Our itinerary:
Land in Rome and spend 5 days there. We have spent a week in Rome previously, so we don't have to go like crazy people trying to get everything in. One of those days we wiil be going to Ostia Antica because I don't want to take the extra time to get to Pompeii on this trip.
On the 6th day we take the fast train to Florence early in the morning and spend the day there. We've been to Florence before, so we are seeing things we hadn't gotten to before.
Later that afternoon we take the bus from Florence to Siena where our home base will be for a week. We will see Siena for at least two days and then rent a car for 4 days so we can see different little towns and villages in Tuscany. I have SO many little towns/villages on our list and the more I research each of them, the more I want to see them all. Obviously, that's not going to happen. WHICH TOWNS/VILLAGES ARE YOUR MUST SEES? Return the car late afternoon on our last day in Siena……. OR…..drive the car to Florence and drop it off there. We were thinking of the latter, but from what I read it seems to be tricky driving into Florence and then having to find the car rental place might be even trickier.
If we drop the car off in Siena, our last day in Italy we take the bus from Siena to Florence early in the morning and spend the rest of the morning and most of the afternoon in Florence. Late afternoon we take the fast train back to Rome and spend our last night in Rome. Fly back home the next day.
Now, I have spent a LOT of time trying to hunt down the website for SITA bus, but every forum I go to that includes a link, I cannot, for the life of me find where I find the schedule (Firenze-Siena-Firenze). I found a few of them that people posted, but they're all at least a year old or older.
Any suggestions or advice are greatly appreciated.