Bus to Volterra on a Sunday?

Volterra is a pretty neat place, all right, but it's time-consuming to get there on public transportation (we did it recently). From Orvieto, you'd need to do train to the Siena area and then bus. And you'd first have to check carefully about Sunday schedules. If I were you, I'd choose a more accessible hill town such as Montepulciano or Pienza (though, even then, you'll have to check Sunday schedules). I don't think I'd call Lucca a "hill town," though I love it. Another possibility is Arezzo, much less touristed than Orvieto or Lucca, though it's larger than Volterra, Montepulciano and Pienza. Arezzo has excellent transportation connections, and you could visit smaller towns (Anghiari or Sansepolcro) from there by bus if you had time.

EDIT to add: Have you been/are you going to spend time in Florence? If not, that would certainly be a worthwhile option.

Volterra is hard to get to without a car, there are busses during the week but limited access to most places.

If you want to use trains and more frequent buses plus tours into Tuscany, Siena would be about midway between your locations.

Voltera is wonderful. Not alot to do there other than wandering the medieval streets, eating at several really great restaurants, going to the alabaster workshops and watching the sun go down high above the Tuscan countryside. It's pretty casual there. We loved it, but it is pretty far off the beaten path. I think it's worth it. You can also catch a shuttle bus to San Gimignano and daytrip there, which is also very cool, but more touristy.

Volterra for me comes in second to only Orvieto as my favorite Tuscan hilltown.

BTW...we stayed at an apartment that we found on Tripadvisor, called Camere Renzi. It was very nice with a terrace.

Emily, it appears you have 4 nights between Orvieto. Would you consider splitting that in 2 seperate locations?

Consider this...

Day 1. Train: Orvieto-Montepulciano station 58min-1 1/2 hrs. Then a 10-15 minute bus ride into town.

2 nights Montepulciano

Day 2. From Montepulciano you can visit
Pienza, bus 16 min. Then Montalcino. 1:09 min. By 2 busses.

Day 3. Bus and train to Siena bus 31 min. Train 51 min.

2 nights Siena.

From Siena you can visit these towns by bus.
Castellina in Chianti, (35 min) Montereggion, (22 min)i and Radda in Chianti. (55min).

From here train to Lucca. 2:37 min.

Hope this shows you some options.

Just to demonstrate the difficulty of getting from Orvieto to Volterra on a Sunday, here's what I think would be the best public transit option: Train from Orvieto at 14:21 arriving in Pontedera at 18:13 (changes in Chiusi and Florence SMN) and then bus #500 from Pontedera at 19:30 arriving in Volterra at 20:52. That's a 6.5 hour trip taking up much of your afternoon and evening, and that's the only Sunday bus on that route. If you waited until Monday morning the trip would take 5.25-6.0 hours, but at least you could arrive at a much earlier hour.

If you were to instead decide to go to Montepulciano on a Sunday, it would be better to take the train to Chiusi and then a bus to Montepulciano.

Thanks for catching that Frank. He's right, Sunday take the train to Chiusi then the bus to Montepulciano.

Wow!
Ask and you shall receive.
Thank you everyone for your generous and helpful information.
I think it makes sense to head to Siena or Montepulciano (thanks gerri) and skip the "slow boat" route to Volterra.
Maybe next time if we have a car.
Thanks Frank for your help with the train/bus schedule.
So, if I were to be looking these things up myself what website would I be going to?
You guys all seem so adept at this!
Again, I really appreciate everyone's ideas and generousity.
Gracie,
Emily

Train: www.trenitalia.com and Bus: www.trainspa.it. When I went between Montepulciano and Chiusi train station on a Sunday a few years ago, there more frequent buses than I could find on schedules. Not sure whether that's still the case, so ask your lodging host.

Btw, Meuble il Riccio hotel in Montepulciano is really nice. Breakfast isn't included, but it's especially good and well worth the extra few euro.

Italians will love you if you can correctly pronounce Grazie - go online and listen!

thanks Janet............I just noticed my typo........ooops!