Travel

Florence, Italy

Flying to Italy

Please consider these items when planning your air travel to Italy:

  • We know that buying flights to Italy can be expensive - we recommend using apps like Hopper that can track flight prices and predict when may be most cost effective to purchase your flights. Also consider flying into cities other than Florence to see if you can save some money that way. The train system throughout Italy is fast, affordable, and easy to navigate, so if you can find cheaper tickets to a nearby city we recommend taking advantage of that.

    If you’d like to fly into Florence, you will want to search for flights to Florence Airport, Peretola (FLR), formerly known as Amerigo Vespucci Airport. There is also a large train station in Florence, so we also recommend looking at flights to other major cities in Italy that are a short train ride away. The best options would be to fly into Rome’s Fiumicino Airport (FCO), which is about a 1.5 - 2 hour train ride from Florence, or Milan’s Malpensa International Airport (MXP), which is about a 2 - 3 hour train ride from Florence. More details about the train routes from each of these cities to Florence can be found in the FAQ section of our website under Travel FAQs.

  • Please make sure your passport is current. The Department of State website recommends that your passport not expire within 6 months of your departure date from Italy. That means that your passport must not expire prior to March of 2025. We recommend getting your passport renewed sooner rather than later, as expedited passport renewal options are difficult to guarantee.

  • There is currently no visa requirement for traveling from the United States to Italy in 2024. There will be a new visa requirement enforced in the future through ETIAS, but that requirement has been pushed to 2025 so you do not have to get a visa for this trip. One less thing to worry about!

Where to Stay

There are so many options for places to stay in Florence. We’ve listed a few recommendations below:

  • If you're looking for options in a range of prices, Airbnb and VRBO are great options to consider. There are rentals available in the heart of Florence close to tourist attractions or slightly outside the city more in the Tuscan countryside. We recommend paying attention to reviews left by other American travelers prior to booking. We also recommend using the venue address (Via Imprunetana per Pozzolatico, 116, 50023 Impruneta FI, Italy) as a guide if you are planning to stay outside of the city center.

  • If you are looking to stay with a group of other family, friends or guests, looking for villas outside of Florence near the venue could be a good option. There are plenty of options in a range of budgets available. You can also find villas available for rent on Airbnb and VRBO. Be sure to pay attention to how close the option is to the venue and whether or not they have transportation available or are able to call you a taxi to help you get to the wedding events.

  • Florence has a number of nice hotels to choose from! Hotels can be slightly more expensive than airbnb and VRBO, but they can offer nicer amenities and can sometimes have convenient services such as included meals and assistance with transportation. There are a number of nice hotels near our welcome party venue which is also about a 9 minute walk from Santa Maria Novella train station, where our shuttles to and from the wedding will be located. Below are a few recommendations.

    Hotels near the welcome party venue:

    Other recommendations in the Florence city center:

  • The Welcome Party venue is a restaurant called Osteria il Giardino di Barbano. The restaurant is accessible by walking or by taxi/Uber if you are staying in or near the Florence City center. If you are staying in the countryside, we recommend arranging transportation to the welcome party ahead of time through a car service, taxi, or Uber if it is available. After the party, taxis will be able to be called to the restaurant.

  • The wedding ceremony and reception will be held at Villa Corsini a Mezzomonte. Busses will pick up passengers a few blocks away from the Florence train station in front of Chiesa di Santa Maria Maggiore on Via de Vecchietti (at the corner of Via de Vecchietti and Via de’ Cerretani) and will depart for the venue no later than 3:45pm. Please try to arrive by 3:30/3:35 if you plan on utilizing the busses to get to the venue. If you plan on arranging your own transportation, please arrive no later than 4:45pm. Welcome drinks will be served starting at 4:30pm and the ceremony will begin promptly at 5:00pm. If preferred, the venue can be accessed via taxi, Uber, or rental car and parking is offered onsite. We do not recommend driving to the wedding if you plan on drinking and we will have someone ask for your keys if we feel you are too intoxicated to drive home. The roads near the venue are very narrow and are extremely dark at night. We will have a taxi steward available towards the end of the wedding for anyone who does not want to leave the wedding via our transportation. The busses heading back to Florence after the wedding will drop guests off at the pick up point.

  • There are plenty of taxis in Florence and we've found that some VRBO/Airbnb hosts are happy to help you contact cab companies. Taxis cannot be flagged down as they drive past like they can in the USA, but they are stationed at most major squares and can be called by phone. The Visit Florence website lists the contact information for a few local cab companies. Make sure to add the country code +39 before dialing - if you're calling a cab to somewhere within the city of Florence, it usually only takes about 5 minutes to get to you!

  • Uber is available in Florence but can sometimes take a while to arrive. Ubers can be called through the regular Uber app and are usually Uber Blacks.

  • If you are staying in the city center, Florence is very walkable and you likely won't need a car to get around. Remember that we will also be arranging transportation to and from the wedding venue from the Florence city center, so you can utilize that to get to the wedding venue which is in the Florence countryside.

  • We mainly recommend renting a car if you are planning to stay in the countryside. There is parking onsite at the wedding venue (Villa Corsini), but we ask that you please designate a driver if you plan on driving during our festivities as there will be plenty of alcohol around. Parking can be difficult to find in the Florence city center, so please keep this in mind when renting a car if that is where you are planning to stay.

  • The main train station in Florence is called Firenze Santa Maria Novella station. If you are arriving in Florence from another city or are leaving Florence to continue your travels, trains are a convenient way to get around. Most trains are operated by ItaliaRail and a lot of them are high-speed, making them much faster than driving. There are usually plenty of trains that leave each day for other cities in Italy, so we definitely recommend considering train travel if you plan to travel elsewhere in Italy before or after the wedding.

Transportation

How to get around in Florence: