my husband and i will be taking the train from Venice to the Florence area for the last three days of our trip. trying to decide if i can fit all this in: Florence, Siena, and volterra. flight leaves out of pisa (but not interested in spending any time there) was thinking: explore Florence and stay there, day two e xplore Siena and stay there, and day three explore volterra, but go to pisa to sleep and be close to the airport. thoughts? wish i had more time, but not sure what if anything to cut out. we are mostly interested in scener, food, and authentic Italy.
Posted by
Elk Grove, CA, USA
6898 posts
Your plan leaves you with very brief visits but it will work. There is a CPT Bus 500 from Volterra to Pontedera where you either transfer to Bus 190 to Pisa or take the train from Pontedera to Pisa Centrale or Pisa Aeroporto wherever your hotel is located. I just hope this in not on a Sunday as the Bus 500 shows only one run for the day. Alternatively, you have the SITA bus from Volterra to Florence where you can take the train to Pisa. Or, there is the Bus 1999 from Volterra to Cecina where you can catch the train north to Pisa. Fewer runs per day on this routing.
Posted by
OP
Cincinnati, OH
23 posts
great, thanks! From reading the RS travel book, it seems like those three places are the highlights of that particular area and all great places to visit. Do you think I should cut out any? or try to squeeze them in? I know a lot of people do "day trips" to Siena and Volterra (seems like they are more towns to relax and experience the town itself and the people rather than do a bunch of site seeing), so i thought maybe they were do-able just having one day in each if necessary... If doing all three, is that the order you would go in, considering plane leaving from PISA?
Posted by
WPB, FL & Firenze
3112 posts
You could logistically accomplish Venice to Florence to Siena to Volterra to Pisa in 3 days, but the travel time cuts into your time to enjoy those 3 towns. Two towns would be more manageable. Personally I'd drop Volterra, as that involves 4 plus hours of travel on day 3 and I'm not sure whether there's baggage storage. If you do decide to include Volterra, last bus to Pontedera (connecting to Pisa) departs at 8:30pm Monday thru Saturday. There's only one bus at 1:45pm on Sundays and holidays, so it's not practical to visit in transit from Siena on a Sunday.
Posted by
OP
Cincinnati, OH
23 posts
hmm the baggage storage thing is a good thing to know, i will investigate that our plane leaves on a saturday, so no sunday travel...
Posted by
OP
Cincinnati, OH
23 posts
the RS book says from siena to voltera is 2 hrs by bus
Posted by
WPB, FL & Firenze
3112 posts
It's about 2 hours from Siena to Volterra and another 2 hours or so from Volterra to Pisa. Trip to Volterra requires a change of bus in Colle Val d'Elsa and trip to Pisa requires a change to either bus or train in Pontedera. Bus and train stations in Pontedera and Pisa are only a block apart, so pick the more convenient connection. You can check bus schedules at www.cpt.pisa.it, except for Siena to Colle Val d'Elsa leg which is on a different bus system.
Posted by
OP
Cincinnati, OH
23 posts
i couldnt find anywhere that said volterra had a place to store bags, so change of plans. i discovered that flights out of florence were the same price as out of pisa, so instead of trying to find transportation at 5 in the morning, we will end in florence, where we will fly out of. so revised schedule: Venice to Volterra (i realize we will have to stop over in florence and then take a bus) next day volterra to siena next day siena to florence
next day, fly home :( i think this sounds better. i know some of the volterra day will be cut into with all the trains etc but i think of the three, that is the city i could afford to not have an entire day