I am wanting to see both cities and I have rented a car. I have been reading about the hassles of driving in Florence so I was wondering if anyone has stayed in Siena with a car and taken the train to Florence. If so do you have suggestions on where to stay in Sienna and which train to take into Florence.
Thanks
Wendy - Ride the SITA bus. Just google it - there is an express bus from Siena to Florence. Have fun.
as Jon says, take the bus. the train station in Siena is outside the old city, the bus drops you off just blocks from the piazza. No need for a car at all, why go through the expense and hassle of driving? Use your car to explore the smaller towns of Tuscany!
Wendy, Jon and Ellen's suggestions are right-on-the-money. Stay in Sienna and take the bus (not the train!) back and forth. Rick covers this quite well in his book (except he does not tell you exactly where to get to the busses.....we found good info in our Lonely Planet guidebook.)
Our friends recomended the Hotel Chiusarelli, and that is where we stayed. It is a RS recomended hotel. It is just a basic hotel that is close to everything, busses, the walk into the main part of Sienna. Nothing special, but it does the job. They also said that it had a few parking spots. Check out the reviews on tripadvisor.com.
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g187902-d231295-Reviews-Hotel_Chiusarelli-Siena_Tuscany.html
Also check out the Hotel Alex, very reasoanbly priced with fantastic reviews.
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g187902-d603927-Reviews-Hotel_Alex-Siena_Tuscany.html
Last May we also rented a car and decided to stay in Siena and day trip to Florence. Worked great. We had planned on taking the bus, but found that the drive from our fabulous Hotel Palazzo Ravizza to Florence was easy enough; so we parked at Piazzalle Michelangelo and walked into Florence (to avoid driving in the city and getting fined!). Perfect! As for the hotel, the reason this was our favorite was that the bidet overflowed in the first room and we were given the Suite #1 with a quiet garden view for the same rate. Magnificent. The other room had loud street noise. Great parking lot. Easy access. Wonderful location to walk to all the Siena highlights. Dinner one night on Ravizza patio was heavenly, and another night right down the block at Nonna Gina was great food and great fun!
