All you need to know about the Florentine tramway to reach Vespucci airport, but also to get around the city with a modern, fast and ecological vehicle.
The Vespucci airport of Florence it's small and close. Several companies fly to the Tuscan capital and Florence is connected with London, Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Zurich, Madrid and Barcelona, as well as Lisbon and Tirana and various Italian cities.
When I say close, I really mean a stone's throw from the center, as if it were in a suburb. Where is it exactly? The area is called Peretola, is at the entrance to the A11 motorway and at the foot of the hills surrounding the city.
Reach the Florence airport
Basically about thirty minutes from Piazza del Duomo.
Until now, these minutes could be covered in various ways. By choosing the taxi you could take advantage of a flat rate of 22 € towards the city center. Attention, only the center, no other destinations, and net of baggage surcharges, night or holiday.
The alternative was instead a special bus, called Volainbus, with guaranteed departure every 30 minutes and at a cost of 6 euros per person.
Volainbus connects the airport to the central station of Santa Maria Novella. Any other travel to other areas of the city still had to be done either by taxi or by other bus lines, paying for a ticket again (this time urban) at a cost of € 1,50 for 90 minutes.
A big news: the new Florence Tramway
But all this has now changed. A great structural transformation has involved Florence in recent years and it is called tramway. The tram system started with the T1 line, which from the station led to Scandicci, a town on the southwestern edge of Florence. The terminus, Villa Costanza, also has a large exchange parking.
The T1 Leonardo it has been extended with an additional section, which has practically doubled it towards the north, until it reaches Careggi, the most important hospital clinic in the city.
So now you can start from the south and get to the north on the same tram, with the same ticket in about 50 minutes.
T2 Vespucci line, towards the airport
The latest born is the line T2 called Vespucci (like the airport) which represents an interesting novelty for tourists. It is possible to reach in fact, always from Santa Maria Novella, the Florence airport. An interesting alternative to the aforementioned Volainbus.
The T2 Vespucci with terminus just outside the airport square, it reaches the center in 22 minutes and after 12 stops. The ticket can be purchased at the machine present at the stop. Stops are indicated by a recorded message in Italian and English.
Line T2 crosses the Novoli district where, among other things, there are several large hotels that will certainly benefit from this new connection with the center. It then continues along the Mugnone stream until it rejoins the more peripheral tracks of the train towards Santa Maria Novella and reaches the arrivals side of the station, the one with the ladders.
From here you can, with the same ticket, take the T1 line or some other bus to go to other areas of the city. The tram service operates from 5 am until 0,30 am at night, with a frequency of about 4 minutes (at least during the day).
The entire eastern part of the city is currently not connected by tram lines, which however have been planned and will be built in the next few years.
They are quite long and important jobs, which create many inconveniences in the neighborhoods they pass through with the consequent bad mood of the inhabitants. Given the polemical and somewhat biased character of the Florentines, discussions for and against tramvia are on the agenda at work, among friends, etc ...
The fact remains that the tram is a more ecological and modern means of transport to travel around town. An important choice to think about. Not a small thing, right?
