Riding the train to Tuscan villages

I agree with the previous comment about bus travel to small Tuscan villages. We traveled Florence to Siena by bus. On the other hand, we took a day trip by train to Lucca and Pisa and that worked just fine. If you have any interest in either of those, admitedly larger towns, both can be seen in a single day by train from Florence.

If you are asking to access hill top towns via train, not possible. You should look into the bus system to get to smaller villages. You can get to the Cinque Terre via train though Genoa. If you want to see Volterra, San Gimignano, Pienza, etc. you will have to use the bus. Bus travel is not hard, it's similar to using the train, plus the bus station in Florence is just behind the main train station. You buy a ticket and validate it on the bus. Even Siena is best by bus. The train station is out of the centre and you would have to take a taxi to see the piazza and duomo in the "old" part of town. Via train you can access Lucca. The train station is just outside the old walls. Of course Pisa via train, with a 20 minute walk to the tower. The Cinque Terre is at least an overnight stay. It's pretty far to go for a "day" trip. The local train from Genoa seems to take forever to get to Monterrosso! To really enjoy the 5 villages, spent at least one night in one of them and hike a bit of the trail, or just take the train between and explore more than one town.

Sorry to disagree with Helen, but you can get to major hilltowns by train, then take a local (city) bus to the center of the town. This works well in Siena, Assisi, and many other places. The only time I had a problem was trying to get from the train station to the center of Trevi. I've been to at least a dozen other hilltowns in Umbria and Tuscany by train (or intercity bus).

In the Rick Steves' Italy tour book, he will give you specifics on how to get to some of the hilltowns/villages in Tuscany using public transportation. I like to use the DBahn site to research trains: http://bahn.hafas.de/bin/query.exe/en In Umbria, you can take the train to the hilltown of Orvieto. It will drop you off at the bottom of the town, then you take the funicular up to the hilltown. It's a great place to stop on the way to/from Rome, if that is on your itinerary.

If the funicular is not your thing, there's also a bus to take you to the center of Orvieto from the train station. The funicular (funivia) is a quick ride. If you do take it to the top, you can take a bus to the center of the city (there are two electric mini-buses with different routes but both go to the Duomo). The mini-bus stop is right outside the funivia exit.