The first leg of this trip is the same high-speed line as our guide to the Florence to Naples train, and if the coast is the last stop of a longer trip, our ten-day Italy itinerary shows how it fits.

The Short Version

Take a Frecciarossa from Florence to Salerno, walk out of the station to the ferry stop at Piazza della Concordia, and take the Travelmar boat to Amalfi or Positano. The train takes from about 3 hours 15 to a little over 4 hours depending on the service. The boat takes 35 minutes to Amalfi and 70 minutes to Positano. Travelmar says its service is available all year round, and its Salerno stop is a short walk from the railway station.

The alternatives are worse for most people:

• Naples, the Circumvesuviana to Sorrento and the SITA bus works, and suits travellers staying in Sorrento, but it means two changes, a slow commuter railway and a winding bus ride, often standing.
• A private driver from Naples or Salerno is the comfortable option and the expensive one, and it still has to use the same narrow coast road as everyone else.
• Driving yourself is the one we would actively talk you out of.

Budget about six hours door to door from Florence to Amalfi on the ferry route, and allow more for Positano.

Why There Is No Train

The Amalfi Coast is a line of towns clinging to cliffs on the southern side of the Sorrento peninsula, joined by a single road cut into the rock. Neither Positano nor Amalfi has a railway station. The railway reaches the coast at its two ends: the main line at Salerno in the east, and the Circumvesuviana, Naples’ suburban railway, at Sorrento on the other side of the peninsula.

So every route from Florence is a train to one of those two places followed by a boat or a bus. The question is just which end you approach from, and that depends on the season, on where you are staying, and on how you feel about hairpin bends.

Route A: Train to Salerno, Then the Ferry

Leg one: Florence to Salerno

Direct Frecciarossa trains run from Firenze Santa Maria Novella to Salerno through the day. On a November 2026 weekday Trenitalia’s timetable has thirteen direct services between 07:14 and 19:14. Most take 3 hours 48 to 3 hours 54 minutes; two afternoon trains, the 14:48 and the 16:33, are faster at 3 hours 21 and 3 hours 15.

Fares work the same way as on the Naples run. For the 09:14 on 10 November, seen in mid-October, the flexible Standard Base fare was €77, Economy €59.90, and the early-booking FrecciaDAYS fare started at €30.90. Book a few weeks out and you pay less than half. Our Florence to Naples train guide explains the fare levels and the two operators in detail.

Why not just go to Naples? Because Salerno is where the ferry is, and Naples is not on the Amalfi side of the peninsula. Staying on the train for the extra stretch beyond Naples costs little more than stopping in Naples, and it saves you a transfer across a big, busy city.

Leg two: the Travelmar ferry

Travelmar runs boats from Salerno along the Amalfi Coast, and states that its service is available all year round. Its timetable changes during the season, so check travelmar.it for the one in force on your day. In Salerno it uses two stops:

• Piazza della Concordia, which Travelmar’s own timetable labels “Stazione dei treni”, the train station stop. This is the one you want arriving by rail, and most sailings leave from it.
• Molo Manfredi, the cruise and ferry terminal further along the waterfront, used by a couple of early-morning departures.

From Piazza della Concordia in the timetable updated from 1 October 2026, boats leave for Amalfi at 08:40, 09:40, 10:40, 11:10, 11:40, 13:10, 14:10, 15:30, 17:10 and 18:00. The direct run to Amalfi takes 35 minutes; the 18:00 calls at Vietri, Cetara, Maiori and Minori on the way and takes an hour. All but the 18:00 continue to Positano, which is 70 minutes from Salerno.

The fare includes one piece of hand luggage up to 45 × 35 × 20 cm. If you are travelling with a full-size suitcase, check Travelmar’s luggage conditions when you buy.

A Realistic Travel Day

Here is what the route looks like on a weekday in the autumn 2026 timetables, leaving Florence after breakfast:

That is about five and a half hours to Amalfi and six to Positano, with an hour’s buffer in Salerno for lunch or a late train. You could tighten it by aiming for the 13:10 boat, but a Frecciarossa running fifteen minutes late would then cost you an hour, so we would not.

An earlier start works too: the 07:14 from Florence reaches Salerno at 11:27 and makes the 11:40 boat if all goes well, or the 13:10 if it does not. A later one runs out of boats. The last sailing from Piazza della Concordia to Positano in that timetable is the 17:10, and the last to Amalfi the 18:00, so a train arriving in Salerno after about half past five leaves you on the bus or in a taxi.

Route B: Naples, Sorrento and the Bus

The other approach goes round the western end of the peninsula. It makes sense if you are staying in Sorrento, or if your Positano hotel is easier to reach from that side. For Amalfi it is the long way round.

The route has three legs:

1. Frecciarossa from Florence to Napoli Centrale, about three hours.
2. Naples to Sorrento. Either the Circumvesuviana, the suburban railway run by EAV, from the station underneath Napoli Centrale, or the Alilauro fast ferry from Napoli Beverello, the port, which is a taxi ride from the station. Alilauro’s autumn 2026 timetable gives an adult fare of €19.00 from Beverello to Sorrento; check its site for the sailings in force on your day.
3. Sorrento to Positano or Amalfi on the SITA bus, which runs year-round along the coast road, or, in season (the 2026 season runs to 3 November), on Alilauro’s Sorrento–Positano–Amalfi boats (€17.50 to Amalfi).

The Circumvesuviana is the cheap option, but it is a busy local railway with dozens of stops and is not where you want to be with a large suitcase at rush hour. EAV’s faster tourist service, the Campania Express, is a seasonal service and may not be running. Check EAV’s own site for the current Circumvesuviana timetable, the fare, and whether the Campania Express is running on your travel day.

Add it all up and Route B is at least as long as Route A to Positano, longer to Amalfi, and has one more change. Its one real advantage is for Sorrento itself, which is at the end of the Circumvesuviana line.

The SITA Buses

The blue buses of SITA Sud are how the coast actually gets around. The lines that matter here are Amalfi–Positano–Sorrento and Amalfi–Maiori–Salerno, plus the short climb from Amalfi up to Ravello and Scala. They run all year, but the timetables change with the seasons; the autumn 2026 timetable is valid to 1 November, so check SITA Sud’s own site for the timetable in force when you travel.

For tickets, the useful one is the COSTIERASITA: 24 hours of unlimited travel on SITA Sud buses across the coast and the Sorrento peninsula, from Salerno and Vietri round to Sorrento and Massa Lubrense, including Positano, Amalfi and Ravello. It is validated on first use and is in your name. Campania adjusted its local fares on 1 October 2026, so check the current price before you buy. SITA Sud sells it at its Salerno ticket office on Via Vinciprova and through UnicoCampania ticket sellers such as tabacchi and newsagents; buy it before you board.

The honest verdict on the bus: in winter, with a seat, it is a lovely ride. In summer the buses fill up, the road jams, and arriving at a stop in Positano to find the bus already full is common enough that you should build in time for it. It is a fine way to hop between towns once you are there. As the way to arrive with luggage from Florence, it is the fallback, not the plan.

Private Driver or Hire Car

A private transfer from Napoli Centrale or Salerno station to your hotel door is the comfortable option, particularly for families, for anyone with heavy bags, and for hotels high above the sea that are a long climb from any ferry pier. Agree a fixed price in advance, in writing, including luggage. It is not faster than the ferry, because it uses the same road as the buses, but it removes every change and every stair.

Driving yourself is the option we would talk anyone out of. The coast road is narrow, crowded and hard on nerves, parking in the towns is scarce and expensive, and on set dates in the busy season non-resident cars are restricted to alternate days by the last digit of their number plate. Check the current rules with ANAS and the towns before you drive. If you want a car for the rest of a Campania trip, pick it up after the coast, not before.

Which Route for Which Town

One more thing worth knowing if you are planning ahead: Travelmar’s timetable notes new stops at Atrani and Praiano from June 2027, which will make the ferry useful for two more of the smaller towns.

Whichever route you take, the Florence to Amalfi Coast journey is a full travel day, and it is a mistake to treat it as anything else. Leave Florence in the morning, arrive in time for a drink on the water, and do not plan to see Pompeii on the way.

Frequently Asked Questions

Keep Reading

• Florence to Naples by train — the first leg, fares and operators.
• Ten days in Italy — Florence, Venice and Rome in one trip.
• Rome to Florence by train — the same line, further north.
• Florence transportation guide — every other way in and out.