Please sign in to post.

A few final transportation questions

Posted by (Hoover, AL, USA) on

We’re doing some final planning for our upcoming Italy trip (late May/early June). It’s an anniversary trip and our first time to Italy. Very excited! This forum has been very helpful in all our planning and research. I wanted to cross check our main transportation plans to see if there is anything else to consider or that needs to be booked in advance..

Our trip basically has a home base in 3 locations: Rome (5 days), Siena (5 days), and Venice (3 days). We’ve already booked lodging and the tours we want in each city and are now finalizing other plans. Transportation plans or questions:

1) Rome: We arrive at FCO. A car from our hotel is picking us up. The next major transport is to Siena. We’re staying at a small B&B a few miles outside of Siena. Research says going by bus is a better option than by train. So we’ll take a Sena bus to Siena. I assume we’ll leave from Roma Tiburtina bus station. Looks like buses leave frequently. Question: Do we need to make reservations in advance or can just buy tickets while in Rome or at the bus station.

2) Siena to Florence for a day trip. We’ll go to Florence one day for a day trip. Leave early in the morning and come back late as possible to get a full day in Florence. We could go by bus or train, but research says bus is best. Again, do we need to reserve in advance? Or just buy bus tickets while in Siena? And since this is a round trip (to/from), do you buy both or buy seperately when you're coming and going?

3) Siena to Venice. We plan to buy Italo train tickets from Florence to Venice. This will be bought online (haven’t done it yet). So we need to get from Siena to Florence train station for Italo. Better to do a train or bus? I'm thinking bus because we'll be familiar with it, but would a train get us where we need to be for the train to Venice? And again, reserve in advance?

4) Venice to Rome: have already purchased Italo train tickets. That will get us to Tiburtina. Then we need to get to FCO Hilton hotel to stay the night before departure. I think Trenitalia runs frequent trains to FCO, takes about 45 minutes. Should we just wait until we arrive back to Tiburtina to buy a ticket to FCO? Or is there another way to get to FCO we should consider?

Thanks in advance for sharing your knowledge!

Posted by
663 posts

  1. & 2. You might want to reconsider the bus if you are staying outside of Siena. The bus is the best option if you are staying in the center of town. AND if you are staying outside of town, you might find a car very useful. Btw... 5 nights might be kinda long for Siena, and I really love that town. 3 nights would be more than plenty. Instead of a day trip to Florence you might decide to stay 2 nights instead, there is a LOT to do in Florence. Bus from Siena to Florence is best, and I don't see any reason to purchase in advance. If you rent a car, be sure to ask where it can be dropped off near Florence that avoids the dreaded ZTLs!

  2. From Florence take the train, buy tickets from Firenze SMN (Santa Maria Novella) to Venezia Santa Lucia train stations. Advance purchase of tickets can save a lot of money on this route.

  3. The best way to get to FCO is it take the metro from tiburtina to termini, then take the Leonardo express. Or take a taxi. In the future you might consider flying open jaw or multi-city, so that you don't waste your precious vacation time getting back to your starting destination.

Posted by
28 posts

Thanks Angela.

We are staying in Siena as a home base, but won't be "in" Siena for 5 days. I didn't lay out all our plans. But it includes wine touring in Montalcino, touring in San Gim and Volterra, and a trip to Florence. We know there is more to see in Florence, but had to make tradeoffs and just decided that after being in Rome, we wanted to stay the middle part of our trip to be more small towns.

An open jaw ticket would have been nice, but it just didn't work for our airline plans.

Posted by
6898 posts

Lee, 1) looks correct. There is a large bus station across from the Rome-Tiburtina bus station. I believe that you can buy the tickets as you show up but I'm betting it would be wise to buy them at the bus station if you will be in Rome a day or so before departing to Siena. Note that if your B&B is a couple of miles from Siena, you can take either the train or bus and simply take a taxi to the B&B. My wife was recently in an Agriturismo just outside Siena and the taxi in and out was very convenient and not expensive.

I've read your second message. Will you have a rental car while in Siena? San Gimgnano, Volterra and Montalcino do not have train stations. There is bus service but it's not that frequent and most runs "hub" out of Siena. And, except for San Gimignano, these runs are not direct either. Worse yet, bus systems in Tuscany have really minimum schedules on Sundays. You might want to invest in a rental car. You will see a whole lot more.

2) The bus is just fine from Siena to Florence. The SITA bus station is about 1-1/2 blocks from the main Florence train station that you will use to get to Venice. Just one large street to cross to get to the train station. Take the SITA Corse Rapide bus. It's a direct non-stop bus. The SITA bus does have Sunday buses. Definitely buy the round-trip tickets. Just don't validate both as you board initially. Validate the second ticket as you board on your return.

3) Again, the bus is just fine to get to Florence for your trip to Venice. This was explained above. If you have a rental car and you end up near the train station, that's even a bit better.

4) Very easy to take the train from Roma-Tiburtina to Fiumicino Aeroporto. Trains run every 15 minutes up until 6:00pm and then about 2-3 an hour up until 22:50.

Are you a Hilton member or are you just staying at the airport Hilton. If yes, might you be staying at the Hilton Molino Stucky in Venice? I can help you there as well.

Posted by
28 posts

Larry - thanks for your response. Very helpful!

To your questions: No we do not have a car in Siena. However, we are doing a group wine tour on the day trip to Montalcino, and we have a a private driver for one day to explore San Gimignano and Volterra. So we're covered for transport.

Yes, I'm a Hilton member (way too many nights a year at Hilton hotels). We are staying at the airport Hilton the night before departure. But in Venice we are at Locanda Orseola. In Siena, Aia Mattonata, and at Villa Spalitta Trivelli in Rome. We wanted to get away from big, chain type hotels and stay in locally owned, smaller properties to get a different experience.

This topic has been automatically closed due to a period of inactivity.