www.eatingitalyfoodtours.com/...cio-food-tour/

Enjoy!!

bdemaria

There is a dedicated thread on the Molino Stucky in the Hilton forum - it includes all of the options for transportation to/from the station, airport, etc..

EMB

Santa Maria Novella in Florence to HGI is about $20. Once you get settled there, you can get on the local buses for 1.8 euros that run back to the train station or near the centro historico. Very nice hotel. More like a full service Hilton. They have a washer and dryer and you can buy the special coins at the front desk. There is a really nice grocery store (Coop) a few blocks away where you can get plenty of food to go. Several other restaurants nearby.
We used this hotel as a base for 7 days and did many side trips. Lucca was one of our favorite places.

Djlawman

I'll echo recommendation on Rome Shuttle for a party as big as yours. We just used them for a recent trip. Picked up 4 of us (adults) with luggage, to the Intercontinental in Rome. We had a fair amount of luggage since we were on a 2 week European trip. On time, good price, comfortable, no hassle.

Would use them again in a heartbeat.

ikonos

Thank you all for your responses. I am already in Florence before I saw the last few updates here and thought I should update my experience so far.

Since I was going to Florence from FCO, I took FR1 train to Triburtina station at a cost of 8 Euros per person. The train station is an easy walk from baggage claim. The train itself is a good 45 mins ride but there isn't really much space to put your luggage. As it was middle of the day, it wasn't busy so I put some luggage on seats.

From there I took the Italo which I reserved earlier. I could not get the wifi working but its about a 90 min ride so didn't bother me much. From the train station we took two taxis and the fare came to 15 Euro's per taxi. It appeared the meter started at about 4.40 euros and at the end they added another 4 euros. Since it was only 15 total I didn't bother inquiring it.

The hotel is clean and comfortable. Short walk from there is via Novoli and we took 22 bus from the Pagnani stop that takes you to S. M. Novello station along with a stop almost next to Dumo and the frequency is very good (every 10 mins I think) Fare is 1.20 per ticket but you better buy the tickets before you board the bus. There is a cafe near the Pagnani stop that sells them. You can also buy on board the bus for 2 Euros but the driver may not have enough tickets. We ended up using the self service laundry and you can buy tokens at the guest services for 5 euros per token. Washer and Dryer needs one token each. There is detergent connected to washer so you dont need to take it.

I am heading to Venice tomorrow and will update about it later.