Florence to Siena Bus

We've taken the bus from Florence to Siena, not scenic. Mostly through small towns. I remember the ride to be about an hour or so. Bus is better than train to get to Siena because the bus will drop you off close to the old town center...the train station would require a taxi ride to get close to town. The slower bus takes longer, lots of stops and lots of on/off of people. I would take the fast bus for sure.

I think you'll find the regional buses across the street from the train station, to the right of McDonalds and around the corner and around the block. The bus is the way to go into Siena because it drops you into the center of the city. Take a train, and you'll go way out of your way, and it drops you out where you'll have to take public transport into the city. Either way, it's not especially a scenic trip. The beautiful scenery is found by rambling from city to city by rental car.

Robert, I haven't checked, but I would highly doubt that the Bus station in Florence would be closed on Sundays, as there would likely be lots of "locals" travelling on that day. I'm assuming you'll be in Florence for a few days before you'll need to take that trip, so in the same situation I'd pop by the Bus station to see if they'll be open and buy my tickets. As I recall, those have to be validated prior to boarding the Bus. The Corse Rapide Buses are a bit faster than the Corse Ordinarie, but not by much. The faster bus takes about 1H:15M and the others take about 1H:35M (not a huge difference). There will be fewer departures on Sunday, so you may need to adjust your travel times to accommodate those. Larger luggage items will have to be placed in the hold under the Bus, while smaller items can be kept with you in the Cabin. I found the scenery reasonably pleasant, but the more important consideration for me was simply getting to Siena. Happy travels!

Robert, This is from the bus website "BUSITALIA SITA Nord S.r.l. Firenze - Via S. Caterina da Siena (Autostazione SITA) Tel. 800 373760 ; orario: aperta nei giorni feriali, dal lunedì al sabato, dalle 5.50 alle 20.40. Chiusa il 1° gennaio, il giorno di Pasqua, il 1° maggio ed il 25 dicembre." Looks like it is closed on sunday. This is the schedule http://www.trainspa.it/train04/extraurbano.pdf
look at 1310 and 131. I didn't think either route was especially scenic.

I read the website slightly differently than Henry. What it says about the two locations in Siena is Siena - Sottopassaggio pedonale della Lizza Tel. 0577 204225; orario: aperta nei giorni feriali, dal lunedì al venerdì, dalle 6.30 alle 19.30 e il sabato ed i giorni festivi dalle 7.00 alle 19.30. Chiusa 1° Gennaio, 1° maggio e 25 Dicembre. Il giorno di pasqua ed il 26 dicembre orario festivo con interruzione dalle ore 13.00 alle ore 15.00 ed il 31 dicembre chiusura ore 19.00. Siena - Stazione FS Tel. 0577 204328;
orario: aperta nei giorni feriali, dal lunedì al venerdì dalle 7.15 alle 19.30. Il sabato dalle 7.15 alle 17.45. La domenica ed i giorni festivi dalle 8.30 alle 12.30 e dalle 14.30 alle 18.30 So it looks to me like they are open. The link, which is what you get with the request for extraurban timetables generates a line dramatically different than that requested for Florence - Siena.

The Sita bus station is open and operative on Sundays. What is closed is the sportello informazioni (info window)

Thanks Ken, Nigel and Roberto. I will stop by the bus station Friday or Saturday to get our tickets and confirm the schedule from the ticket window representative. I figured the station would be open but wasn't sure about the windows. Do the buses have kiosks like trenitalia does?

Nigel, I don't understand your post. Robert asked about the bus station in Florence and you quoted the bus station in Siena.
When you opened the link did you not find routes 1310 and 131 Florence to Siena?

The quote you gave for Florence led you to conclude that they were closed. The quotes from Siena are definitive about Sunday. A bus from Florence to Siena would have to go to both places. When you opened the link did you not find routes 1310 and 131 Florence to Siena? No