trains/buses from Siena to Orvieto and Volterra

Jen,

The trip from Siena to Orvieto is very easy by train. I'd take a Taxi down to the station (which is at the bottom of the hill). Are you travelling to the other towns as "day trips" or will you be staying there and not returning to Siena?

Your options might depend on what time of day you want to travel? I found a train departing Siena at 12:16, arriving Orvieto at 14:07 (time 1H:51M, compulsory reservation, one change at Chiusi-Chianciano Terme).

Volterra will be a bit more challenging without a car, as the nearest rail station is at Saline di Volterra, and from there it's a 30-minute Bus ride (NO service on Sundays).

For travel by Bus/Coach, I believe there are four per day from Siena, but two different lines provide service to Volterra, so a "change" (and another ticket) is required. Hopefully one of our transportation experts here can provide some further information.

Good luck and happy travels!

Ken,

Thank you very much for you detailed reply! After reading what you said about the easy train from Siena to Orvieto I checked out trenitalia.com instead of bahn.de and found that you were right! It's an easy 2 hour train from Siena to Orvieto with a change in Chiusi.

Volterra is definitely trickier, still clocking in around 4 hours each way. Yes I am staying in Siena while day tripping out to the hill towns - alas Volterra might not work out this time around...

It's about 2 hours by bus between Siena and Volterra. You can view schedules by going to http://www.sitabus.it/sita-toscana/Firenze%20-%20Siena.pdf. You would need to take SITA's Siena-Firenze local bus to Colle Val d'Esla and then CPT's bus from there to Volterra. You may need 2 tickets as the trip is on 2 different bus lines. If so, there's a square metal news stand right by the bus stop in Colle Val d'Elsa where you can buy tickets for the 2nd leg of each trip. Also, note that Feriale (weekdays) are Mon-Sat.

Jen,
This may help you http://www.trainspa.it/2009/extraurbano.pdf

Just an addition, I just returned from Italy about a month ago. While there we did a lot of moving around, but were based in Florence for 14 days. We traveled from Florence to Volterra for the Bocelli concert in July and took the bus from Florence to Volterra. It was quite simple and a nice ride. We did change buses in Col de Val E and no problem. We returned to Florence on Sunday and the last bus leaves at a little after 5 in the evening. Also no problem. So it is possible to do this with little hassle.

Thanks everyone - you've been very helpful!

I'll be heading to Orvieto and Volterra as I'd hoped!