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Noob seeks help with Italian Bus Timetables

I've found the trenitalia site quite easy to use, but attempting to figure out bus timetable has thrown me for a loop!

I am trying to determine bus service/times from Chiusi to Montepulciano on Sunday 10th of May, then a bus from Montepulciano back to Chiusi on Wednesday 13th of May.

I tried using the site referenced in Rick Steve's excellent Italy book: http://www.sienamobilita.it/

Their english language option doesn't quite seem to work, throws an error in my browser, but that's fine, because the other site, mentioned www.lfi.it, seems to lead to the same timetables at http://www.tiemmespa.it/

From there I clicked on Orari Servizi then Orari linee LFI in Siena Mobilità Scarl then MONTEPULCIANO - S. ALBINO - CHIANCIANO - CHIUSI which sounds exactly like what I want, which pulls up this PDF http://www.lfi.it/orari_linee_si_mob/F_T4.pdf . Here I'm at a bit of a loss. It seems the A trains run from Montepulciano to Chiusi, and the R buses run from Chiusi to Montepulciano. I assume I want to go from the Chiusi train station - Chiusi Stazione (we will be arriving by train from florence) to the Montepulciano bus station - Montepulciano autostazione. I don't want to end up at the montepulciano train station.

I don't know how to tell if a particular line runs on Sundays. It seems like 906404 would depart Chisusi train station at 11:25 am and arrive at Montepulciano at 12:15 am which would be perfect!, but I have heard many buses do not run on Sundays at all and I can't tell from the tables what days the particular routes are available.

Returning from Montepulciano to Chiusi, it seems there are buses at 6:55 and 8:35?

I assume the 'si effetua final 15/10' means the last time that bus runs is on Oct 15th?

Posted by
9 posts

Ah, thanks for that link.

So Feriale is weekday and Festivo is Sunday. I take it schedules (such as for the F_T5) that only have feriale entries simply don't run on Sundays at all?

Looking at the schedule you posted, it seems the only buses from Chiusi that run to montepulciano on Sunday are at 10:30 and 4:30.

Posted by
5211 posts

Jon,
It looks like you did a good job figuring it out.

Thanks to Sam you now have the Sunday schedule. I'd double check the Sunday schedule when you arrive to Italy.

As you can see the buses don't run as frequently on Sundays.

Feriale = weekday & it includes Saturday unless specified. Sometimes you may see 'F5' which means Monday- Friday & 'F6' which means Monday- Saturday

The bus schedules you're referring to on your post (Feriale) have the following codes:

  • V1) Si effettua dal 16/10 = effective from October 16
  • V2) Si effettua fino al 15/10 = effective till October 15
  • V3) Si effettua fino al 15/10: Escluso SAB = effective till Oct. 15: excluding Saturdays

The 'Festivo' schedule (Sundays & Holidays) is effective till Sept.28

Have a great trip!

Posted by
9 posts

Thanks for the help everyone. Here is a related question about getting from Castelrotto to the nearest train station (Bolzano, I guess?) on Sunday May 24th

I'm not entirely sure what bus stops I want to pick. I went to this site : http://www.sii.bz.it/en/siitimetablesquery

and put in Castelrotto, Busbahnhof as the departure and Bolzano, Bahnhof as the arrival ( I want the bus station closest to the train station in bolzano, and the bus station in the main square in castelrotto).

According to the schedule, buses leave every hour Sunday morning from castelrotto to bolzano, which seems too good to be true, so I am wondering if I am missing something.

Posted by
5211 posts

Jon,

I want the bus station closest to the train station in bolzano, and the bus station in the main square in castelrotto.

I have not traveled to these destinations but I've done a bit of research in the past.

I used this website:http://www.sad.it/it

I chose 'Castelrotto, Autostazione' as the departure & 'Bolzano, Stazione' for the arrival & it appears to show the same schedule you found on your website with buses leaving every hour & the travel time is 48 minutes: http://www.sad.it/it/siitimetablesquery

The above website is in Italian but it's fairly easy to figure out.

Once you get to the bus schedule, you can click on the small black square with a white '+' sign icon & you will get more information such as the bus # ( Line 170) & next to the destinations you can click on the upsidedown black teardrop shaped icon with 'pdf' written sideways & this will take you to a map which shows the bus stops.

Hope this helps!