I have been researching places to stay to visit Umbria for at least a week. I picked Perugia.
Some posters on this forum have indicated that busses were available to visit other cities in Umbria like Assisi, Spoleto, and more.
Looking for what others may have found for transportation from Perugia to other cities nearby.
Where do I pickup busses. Do busses work better than the train?
I used Perugia as a base for five days in Umbria, last year. It's a very short train ride to Assisi and Spello. The same train line (I believe) goes on to Spoleto. I find the train much easier than buses: more room to move around; signage is clear about which platform to go to in the stations; covered waiting areas - usually - and I can find all of the schedules on line. We stayed up in the old city "on top" in Perugia and took the "mini-metro" city train line down to the train station. It's actually about a 5 minute walk from the mini-metro station to the train station - a direct sidewalk connects the two. The mini-metro runs continually through the day and into the evening. The bus station is right beside the train station. Edit to say: In Assisi you will need to take a taxi from the train station up into the town, or take a shuttle bus. The bus from Perugia MAY take you up into the city. I'm not sure about that.
Like the previous poster said. But be aware that the minimetrò stops running at about 21:20. if you get back to Perugia after that, you'll have to take a cab or bus to the center. The main bus station is down the escalators from the center--go to the end of Corso Vannucci, cross the little park and take the escalators down. Buses are good for places like Gubbio that don't have train stations.
Have fun. Perugia's a terrific little city, and Umbria in general is great to hang out in.
When we stayed in Perugia the Tourist Information office was excellent in helping us set up day trips. We settled on Assisi, Spoleto and Gubbio. They also recommended train or bus for each. I won’t say because I really don’t remember but it was all very easy and very worthwhile. We also like the Hotel Ercolano in Perugia. Our room had a balcony looking out onto the distant hills, nice breakfast and was very convenient to the mini metro which was a godsend after our first foray up with the escalators. Perugia itself wasn’t the madhouse touring spot Rome or Florence would be for us...it was a nice place to come back to for several evenings and just knock around while finding dinner. There were lots of university students, many American, and it was fun chatting with them.
Denny's right. This is the sort of thing local tourist offices are usually extremely helpful with. They'll often be able to hand you a printed-out bus or train schedule. It's true that it's a lot easier to find reliable online train schedules than bus schedules. I never fully trust bus schedules until I've seen them posted at the bus station or asked at the ticket window (where English will probably not be spoken). Information from the tourist office is not quite as comforting to me as information posted in the bus station, but it is close.
For short day-trips I don't find much difference in the convenience of buses and trains. It's all about the departure time, how long the trip takes, and where the station is located at each end of the trip. A direct train will usually be faster than a bus, but sometimes the train isn't direct. Buses are usually cheaper.
One thing about buses in Italy is that you usually need to have a ticket in your hand before you get on the bus. For that reason I prefer to get on the bus at the bus station itself (if the town is large enough to have one, as I assume Perugia does). Otherwise, I assume I'll have to wander around, looking for a Tabacchi shop that sells bus tickets. I'm quite certain there are exceptions to that, but I'm unclear on the rules and where they apply.
An easy way to check on train service (existence and schedule) to any particular town is to use th Deutsche Bahn website. It won't give you fares on Italian trains, however. And you won't know without looking at Google Maps whether the train station at the destination is convenient to the historic area you probably want to see or is a mile or more away at the bottom of a very steep hill.
Many thanks from everyone that posted. You have been a big help. I hope purchasing rail tickets at the station will not take long. I remember huge lines in Barcelona a few years ago just to purchase tickets. The line would have taken me an hour, just to buy tickets.
We are excited about our trip to Umbria (also a few days in Rome), but we don't go until 2021. I like to plan ahead.
I haven't run into long ticket lines in Italy, but I have absolutely run into slow lines. I think folks have mentioned a Trenitalia app that allows you to buy tickets on your smartphone. I haven't used it, but it would be worth checking out.
We traveled by train for the first time this past fall and found both the Trenitalia and Trainline apps very easy and useful.
My Wife and I are not big cell phone fanatics. Our cellphones don't work outside the USA. We have a very inexpensive cell service and don't wish to upgrade.
We have found that we can use our phones overseas if we have wifi, like in our hotel. I suppose we could download the app and use it while in our hotel or B&B.
In that case I would look for ticket machines in the station. We found that in the bigger stations the machines close to the entrance usually had a line but by walking into the station a bit more we found machines with no lines.
Can I used my US visa card in a ticket machine? I thought that I couldn't.
We used our Capital One Visa several times without a problem.
