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Day trips to Orvieto and Assisi from Rome

Posted by (Birmingham, Alabama, USA) on

I would like some help sorting out buses/trains for day trips to Orvieto and Assisi.

I have heard here that there are regular trains to those cities -- and I read on another travel site that there are 16 trains departing Termini for Orvieto daily every two hours -- but when I went to the Tren Italia web site, there were only two trains each day from Rome, and the earliest one left at something like 1 in the afternoon.

If it is true that there is only an afternoon and an evening train to Orvieto and to Assisi now, then we figured we would need to take a bus to get there in the morning, and then we could take the evening train back to Rome.

I know that there is no national bus service. It seems that the Sulga bus will work to Assisi from Rome. But I am not sure which line to take to Orvieto.

Finally, is it safe to just wait until we get there to buy the various bus and train tickets -- rather than getting them online? We could buy them probably three or four days in advance if we wait until we get there.

Many thanks.

Posted by
290 posts

Thanks to those who sent private replies. One more question: is L'Aquila a viable day trip option from Rome? Is it worth visiting?

Posted by
152 posts

Hey Bryan. Try the web search on trenitalia again. Trains leave frequently for Orvieto starting very early. I pulled up 5 trains in the am alone, and at least as many in the afternoon. Trains to Orvieto leave from both downtown train stations. termini and Tiburina. Reservations are possible on some of these trains (not all) but unless you're traveling on a holiday not necessary. when you search for trains be sure you check the time of departure (it defaults to the current time in Italy, so if it is after 12:00 in Italy you won't see any morning trains etc.)

Posted by
290 posts

Tim,

I put in "Roma" and "Orvieto", 19-06-2008, starting at 06:00, and the results I got only listed two trains, beginning at about 1pm. In any case, someone sent me a private message to the effect that many of the Florence trains stop in Orvieto and there are trains going all day long. So I think we will be able to plan the train in both directions for Orvieto.

(There are the search results I got: http://orario.trenitalia.com/b2c/TimeTable?stazin=roma&stazout=orvieto&datag=19&datam=06&dataa=2008&timsh=06&timsm=00&lang=it&nreq=5&channel=tcom&x=27&y=12 )

Posted by
4555 posts

Bryan....I think Trenitalia has a new raft of schedules coming out as of 15 June. That means it's only possible to find some of the longer distance and overnight trains after that date. They should have the new schedules on line shortly. But I double they will be much different from the current ones. To get an idea of the services available, enter the 12th of June....a week before your actual travel date....and you'll get a whole whack of trains to Orvieto listed. Many of them are regional trains, which don't accept reservations or pre-purchase over the internet anyway. It's only about an hour-long journey, so you should be OK picking up tickets when you first arrive in Rome.

Posted by
24 posts

I have taken the train to both Orvieto and Assisi from the Termini train station. I went the day before and checked the schedule. I purchased the tickets the morning I traveled. I went at approximately 7-8 A.M. and returned about 4 or 5 P.M.--wonderful trips, both of them.
Elaine

Posted by
290 posts

Thanks Norm, that solves all problems. We can now revert to our original plan, a three day, two night excursion, Rome-Orvieto-Florence on the first day (staying the day in Orvieto), Florence the second day, then Florence-Assisi-Rome on the third day, spending the day in Assisi.

We had thought that there were only afernoon trains to Orvieto and Assisi, not realizing that the schedule on the site for June 19 was abbreviated. So we thought we might have to leave out Florence altogether and just do day trips to Orvieto and Assisi.

To those who might be wary of the itinerary, we know it is going to be all too brief (at least for Florence) and somewhat hectic... but we want to get out of Rome for three days and get a taste of those cities anyhow.

Many thanks to all (as usual!!).

(Incidentally, I asked about L'Aquila, which looks like a charming city, but it's a non-issue now. I'll save L'Aquila for another trip to Italy.)

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