We are booked for May 2023 to stay in both cities and don't want to drag our luggage far on streets, especially cobblestones.
I see that Perugia has a Minimetro from the train station to the city center, but our hotel is still a 7 minute walk or perhaps 300-400 meters away. Doubt if taxis are readily available.
Also, Orvieto recommendations would be appreciated.
We did a day trip to Perugia from Spello where we were staying for two weeks. The parking garage was about half way up the hill and then we took elevators the rest of the way up. When leaving, we had to walk all the way down to garage. If there were other options, we never found them. We found it difficult to deal with access to Perugia and were glad we weren’t staying there. It was packed with students which gave it a nice energy though. Sorry to be a downer but I recommend staying in a smaller town.
Last fall we flew into Rome, took the train to Orvieto, and from the train station took the bus to Piazza della Repubblica. It seemed like the bus sort of met the train, so don't dilly-dally in the station except to buy bus tickets. I don't remember cobblestones being a problem, at least, they were not the really rough or bumpy ones there are in some towns.
After four nights in Orvieto we took the train to Perugia. We thought we knew we had to change trains "in Cortona" and so we actually missed the correct station to change because the station is signed as Terontola or at one point Terontola-Cortona. We assumed there'd be another station marked just plain "Cortona," but nope. Had to backtrack.
From the Perugia train station, it's a very brief walk to the mini-metro station on a direct and obvious sidewalk. Lots of people will be walking that way. Our American credit card worked fine in the machines here and everywhere else. The streets were pretty smooth in Perugia in the center of town. My suitcase does have large wheels and only two wheels, so I may not notice the bumps as much as people with 4-wheeled spinners.
Geovagriffith,
If you’re still looking for a hotel in Orvieto, consider Hotel Virgilio, a comfortable place to stay, with friendly and helpful staff and conveniently located on Piazza del Duomo.
Here’s my trip report on Orvieto where you’ll find information about how to get up to the city from the train station.
Enjoy your trip!
For Perugia, I stayed at a modern hotel, Locanda della Posta Boutique Hotel. I slept very well there, and they were very conscientious about Covid cleanliness at their wonderful breakfast, timed for lots of space between diners. Perugia’s mini metro - the auto-boxes similar to a funicular on the ground were so handy to get from the train station up into the historic city! This hotel was easy to walk to from the last mini metro station.
That’s what I wrote in my June trip report. The sidewalk from the train station to the mini metro was flat and smooth. There’s elevators at the mini metro station. The hotel I chose was very easy to reach - through one street up to the Main Street where the hotel is located.
I don’t remember if there were taxis at the train station because I had already planned to just hop on the mini metro.
The stones in Perugia are more flat rectangular pieces than the true round cobblestones.
Orvieto
We took the funicular up then the bus to Duomo plaza
Walk was easy from there
We waited outside train station at taxi stand but none came, waited maybe 10 min
Priscilla
The Hotel Virgilio has been closed/out of business since pandemic-unfortunately
We drove to the door of the Hotel Duomo Orvieta in April without violating the ZTL. Precise instructions were provided by the hotel. I should think a cab could provide the same service from the train station?
My recollection is taxis are allowed to travel in the ZTL zones.
We took a taxi from our hotel back to train station, no problem
Just didn’t feel like waiting around for one on arrival
Thanks for the advice. We already have hotels in both cities. The Hotel Fortuna in Perugia and Casa Vera in Orvieto.
The funicular in Orvieto will help as well as the Minimetro in Perugia.
My experience in Perugia is that taxis are generally available upon exiting the train station, unless you happen to arrive at the same time as a mob of other tourists and they get to the taxis before you do. As others have mentioned, the minimetro is another option. A further option is to catch a city bus (which stops right outside the train station) and take that up to the center of town, but it may not drop you off real close to your hotel - you would have to do something like Google map to determine how close it would get you to your hotel. Peter
We had no problem getting a taxi from the train station to our hotel on the top of hill in Perugia (with a dog). After that we took the bus to the train station.
Great place to visit.
