Transportion for Venice to Montepulciano

When are you going? Currently, I see a Frecciarosso departing Venice S. Lucia at 7:26, arriving Florence S. M. N. at 9:39, then regional train to Siena, then a regional train to Montepulciano, arriving at 13:18.

If you are looking past June 12, all of the regional train schedules might not be loaded into the system yet. Look at the same day of the week in the next week to see the current schedule. It is a good guess that the schedule will not change much, if at all after June 12.

Taking the Bernina Express from Bellagio should not be too difficult to figure out using the SBB journey planner.
www.sbb.ch/en
It will take a bit of tweaking to get the route you want. First, ferry to Varenna. Use Varenna-Esino as the start point. Luzern as the end point and put in via "Pontresina". If you are not married to the idea of the actual Bernina Express train, but use the regional trains that go the same route, you will have more flexibility. No seat reservation fee required and windows that open for better photographs.

Renee, you can absolutely get to Montepulciano well before 6:00 PM. You just can't get there on one "fast" train with no changes. This journey will take you a minimum of 5 hours, and involve a minimum of 2 train changes. Are you using the Trenitalia website? Using a random date of June 14, I'm seeing multiple options starting at 7:26 AM with 2 changes that can have you there from 1:18PM to 3:24 pm or later.

The one I'd personally choose - assuming it's running on your chosen date - would be the 10:26 Frecciarossa 9413 from Venezia S. Lucia, arriving at Montepulciano at 15:24: 4 hours and 58 minutes, 2 changes: one at Firenze S. M. Novella, and one at Chiusi-Chianciano Terme. This is the quickest rail option that I'm seeing.

https://www.trenitalia.com/en.html

I guess that you looked up the schedules either on trenitalia.com or on italotreno.it, the official sites of the two competing companies that run high speed trains.

On Trenitalia, did you pick an early time of departure from the drop-down menu next to the day of travel? Otherwise the site defaults to the time on your system.

Note that there no fast trains from Venice to Montepulciano, you'll have to transfer in Florence to a local train to Chiusi and then to another one to Montepulciano. Or take the only direct Intercity from Venezia Mestre station to Chiusi and save one transfer. Montepulciano is just a small village in the countryside.

OK, here is a long day of scenic trains from Varenna-Esino to Luzern, nearly 10 hours.
dep 8:35 Varenna-Esino to Tirano (Nord) arr 9:52
dep 10:06 Tirano (RhB) to St Moritz arr 12:35 This is the actual Bernina Express train. Reservation mandatory.
dep 13:02 St Moritz to Chur arr 15:04 This is the Albula rail line as used by the Glacier Express.
dep 15:16 Chur to Pfaeffikon arr 16:17
dep 17:03 Pfaeffikon to Luzern arr 18:21 This is the Voralpen Express.

Wow, thanks for all the helpful replies. We are leaving Venice Sept. 19th. So the fall. I've done plenty of planning, but for cruises. This land one with no car is a bit of a challenge now that I have all our rooms reserved...it's on to the transportation aspects. I'm very excited to be staying in Montepulciano, changed from Siena due to the town being smaller and closer to other areas we would like to explore. They do have an e-bike tour with stops at wineries we are interested in. I have an e-bike, love it. They apparently have some dirt back road with little cars on it.... We will be flying into Venice- Montepulciano-Cinque Terre, Bellagio-Lucerne-Grinewald then fly out of Zurich.

Thanks Sam, I'm not so sure about the 10 hours on a train...have you done that route before? We have been on a bus for 7 hours in Africa following a 2 week medical mission trip a few times...but we slept most of the way as I tried to take in the views of the beautiful scenery heading to Victoria Falls. I am interested in the views, and consider it an excursion in itself...but wonder on the comfort of the trains. Also, I'm concerned that going on the local train that stops..I'll get off and wonder my day away. ;). I know the one with stops has one stop they say is breathtaking and worth getting off to take a closer look, but forget the name of the town. These countries are so beautiful..so hard to choose. Looking forward to retirement in a few years so the choices will be endless.

The train combo I'd recommended, along with a significant amount of other options, isn't showing up yet for Sept 19 but I'm sure it will; It's probably just a little too early for a filled-out schedule yet so just keep an eye on it, OK?

All the trains have stops. Don't be fooled by the word "Express" in the name. It still makes stops to let some passengers get off and new passengers get on. And a train is not a bus. You can get up, walk around, go to the bathroom whenever you want. Many have dining/snack cars you can visit.

There are quicker ways to get from Bellagio to Luzern, though not as scenic. Take a bus or fast ferry to Como, taxi to Como S Giovanni station. Train to Arth-Goldau using the Gotthard Base Tunnel, longest land tunnel in the world, completely under those gorgeous Alps, then a short train ride to Luzern. That route gets you from Como to Luzern in about 2 hours and 18 minutes.

There is also a more scenic route that takes about 2 hours longer that goes mostly over the mountains. Train from Como to Cadenazzo, then change to a train directly to Luzern.

I hope someone will chime in to confirm this but I believe the quickest way to Lucerne is to ferry to Menaggio and take the C12 bus from Menaggio to Lugano (1 hour). Train to Lucerne (1:40). That’s what I’m planning to do in September.

Yes Espo, we were planning on that shorter route…but then I’ve read how beautiful the Bernina express is..and was thinking it would be worth the time.

On the trenitalia website choose VENEZIA SANTA LUCIA as the departing station and CHIUSI-CHIANCIANO as the arrival station. Do not bother to take the train from Chiusi to Montepulciano. The Montepulciano station is small, on a secondary railway and has few services to the actual town fo Montepulciano. Rather you should get off the train at CHIUSI-CHIANCIANO and take one of the frequent buses to Montepulciano. Better yet, you could rent a car in Chiusi, since there are a couple of rental agencies in town (Europcar, Avis-Budget, but no longer Hertz, which closed this location during the pandemic). I frankly think that visiting the Val D’Orcia without a car is too challenging given the very limited bus service.