Update to day trips from Florence and Siena

Sharon, I used Roberto from Rick's book and he has been on his tv show several times. Google - Tours by Roberto. He has sevearl tours you can choose from and will pick you up in either Siena or Tuscany. They are small groups I think it's even 6 for the joinable tours. I paid the extra for a private tour and set our own itenary and it was amazing. We did a vineyard, montepluciano and a farmhouse, plus some great roaside stops for pictures. Roberto was a great guide. I would do another tour with Roberto anytime. You can indeed do Pisa and Lucca on your own and train to Florence afterwards. Some of the others like San Gimignano havea bus you can take from Siena or Florence, double check Rick's book for more information.

We just returned from Italy a few days ago and had a wonderful time touring on our own. We did a day tour out of Siena with Roberto (tours by Roberto) and had an awesome time. There were four of us and we were joined by two others. It was a real highlight of our whole trip.....and of all our many world travel experiences. I highly recommend it! (They were also spot on with hotel and restaurant recommendations in other places too).

One idea for efficient use of time is the Grayline 1-day tour of San Gimignano and Siena. The bus departs one block from the main train station in Florence. 52Euro last I looked. In Florence, Grayline operates as CAF Tours www.caftours.com Several bus lines have routes out of Siena to many of the other Tuscan cities and towns. Three problems. 1) They don't operate that frequently, 2)You generally must return to Siena to pick up a bus going to another location. This significantly reduces what you have time to see and, 3) On Sunday, these local bus lines almost disappear. Very limited service on Sundays. BTW, no high-speed trains between Pisa and Florence. Just the plain old Regionale trains. But, it's only about 1:15 between the two cities.

Assisi would be easy to do on your own by train, although I'd really encourage you to spend at least one night. It's a wonderful town and very different when it quiets down. For figuring out what I can do by train, I always use the Deutsche Bahn website. You can't buy the tickets there, but the user interface is friendlier than Trenitalia. (But when you enter the website, say you are from the UK or it will route you to RailEurope, which you don't want to use for information or buying, since it only has some routes and higher prices.) Rail connections from Florence are quite good, so you may have more options than you realize. And since you said you prefer small groups, you might want to check Context Florence. They typically limit groups to 6 and have amazing guides. I've only used their walking tours, but I know they also have excursions.

Thank you all. I have been considering using Context Travel out of Rome for Tivoli. It spends time in Tivoli itself and the Villa D'Este and then goes to Hadrian's Villa. I thought that was a trip that wouldn't be as easy to do by myself. It is a 7 hour trip and the group cost is 200 Euros plus entrance fees. I would like to do at least a day with Roberto from Siena. I am also looking at doing a couple of days with Tuscan Escapes from Siena. One of them is a 7 hour Chianti area, Castellini, Monterigionni/San Gimignano small tour that includes dinner at a winery, stopping in a few hill towns, and being in San Gimignano toward the end of the day - after the tourists have gone! It leaves at 2:30pm and returns at 9:30pm. Assisi is on mu Wish List - as is Vinci... Thanks again, Sharon Context Travel, Roberto, and Tuscan Escapes seem to have excellent reputations do small groups and allow for individuals to join a group.

Good planning! Rome is "another trip" as there is so much to do and see. You have lots of time to get to lesser-known sites: Palazzo Colonna, Tivoli as you mention, certainly Ostia Antica, the Appian Way, Galleria Doria Pamphilj.

In Firenze, don't miss the Medici Chapels and Palazzo Vecchio. Really beautiful!