Venice, Florence and Rome sit on the same high-speed rail corridor, which makes combining them one of the simplest multi-city trips in Europe — no flights, no transfers, just a train that leaves from a station five minutes from the Grand Canal.
The route and timing
High-speed trains run from Venezia Santa Lucia — see our getting to Venice guide for why that station matters over Mestre — to Firenze Santa Maria Novella in a little over two hours, and continue on to Roma Termini in around three and a half to four hours total from Venice. Trains run frequently through the day on both Trenitalia (Frecce services) and the competing operator Italo, so you're rarely more than an hour from the next departure.
Booking: earlier is genuinely cheaper
Unlike regional trains, high-speed fares on this route are dynamically priced, similar to airline tickets — the earliest-booked fare class on a given train can be a fraction of a same-day walk-up price. If your dates are fixed, booking a few weeks ahead is worth doing. If your plans are flexible, both operators' apps make it easy to compare a few departure times for the cheapest fare class.
Trenitalia vs Italo
Both run comparable journey times on modern high-speed stock. The practical differences are schedule coverage (Trenitalia runs more frequently and reaches more secondary stations), loyalty programs, and simply whichever happens to have a better fare on your specific day — it's worth checking both rather than defaulting to one.
Should you stop in Florence, or go straight to Rome?
If you have the time, breaking the journey in Florence is close to free in terms of extra effort — it's directly on the line, not a detour — and turns a single long travel day into two manageable ones. A well-paced version of this trip is Venice (2–3 days) → Florence (2 days) → Rome (3+ days), stacking three of Italy's biggest cities into one rail pass' worth of travel without ever needing a car or a domestic flight.
Luggage and platforms
Stations are large but well signed in English; platforms (binario) are confirmed on departure boards roughly 20 minutes before departure, so build in a little buffer rather than arriving at the exact departure time. High-speed trains have overhead and end-of-carriage luggage racks — fine for a standard suitcase, tighter for oversized bags, so pack accordingly if you're moving between three cities in one trip.