Firenze Rifredi Train Station

The outdoor platforms at Firenze Rifredi are accessed from subterranean corridors.

If your ticket says Firenze Rifredi, you have arrived in Florence — but probably not the Florence you came for. Rifredi is the city's third station, roughly 2.8 km northwest of Santa Maria Novella, in a working residential district with no Duomo, no Uffizi, and no reason for a visitor to linger. The good news: fixing this costs about six minutes and two euros.

You Got Off at Rifredi. Now What?

Take the next regional train to Firenze S.M.N. It leaves from the same station, runs constantly throughout the day, takes five to seven minutes, and costs the price of a short-hop regional ticket. Buy it at the machines in the station hall or from the ticket office, and validate it in the green machine on the platform before boarding — Italian regional tickets are not valid until stamped, and inspectors do check.

Do not walk. It is 2.8 km through unremarkable northern suburbs, mostly along traffic corridors, and with luggage it is a miserable forty minutes. Do not assume the tram will rescue you either — see below, because this is where most travel sites get it wrong.

Getting from Rifredi to the Centre

The Tram Does Not Stop at Rifredi Station

This one is worth stating plainly, because a remarkable number of guides and booking sites imply otherwise. The T1 tram line runs from Villa Costanza in Scandicci to Careggi hospital, and its route passes through the Rifredi district. It does not stop at the railway station. The city's own tramvia authority describes the line as passing "a few hundred metres" from Stazione di Rifredi — which is precisely the problem, because a few hundred metres with a suitcase in August is not a connection.

The nearest tram stop is Dalmazia, about 650 metres away, roughly a nine or ten minute walk. If you are heading to Careggi or the university, that walk may be worth it. If you are heading to the Duomo, take the train instead.

Why Does My Train Stop Here and Not Santa Maria Novella?

Because Santa Maria Novella is a dead end. It is a terminus station: the tracks stop at the buffers under Michelucci's 1930s concourse, and any train continuing beyond Florence must reverse out the way it came in. That manoeuvre costs time — the driver has to change ends, the train has to be re-signalled — and on a busy corridor those minutes are expensive.

So through-running services avoid it. For many InterCity trains, northbound and southbound alike, Rifredi is the only Florence stop, precisely so the train doesn't have to reverse at SMN. It is not a mistake and it is not a downgrade. It is the timetable working as designed, and it catches out visitors who assume Florence has only one station.

High-speed trains are a different story. Rifredi hosted the early Pendolino services from 1989, but those stops migrated to Santa Maria Novella and Campo di Marte over the following years, and by 2005 no high-speed service called here as a matter of routine. Today's scheduled departure boards at Rifredi are dominated almost entirely by Regionale services — a check of the current RFI timetable across a full morning shows Regionale trains and nothing else.

Where the Trains Actually Go

Rifredi sits at a genuine junction — it's on the traditional Bologna line, the Viareggio line, and the Leopolda line towards Pisa and Livorno. Direct regional services from here reach Prato, Pistoia, Bologna, Lucca, Viareggio, Pisa, Livorno, Carrara, La Spezia, Siena, Campiglia Marittima and Grosseto.

That makes Rifredi quietly useful if you are staying in northern Florence and heading out into Tuscany for the day. You skip the walk to SMN entirely. For most visitors staying in the centre, though, SMN remains the sensible departure point.

When Rifredi Is the Right Station

There are three cases where you actually want Rifredi:

• Careggi hospital. The Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Careggi complex is immediately north of the station. Bus lines from Via Vasco de Gama on the station's south side serve the hospital campus, and dedicated services connect to the Meyer children's hospital.
• The university. Several University of Florence faculties, including the Morgagni teaching centre, sit in this quadrant.
• You're staying nearby. The Rifredi and Novoli neighbourhoods have hotels and apartments at prices the historic centre cannot match. If that's you, Rifredi is your local station and a genuine convenience.

Facilities — and What Isn't There

The passenger building is a plain three-storey block; the ground floor holds the ticket office, waiting room and a small commercial unit, with RFI offices above. Nine through tracks are served by five platforms linked by a pedestrian underpass.

Inside you'll find toilets, a bar, a tobacconist (useful for bus tickets) and vending machines. Ticket machines take cards and contactless.

What you will not find, despite what several booking aggregators claim, is a station left-luggage office. RFI's own facilities listing for Rifredi does not include one. If you need to store bags, do it at Santa Maria Novella or use one of the private storage operators in the area. Assume nothing and check before you arrive with a suitcase you'd hoped to abandon for the afternoon.

2026 Engineering Works: Why Rifredi Keeps Appearing on Tickets

There is a specific and current reason more travellers than usual are finding Rifredi printed on their tickets. RFI is replacing the Ponte al Pino rail overbridge near Campo di Marte, a roughly €17 million job running through 2026, and each construction phase requires suspending traffic on the Campo di Marte–Rifredi and Campo di Marte–Santa Maria Novella sections.

During those closures the Florence node runs at around half its normal train service. High-speed trains get diverted, some terminate short, and some make unscheduled stops at Campo di Marte or Rifredi instead of Santa Maria Novella, with replacement buses bridging the gap. In January 2026 the transfer point was Rifredi; in the July closures it shifted to Campo di Marte.

Closures completed so far in 2026: 24–25 January, 5–10 July, and 26–30 July. Two further interruptions are scheduled: 3–4 September (about six and a half hours) and 6–7 November (about twelve hours, to remove the temporary footbridge). The new deck is due to carry road traffic by mid-September 2026.

If you're travelling through Florence on or near those dates, check your ticket's Florence station carefully and allow extra time. Journey extensions of up to two and a half hours were built into the sales systems during the July window.

Rifredi vs. Campo di Marte vs. Santa Maria Novella

Practical Tips

• Before you book, read the Florence station name on your ticket. "Firenze S.M.N." is central. "Firenze Rifredi" and "Firenze Campo di Marte" are not.
• Validate regional tickets in the platform machines. High-speed and reserved tickets don't need this; regional ones do.
• The station has a bus terminal, with stops on both the Via dello Steccuto and Via Vasco de Gama sides. The Vasco de Gama exit is via the underpass — useful to know if the bus you want isn't out front.
• Rifredi is safe but quiet, and it empties out at night. If you arrive late, take a taxi rather than waiting for a connection.
• Timetables shift with RFI's summer and winter service changes. Check departures on the day rather than relying on any published summary, including this one.

Frequently Asked Questions