Pisa International Airport to Florence
About 85 km east; the Sky Bus coach is €15–20 direct in around 70 minutes, the train via Pisa Centrale is similar, and a taxi runs about €170.
The Duomo's dome over a city of stone streets, the Uffizi's corridors, the Ponte Vecchio and a river that flooded the whole thing in 1966 — and the reason a great many people fly into Pisa in the first place.
Every way to get there
Our verdict: for Florence, a private transfer is the easiest door-to-door option (from €120). Travelling light on a budget? The bus is cheapest (from €15) but slower, with a change in the city.
What it costs for your group
The bus is charged per person, while a taxi or private transfer is one price for the whole car — so the more of you there are, the better door-to-door value looks.
| Group | Bus (per person) | Private transfer | Best value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solo · 1 traveller | €15 | €120 | Bus |
| Couple · 2 travellers | €30 | €120 | Bus |
| Family of 4 · 4 travellers | €60 | €120 | Bus |
Which option should you choose?
| If your priority is… | Our pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest price | Bus | From €12, though slower with a change in the city. |
| Speed & comfort | Private transfer | Door-to-door, fixed price, a driver waiting for you. |
| A group of 3–4 | Transfer or taxi | One flat fare splits cheaper than several bus tickets. |
| A late-night arrival | Transfer or taxi | Both run 24/7 when buses and the tram have stopped. |
By transport mode
Bus / shuttle
Around an hour and ten minutes with no change, which is why it suits arrivals with luggage. The trade-off is frequency — it runs to a schedule rather than continuously, so check the departure before your flight.
Where to catch it: Direct coach from outside arrivals to Florence, setting down near Santa Maria Novella station. Book online in advance for the lower fare.
Best for solo & budget travellersTrain
More frequent than the coach and roughly the same total time. Buy the train leg separately and validate the regional ticket before boarding — the fine for an unvalidated ticket is enforced.
Where to catch it: PisaMover to Pisa Centrale (€6), then a regional or Frecciabianca service to Florence Santa Maria Novella.
Best for budget travellers near a stationTaxi
A genuine eighty-five-kilometre journey, so the fare is not inflated. Still hard to justify against a €15 coach unless you are four people arriving at midnight.
Where to catch it: Around €170 for the run to Florence; agree the price before departure rather than relying on the meter over that distance.
Best for small groups in a hurryPrivate transfer
Florence's centre is one of Italy's strictest ZTLs, with cameras on every approach. A driver who enters without a permit passes the fine to you months later; confirm the drop-off point when booking.
Where to catch it: Usually cheaper than the taxi and it tracks your flight — the standard choice for groups landing outside coach hours.
Best for families, groups & late arrivalsFlorence & Pisa in photos
Buying tickets in Pisa
Pisa's connection is the best-engineered of any airport in this guide. The PisaMover is a driverless elevated shuttle running to Pisa Centrale in five minutes for €6, every 5–10 minutes from around 06:00 to midnight — no timetable to memorise, no traffic. Buy from the machines by the covered walkway; the ticket also covers the replacement bus if the line is out of service. From Centrale, Tuscany opens up: Florence in about an hour, Lucca in thirty minutes, Livorno and Viareggio in forty. Direct coaches skip the change entirely — Autostradale's Sky Bus to Florence at €15–20 in about 70 minutes, and to Lucca at €5–8 in 30 minutes, both from outside arrivals and cheaper booked online. For Pisa itself the LAM Rossa city bus costs under €3 and stops closer to the Leaning Tower than the PisaMover does, though it is slower. Validate regional train tickets before boarding; the fine is enforced.
Taxi scams & safety in Pisa
Pisa is a low-friction airport and the taxi fares are honest — €18–25 into the city on the meter, and around €170 to Florence, which is a real price for a real 85-kilometre journey rather than an opportunistic one. The genuine financial risk here is the ZTL. Florence's restricted zone is among the strictest in Italy, ringed with cameras, and a driver who enters without a permit passes the fine on to you months later through the rental company or the transfer operator. Confirm the drop-off point when booking rather than at the barrier, and give an exact address rather than a landmark. The same applies in miniature at Lucca, where private cars cannot enter the walls at all, and at Siena and San Gimignano, where cars stop at the gates and everything beyond is on foot. If you are heading to the Cinque Terre, do not hire a car: four of the five villages have effectively no parking and the roads down to them are single-track hairpins — park at La Spezia and take the local train in.
Getting from PSA to Florence
A great many people who fly to Pisa are going to Florence. That is not an accident of budget airline routing — Florence's own airport has a short runway and limited capacity, so Pisa functions as its long-haul and low-cost gateway. Eighty-five kilometres, about seventy minutes, and three ways of covering it: a €15 coach, a €12 train with one change, or a €170 taxi.
The Sky Bus, direct
Autostradale runs coaches from outside arrivals straight to Florence, setting down near Santa Maria Novella station, in about an hour and ten minutes. €15 to €20, cheaper booked online. No change, luggage in the hold — which is why it suits arrivals with cases. The limitation is frequency: it runs to a schedule timed against flight banks rather than continuously, so check the departure before you fly.
The train, via Pisa Centrale
PisaMover to Pisa Centrale for €6, five minutes, then a regional or Frecciabianca service to Firenze Santa Maria Novella. Trains run every thirty to sixty minutes and the whole journey comes to about eighty minutes for €12 to €18. More frequent than the coach and roughly the same total time.
Validate the regional ticket
Regional train tickets must be stamped in the small machines on the platform before boarding. Frecciabianca and other reserved services do not need it, regional ones do, and the fine for an unvalidated ticket is enforced without much sympathy. This catches out more visitors than any other rule on the Italian railways.
The taxi at €170, and why it is not a rip-off
Eighty-five kilometres is a real journey. €160 to €190 is a real price for it, agreed before departure rather than metered. Hard to justify against a €15 coach for one or two people; defensible for four arriving at midnight when the coaches have stopped and the last train has gone.
The ZTL, which is the thing to actually worry about
Florence's restricted traffic zone is among the strictest in Italy, ringed with cameras, and a driver who enters without a permit passes the fine on to you — months later, through the rental company or the transfer operator, with an administration charge on top. Confirm the drop-off point when booking. Give an exact address, not a landmark.
Do not hire a car for Florence
Following directly from the above. The centre is closed, parking is expensive and peripheral, and the city is walkable end to end in half an hour. If you want a car for Tuscany, hire it in Florence on the day you leave the city, or keep it at a hotel outside the walls with its own parking.
What the hour buys you
Brunelleschi's dome, built without centring in a way that is still not fully understood; the Uffizi, which needs a booked slot and half a day; Michelangelo's David in the Accademia, which needs the same; the Bargello for sculpture, which needs neither and is half empty. And the Oltrarno across the river, where the workshops still are.
Booking the museums before you fly
The Uffizi and the Accademia both sell timed entry and both sell out in season. The queue for an unbooked ticket at the Accademia in July can be two hours in full sun. This is the single most useful thing to arrange before leaving home, and it costs a few euros more than the door price.
Arriving on a Sunday or a Monday
State museums in Italy close on various Mondays and open free on the first Sunday of the month, which sounds like a bargain and produces crowds that make the visit worse. Check what is open against your dates rather than discovering it on the day.
Onward from Santa Maria Novella
Florence's station puts Siena within ninety minutes by coach, Arezzo and Lucca within an hour by train, and Rome within an hour and a half on the high-speed line. If Florence is the base for a wider trip, arriving at Pisa and coming straight here is a sound plan — the coach and the train both land you at the same hinge.
