Cruise to Florence

Many Cruise companies list Florence, or Livorno/Pisa/Florence as one of their locations, but this can ingenerate some confusion because the commercial port of Livorno is 1 hour plus drive from Florence. So if you are on a Cruise to Florence, you won’t just have to think of what to do and see in your excursion, but also to arrange your transfer to Renaissance City. In this article, you will find my suggested Florence Walking Tours to best employ your time off the ship plus all my suggestions on how to reach Florence from Livorno port.

Florence Day Tours for Cruisers

Having a limited time in Florence, travelers on a cruise to Florence aim at focusing on the top attractions of the city. We have three perfect Florence Day Tours for cruisers, two of them are half day Florence Walking tours (3 hours), but for who wants to see everything we also have the “Florence in a day” tour. Here are our suggested Florence Walking Tours for cruisers:

With our Florence Walking Tour, you will have a relaxing walk through the city center to admire the architectural wonders of Florence, the main churches, including the Duomo, Palazzo Vecchio, and Ponte Vecchio. We won’t let you miss the David by Michelangelo, with a visit to the Accademia Gallery that displays the masterpiece. Our Florence Walking Tour is perfect for travelers on a cruise to Florence.

Every tour you will book with us involves both art and history. Let’s say that if you prefer art, maybe the Uffizi Gallery Tour is the perfect fit for you. Displaying a gorgeous collection of paintings, the Uffizi Gallery is the most important museum in the world when it comes to the Renaissance. Masterpieces like Botticelli Birth of Venus and works by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael and Caravaggio are the highlights of this Florence Day tour.

Joining together the Uffizi Gallery Tour and the Florence Walking Tour what you get is our Florence in a Day tour, which allows the traveler to see all the highlights of the city in one single day. Normally, this tour lasts 3+3 hours with a lunch break, but it can be shortened and adapted (even in price) to your needs.

These are the Florence Day Tours we consider more suitable for travelers on a cruise to Florence, but of course we have many more proposals that you can pick up from your list, including the Florence Custom Tour where you choose what to do in your time with the local tour guide.

Full list of tours

How to reach Florence when you are on a Cruise

First of all, choose if you want to go to Pisa or Florence. Pisa can be reached in 30-40 minutes, offers a great attraction (the Leaning Tower) and… that’s it. Florence is one hour away and offers countless attractions, especially if you love art and history. Some tours offer Pisa and Florence in one day: I suggest you don’t even consider such a tour, unless you want to spend all your time (and a lot of money) on a bus/car in the traffic, without the needed time to really enjoy something.

If you choose Florence, my city, you have to organize the transfer and these are your alternatives:

Shuttle Bus

Your Cruise company might provide a shuttle bus to Florence. They will try to sell you the “full package” where you visit both Pisa and Florence with a professional tour guide showing you the highlights. That’s a job tour guides don’t like and tourists even less, being led in noisy groups of 50 or more. This said, these tours are damn expensive: about € 200/person for 10 hours (about 6 spent on the bus). For much less, you will get the transfer to Florence and 5-6 hours to visit the city on your own. Go for the second alternative: the money you save are more than enough to book a private Florence Day Tour with us and instead of joining a group of 50, you will have the guide at your disposal for your entire excursion.

Taxi

Livorno taxi will be more than happy to provide the most inexpensive private transfer to Firenze and back to Livorno. The price is € 320/car (up to 4 persons), so it depends on how many are in your group. They generally want to leave Florence at 4:00 PM, but you can stay one more hour paying extra € 30. Not many drivers speak English, but they know what to do and will wait for you at your dock showing a sign with your name. If you choose one of our Florence Walking Tours, we’ll be more than happy to book the service on your behalf.

Private driver

This is certainly the best way to “cruise to Florence”, same as taxi but in a shiny Mercedes and with an appropriately dressed, English speaking driver. This will cost you some more, the service we generally use is priced € 420 for 3-4 persons. If you choose one of our Florence Walking Tours, we’ll be more than happy to book the service on your behalf.

Taxi + Train

This is the cheapest way, you will spend around € 30 for taxi (up to 4 people) and around € 20/person for trains. It’s somewhat adventurous though, especially if this is your first time in Italy:

• it’s hard to find a taxi willing to take you at the train station: they are there to convince you to go to Florence (or at least Pisa);
• there are frequent train strikes/delays that might ruin your day.

First of all you need to find a taxi to get to the Livorno Centrale train station from your dock; then you get the first train to Florence (in 2015, this is the timetable:  8:12 AM, 8:52 AM, 9:12 AM, 10:12 AM). It takes 1 hour and 20 minutes to get to Firenze Santa Maria Novella train station, which is right in the city center. To go back to Livorno, do the same: trains are at 3:00 PM, 3:28 PM, 4:28 PM, 5:00 PM, 5:28 PM. More info on the official website of Trenitalia. Once back in Livorno, take a taxi to get back to the dock.

Cruise to Florence? Ask our help!

As Florence tour guides, we are very happy to assist you in organizing your Cruise to Florence if you choose to visit the city with us. Just contact us and let us know your needs, we can arrange your arrival, your stay in Florence and your departure, in time for your ship.

Contact Us