How to take the rail journey from Vienna/Wien to Florence/Firenze

Due to construction work and a route closure in Italy, this train will not be available until September 10th/11th.

The train is usually scheduled to depart Wien Hbf at 19:18 and arrive in Firenze S.M. Novella station at 06:18 - note the early arrival!

Final Destination: Roma

The train also calls at: Wien-Meidling, St Polten and Bologna Centrale (arrives at 05:19)

Book early and save: Yes

Online bookings open: 6 months ahead of the travel date

The train conveys:

- Compartment Seats (Sitzwagen)
- Couchettes (Liegewagen); 4 berths AND 6 berths
- Standard sleeping cars (Schlafwagen) with 3 bed, 2 bed and 1 cabins
- Deluxe sleeping cars with showers (Schlafwagen) with 3 bed, 2 bed and 1 cabins

The first price you will see on the OBB ticketing site will be for the compartment seats.

Click the train detail below for more info including the rail pass reservation fees:

Rail pass users must reserve before boarding these trains, but these reservations cannot be booked online.

You can now book rail pass reservations without paying booking fees on the OBB website (OBB operates these trains).
Though the process for doing so isn't particularly obvious, hence this step-by-step guide.

OR reservations can be arranged and paid for at the ÖBB Reisebüro desk in Wien Hbf - (ideally do this when you first arrive at Wien Hbf on the preceding train on your itinerary) or by calling OBB Customer Service (+43 5 1717).

Making the rail pass reservation online a minimum of a couple of weeks ahead of the travel date, is particularly recommended if you will be traveling between June and September.
If you wait until arriving in Wien/Vienna to reserve, your first choice of accommodation may have sold out.

There are no direct daytime trains from Wien / Vienna to Florence / Firenze and the only route which enables only one transfer between trains to be required is by connecting at Venezia Mestre.
Making a connection at Venezia Mestre is the optimum daytime route by both simplicity and time.
However, there are only two direct trains of the day from Wien Hbf to Venezia Mestre and the second of these arrives there two late to make a connection into a train on to Firenze / Florence.

Therefore the only option for taking this route is to depart the Austria capital before 06:30, though the reward for rising early is the journey through the stunning Austrian landscape.

The time between trains in Venezia Mestre station is an easily managed 45 mins and each binaro (platform) at the station is equipped with elevators to enable a step-free connection.
In the very unlikely event of a missed connection due to a late arriving train from Wien, the next train Frecce train on to Firenze will be departing an hour later.

Book early and save: Yes

Online bookings open: up to 6 months ahead of the travel date

When booking more than 5 months ahead, if you only see 1st class tickets available for sale on OBB check back a few days later to see if the 'Sparscheine' 2nd class tickets have been added to the booking service.

Though it will be typically cheaper to make separate bookings for the journeys from Vienna and from Venice.
However, if you do so and the train from Vienna arrives too late to make the booked connection, you may then have to re-book for the train on to Firenze
Make a single booking and if need be tickets can be transferred to a later departure on to Firenze from Venezia Mestre.

Seat reservations:

Seat reservations are optional on the train from Wien / Vienna to Venezia / Venice, so they must be proactively added when booking if you want to travel in an assigned seat(s) on this train.

In contrast they are mandatory on the train from Venice to Rome, so seats will automatically be assigned for the journey on this train.

Using Rail Passes:

The rules are different when using a rail pass to travel to Italy by these Railjets compared to travelling by Railjet to other destinations.
Rail pass users must pay a supplement of €15 in 1st class and €10 in 2nd class.
However, there are two elements to the rail pass supplement; the seat reservation and the rail pass surcharge for travelling on an express train in Italy.

You can pay a single charge, which covers both elements, by using the Eurail reservation service or the InterRail reservation service - though you will be charged a €2 booking fee per reservation, per person.

If you pay the supplement at a Reisezentrum travel desk at a major Austrian station, you won't pay the booking fee, but a seat reservation won't be included; and will cost an additional €3.50, as per the info on this page.

OR if you book the 'Tarvisioverkehr Pass1' supplement on the OBB website, the instructions are here, you will need to also select the seat reservation and pay the additional €3.50 cost.