Rome to Volterra

It is somewhat difficult to get to Volterra. They don't have a train station but there is one in a nearby town. In general, there are two ways to get there. 1) Take the high-speed train from Rome to Florence (1hr.40min), walk about 1,000 ft to the SITA bus station and then take the SITA bus to Volterra. You will change buses in Colle Val d'Elsa. All togther, it should take you about 4hrs to get there. 2) If you go via the Trenitalia train, they will most likely route you to Cecina on the west coast then transfer you to a bus into Volterra. Note that this bus does not make many runs during the day. There must be some kind of way to get there from Siena but I don't know the routing.

HI
I have been on this route(Florence to Volterra and back) several times as my grandfather is from Volterra. Frankly I would recommend renting a car. The bus information provided in the previous post while excellent reflects the fact that it will be a rather challenging adventure! Plus English speakers in the countryside are not that plentiful!
We rented a car in Florence and without much difficulty drove to Volterra and many other places in that area as well as over to Pisa in a relatively short amount of time. One tip however is to make sure you rent an automatic transmission(unless you are good at and love manual). My father (courtesy of my frugal mother) rented a manual transmission and managed to either burn out the motor or rented a lemon. They were stuck on the side of a rural road and had to hike to find a highway phone to call for help. (that is yet a whole other story!). Enjoy.

Thank you both for good advice. We will certainly consider our options! We are very much looking forward to our trip in Oct. and want to get all the details ironed out before we leave.

Bus to Volterra is not challenging. I went to and from Volterra by bus with no problem. Schedules of the 2 buses are timed to coordinate. At least a few of the younger people waiting for a bus in Colle Val d'Elsa will speak some english, or if they don't just ask "Volterra?" and they'll either say "Si" or point to the stop on the other side of the street. Note that going through Siena would take at least an hour and a half longer than going through Florence.

I just wanted to bump this up again and see if there are any other options/suggestions/advice on getting from Rome to Volterra, short of renting a car, which we don't wish to do.

Thanks!

There is another public transportation option. It will take a little longer than Larry's suggested route through Florence, but doesn't involve a change of bus. Take the train to Florence, then a regional train to Pontedera and then a bus to Volterra. The train and bus stations in Pontedera are about a block apart. You can find the bus schedule at http://www.cpt.pisa.it/orari/extra/linea500.htm.