Pisa and Florence in a Day

I've read in some forums that day trip to Pisa and Florence is possible. A train from Roma Termini can get you to Firenze SMN station (Florence) and transfer to another train going to Pisa. If we were only sure of the time we would be able to get to Termini, we would have gotten the ticket from the website to avail of their promo (2x1 special offer on Saturdays).

Anyways, we started late on a Saturday and bought our tickets at the ticketing machine in Roma Termini station. I wasn't able to use my credit card in the machine as it's requesting for PIN, which my card doesn't have. So, we paid in cash.

By the way, we chose the option for us to be able to select seats. We chose 1C and 1D. But I guess we should have left it as it is. The seats that were assigned to us are indeed 1C and 1D, but on different cars. We spent the (almost) 2-hour ride on different cars of the train. Boo! On the way back to Rome, we just let the machine select the seats for us and it gave us better seats... window seats for both of us, facing each other.

Train Tickets

Important: Validate your ticket in one of the machines before hopping on your train, or it may result in fines. We were not able to validate our tickets on one trip, good thing the officer who checked our tickets gave us some consideration since we're tourists.

Ticket Validation reminder

When we got to Firenze SMN station, we transferred to platform 1A (leftmost platform when facing the trains) for the train to Pisa Centrale. We had our lunch at Pisa Centrale before proceeding to our destination.

Tip on using W.C. at Pisa Centrale station: Euro 0.60 has to be paid upon entering the W.C. but if you would be able to present a receipt from the food stalls in the station, you can enter for free. In case you enter the W.C. first before buying food, you can present the receipt given by the staff at the W.C. entrance to the counter so that the Euro 0.60 will be deducted from your bill.

Before leaving the station, we bought our bus tickets from the newspaper stand. A ticket cost Euro 1.20. We bought 2 tickets each so that we have a ticket going back. Validation of ticket is inside the bus. It seems though that a ticket is valid for 70 minutes, at least that's what we understood from BGL. 70 MIN. PISA word in the ticket. If so, and you'll just be staying for less than an hour in Pisa Tower, you would just need 1 ticket.

Pisa bus tickets

Upon getting out of the station, cross the street and wait for the LAM Rossa bus (red bus) to Pisa Tower (bus stop 'Torre'). I got information about Pisa transportation from this site. Most of the other passengers get off at this stop. Going back to the station, cross the street and hop on the same bus to the train station.

Map of the area

One needs to have a ticket to enter the cathedral. You can get it for free inside the Sinopie Museum. Other areas have entrance fees.

Welcome to Piazza del Duomo

Miniature inside Sinopie Museum
Other people might have been laughing at us taking picture of this miniature when the real thing is just outside.

Pisa Cathedral ticket

Pergamo di Giovanni Pisano

The pictures below are taken in the piazza, with more focus on the cathedral and the tower.

Leaning Tower of Pisa

On the way back to Rome, we passed by Florence again so we decided to roam around a bit before boarding the train. I just hoped we could have stayed here a bit longer.

Below are some pictures we took in Florence. We just followed the direction where we saw the dome from the train and we were able to get to it by foot from the station.