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There are several options to fly into Florence, such as fly into nearby Pisa and take the train to Florence, but I´ve decided to fly directly into the actual Florence airport. The airport is easily negotiated. Once getting off plane, grab your bags at the conveyor belt, go thru customs (left side as I´ve nothing to declare). Exiting customs leaves you in the main terminal. It´s quite small. Go to the right, stay inside the building, walking through the entire building, about a minute. When you reach a room that´s pretty much empty (atleast as I´m there off-season), exit thru one of the doors, probably to your left hand side, to the outside. Once outside keep walking in same direction to the crosswalk, where the bus will or will soon be there. There is only one bus. It goes directly to the train station.
If you can´t find the bus, ask anyone "Dov´é il autobus?" (doe-veh-eh il auto boose). "Dove" means where: when you see it on websites, it is the info where the restaurant, hotel, etc is located. "Autobus" is city bus type buses. There is another name for long distance buses, which you don´t need for this.
The bus is cheapest with a roundtrip ticket at 10 Euros. But once they run out of round trips, you can only buy a one way ticket for 6 Euros. "Vorrei un biglietto andata e ritorno" is how to ask for a round trip ticket. It literally is asking for a ticket to go and return. To ask for a single one way ticket, I´d ask in Italian something like " Vorrei un biglietto solo andata, per piacere".
*Make sure you validate your bus ticket as soon as you get on the bus or you can get a hefty fine. Being a tourist is not an excuse*
I´m meeting my family at the train station, where we´ll walk to where they live in the sentrum.
*Update: sadly one of my dearest loved ones has has had a loved one involved suddenly in a car wreck, so is flying back to the states, possibly to go to a funeral of her grandfather. I´ve decided to stay in a hotel for the first week, then try to extend my flight departure til nearly Christmas.
My hotel is an easy walk from the train station. I´ve contacted them of my arrival, just to make sure the room I booked online is actually booked. Probably not so much in off-season, but in season, many places will overbook, then give the rooms to whomever arrives first, so that some who thought they had rooms are now without. Not great under the best of circumstances, and certainly not when a possible funeral is on my mind. I was clear and polite, in English with Italian, mentioning the situation, just so they know. Also, I let them know, as a courtesy, that yes I would be wanting breakfast each morning; and about what time I would arrive for check-in, so that someone would be there. Sorted. They´re expecting me, and are very kind:).
