We will fly from the US to Rome in April, 2018. We do not want to rent a car and are hoping to travel by bus and train to Tuscan hill towns for several days. Then to Florence, CinqueTerre, and Venice. We are interested in staying in towns such as Montepulciano, Cetona, Siena and Orvieto and taking a bus or train to other hill towns. Is this possible? We will be in Italy 3 weeks.
Posted by
Novato, CA, United States
172 posts
We traveled by train and bus from Rome to Orvieto, to Assisi, to Siena, and Padua last year. It was fairly simple and inexpensive. The Rick Steves guide for Italy gave good suggestions such as take the bus instead of the train from Assisi to Siena, it's faster. You can do it. That said, for some small hill towns it's hard to get there by train or bus. Have a ball. Hank. Novato, CA
Posted by
Rick Steves' Europe
16893 posts
Orvieto and Siena are easy to reach by train and Siena or Florence will have bus service to other hill towns (as well as between those two cities). For bus schedules between Chiusi train station and either Cetona or Montepulciano, try www.sienamobilita.it. Neither town is likely to have many buses to other destinations and these schedules online are not always user friendly. www.tiemmespa.it may have some schedules toward Siena.