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Help with planning

Posted by (Valrico, Fl) on

I will be arriving in Italy by train from Austria. I tentatively plan on spending 3 days in Rome, 2 in the Cinque Terre and then I have 3 days to visit Civita and Orvieto, Siena and San Gimignano. . I will not be renting a car. I am trying to map out the best way to do this using public transportation. It does not matter to me the order of how I do these days..I can do Rome first or last, etc. I can fly out of Rome or Milan to return home. Should I spend a night in Orvieto and then 2 in Siena? Can I easily get from Rome to Orvieto and then to Siena? Can I use public transportation to do day trip from Siena to San Gimignano? Can I catch train to Cinque Terre easily from one of these places? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Kathy

Posted by
8012 posts

Hi Kathy, we travel entirely by public transit when we travel in Europe - it's so easy to navigate, and we enjoy the interactions with people. When I'm first pulling together itinerary options I use www.rome2rio.com to quickly check out different options. I'm comparing both the amount of time on trains and how often the trains leave, i.e. Siena to Orvieto = 2 hours (1 connection), leaving hourly. Checking each of your options will give you an idea of how much time, what order, and also whether it makes sense given the number of days.

We've been to San Gimignano during a RS tour. The public transportation looks like a hassle to go there. You may want to consider Montepulciano & Pienza in the Siena area instead.

Posted by
15799 posts

Where do you expect to leave Italy from? The best plan is usually one-way route, rather than a loop.

There are several trains a day between Rome and Orvieto. The shortest journey is about 1.25 - 1.5 hours. There are also a couple of direct trains between Rome and the CT daily. If memory serves, it takes about 4 hours. According to a 2006 RS Italy book, to get to Civita, you take a bus from Orvieto to Bagnoregio. From there you either walk a mile or take a minibus (runs once or twice an hour from about 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and then from 3.30 p.m. to 6 p.m.) to the bridge. Either way, you then have a steepish hike up to the town, about another 10 minutes. My guess is that to get to the bus in Orvieto, you will have to walk or take a minibus to the funicular, then take that down to the train station to get the intercity bus. Again from RS, the Siena train station is on the edge of town. To get to the city center, it's either a 20 minute uphill hike or a city bus or taxi. Some intercity buses only stop at the train station, others stop near the city center. There are several buses a day between Siena and San Gimignano. The journey takes about 1.25 hours.

You've chosen destinations that are time-consuming to get to by public transportation. There are no fast trains and several of your destinations are reachable only by bus. Are you going to have much luggage with you?

Posted by
4105 posts

Save yourself a long train ride and fly from Vienna to Rome. See Austrian Airlines.

Price is about the same to fly.

From Rome train to Orvieto. I don't see how you would have time to see Civita. unless you skip San Gim

Train Orvieto to Siena, day trip by bus to San Gimignano

Train Siena to CT

Train Ct-Milan

For trains see Trenitalia.com

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