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Driving in Tuscany: which road to take from Civita di Bagnoregio to Siena

Posted by on

Hi,

This July my wife, my toddler, and I will be driving from Civita di Bagnoregio to Siena and I am planning everything out. I was wondering if anyone has experience with the road options between Civita di Bagnoregio and Siena. The thought is we would avoid the autostrada (E35...) and stick to a smaller two lane road.
From google, it looks like our options are all between a 2.5 and 3 hours. They are:

SR2
SS71 and SR2
SP14 and SR2

We would considering stopping somewhere along the way if it doesn't take too long...

Does anyone have any ideas or thoughts? Yes we have been to Italy multiple times (I lived in Germany for 10 years, have guided Rick Steves around Munich). I'm just not familiar with the area (Tuscany, Umbria) and open to suggestions...

Thanks!

Posted by
27640 posts

You can take a look at what ViaMichelin suggests. I had to use "Bagnoregio" rather than "Civita di Bagnoregio" as a starting point, but it appears that the drive will take less time than you are anticipating.

Orvieto is a lovely hill town with a large historic area near the beginning of your route. It's worth a whole day, though, so you might prefer a smaller place. I haven't been to Montepulciano (farther along the way), but other people speak highly of it. I don't know how it compares to Orvieto in terms of time you'd need to see it.

Posted by
3 posts

You can take a look at what ViaMichelin suggests. I had to use "Bagnoregio" rather than "Civita di Bagnoregio" as a starting point,
but it appears that the drive will take less time than you are
anticipating. Orvieto is a lovely hill town with a large historic area
near the beginning of your route. It's worth a whole day, though, so
you might prefer a smaller place. I haven't been to Montepulciano
(farther along the way), but other people speak highly of it. I don't
know how it compares to Orvieto in terms of time you'd need to see it.

Hi, thanks for your reply,

I should have mentioned we were staying in Orvieto the night before and would have a full day there, plan to go to Civita di Bagnoregio bright and early, then head up to Siena. The link you mentioned shows the autostrada route, which is the fastest, but I'm not sure about scenic. Maybe it's best to be fast, I don't know...

Posted by
15868 posts

Civita > Orvieto > SS71 to Chiusi > SP146 to Montepulciano > SP88 to Monticchiello > SP 18 to Pienza > SP88 to San Quirico > SR 2 to Buonconvento (also slight detour on SP 14 to Montalcino between San Quirico and Buonconvento) > then Siena.

6 hours on the road (plus pit stops), but if you leave early you can see it all in a day. The driver will be exhausted at the end of the day, but very scenic.

Posted by
2181 posts

Again, Roberto for the win.

I've driven both the Autostrada (E35) and SR2. SR2 is as bad if not worse than E35. SR2 is like a US four lane state road where the speed limit is faster than a two lane, but not as fast as the interstate. The scenery is OK, but not like traveling through the countryside.

If possible, make it a day of exploring the back roads. You'll see some gorgeous scenery and travel at a more relaxed pace. One of our favorite days was driving from Greve to Chiusure to visit the Abbazia di Monte Oliveto Maggiore monastery. We had just a basic route in mind. Some lucky accidents got us off the main trail and down some very small roads. A combination of a good map and our Garmin with an Italy SD card would put us right whenever we wanted to return to the main road.

Posted by
27640 posts

If you want to do some additional exploring, you can look for the green roads on ViaMichelin.com. Those are the ones judged to be especially scenic.

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