Where to Travel Internationally from Florence During Study Abroad
Where to Travel Internationally from Florence During Study Abroad
It’s easy to get lost in the experience of living in the breathtakingly beautiful Renaissance city of Florence! However, you’re probably excited about doing some international travel during your time studying abroad. Being part of the Mediterranean coastline, Italy is the perfect port to travel out of and into other countries.
From Florence, you have two international airport options, Florence (FLR) and Pisa (PSA). Florence is outside the city center and Pisa is a short, local train ride away. Between the two airports, you will have plenty of both budget and full-service airline options. If you’re trying to travel on a budget (let’s be honest most students rightfully are), I would recommend comparing the prices of flights from both airports before booking one.
As you weigh the seemingly endless travel options and plan your various getaways, there are some important things for study abroad students to note when looking into flying budget airlines. First of all, there is typically a strict baggage allowance. You’ll want to make sure you check these before your departure for Florence and make sure you have a bag with you that is within the size limits for budget airline travel. Typically, backpacks are best, but duffle bags are sometimes students’ choice. Budget airlines also usually fly into and out of airports that are further away from the city center than full service airlines. For example, if you fly from Florence to Paris, you will fly a full service airline and the flight will land at Charles De Gaulle (CDG) airport, which is closest to Paris’ city center.
If you fly from Pisa on a budget airline, like EasyJet or RyanAir for example, your flight will most likely land at Orly or Beauvais-Tillé, which are further from the city center and will usually mean you have to spend more money to get to the city center. Make sure to weigh the extra cost of the flight for the full service airline against the price of the budget airline PLUS the added transportation cost it’ll have since it’s farther from the city center. Oh and don’t forget the extra transportation time when considering options!
If flying isn’t your thing, there are also international train options. Given the long distance that you’ll be traveling, these trains are typically run during the overnight hours. You may find yourself needing to catch a train to Milan first, as many international train routes leave from there. Geneva, Switzerland and Vienna, Austria are both popular travel destinations. Geneva can be reached from Milan in just under 5 hours, and Vienna in about 13 hours. From those destinations, you can either stop and explore the area or journey on to other exciting places, such as the medieval village of Perouges, France or one of the most picturesque cities in Europe, Budapest, Hungary.
Once you’ve mastered the art of weighing transportation costs, the choices you have in travel destinations as a student studying in Florence are seemingly endless. Between the two airports, and train stations, you can find yourself traveling to wherever your heart desires. Whether you’re looking to spend some time at the beach in Barcelona, explore the sprawling city of London, take in the breathtaking views on the coast of Greece, or even cross a continental border and explore the desert of Morocco, you can make your travel wish list as broad as you like to have the study abroad experience of your dreams!