Florence is served by a number of international bus companies. The one with the most extensive network is FlixBus as it has taken over the market with its very low prices.
The company runs services to many European and Mediterranean destinations, that allow you to reach Florence and Tuscany, including: Agadir, Aix-en-Provence, Alicante, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Avignon, Barcelona, Belgrade, Brno, Brussels, Budapest, Casablanca, Cologne, Cracow, Dortmund, Dover, Dusseldorf, Essen, Heidelberg, Liège, Lyon, Lloret de Mar, London, Madrid, Marrakech, Marseilles, Montpellier, Nice, Paris, Perpignan, Prague, Rotterdam, Zaragoza, Sofia, Stuttgart, Strasbourg, Toulon, Toulouse, Valencia, Warsaw.
Take a look directly at their website for route information, as many were also taken down during the global pandemic of 2020/2022 and not all routes have fully returned to pre-pandemic operations.
Getting from Pisa Airport to Florence and vice-versa
The Pisa Airport is the second main airport in Tuscany after the airport in Florence. It often makes sense to fly there and then to reach Florence by either train or bus.
The first option means taking the Pisa Mover shuttle to Pisa Centrale, then from there take the train to Florence's SMN train station.
The second option is to take a bus directly to Florence's SMN train station - this one is "easier" since there are no transfers in between at Pisa Centrale. Currently, the only option is to take a Caronna bus.
Which one to take? Cost-wise, the train and Caronna is almost the same (13,90€ train+Pisa Mover as opposted to 14,99€ on Caronna for a one-way ticket) but check out both as far as schedules go: you might find one to be the only option depending on the times you either arrive at the airport or time you need to be at the airport.
Flixbus between Pisa and Florence
Flixbus also travels between Pisa and Florence but not from the airport! It leaves Pisa from the Pietrasantina Car Park, close but not right by the Leaning Tower, and it arrives in Villa Costanza in Florence (along the A1 roadway). From there, you can take the T1 tram line into the center of Florence. Read more about the tram and public bus system in Florence if you're planning on using it to reach and then move around the city. Overall, Flixbus is not the best way at the moment to get from Pisa airport to Florence but can be considered if you're staying in Pisa or heading to Pisa from Florence.
TOURIST BUSES IN FLORENCE
In order to preserve the city, environment and historic and artistic heritage of Florence, access by tourist buses to Florence is regulated by a series of provisions by the local city council. This includes set drop-off and pick-up points and parking lots for tourist buses that regulate the number of buses that enter into the city limits. For more information, the official website is http://www.serviziallastrada.it/it/busturisticimenuhome2. As half of the information is in Italian and half in English, we receive lots of requests for help understand the whole process. We've written an article where we extract and summarize the most important points on that website, with a clear list as well as map of drop off/pick up points and parking lots for coach buses in Florence. We hope you find it useful!
LAST UPDATE: 01/09/2023
