Am having some difficulty planning a trip from Florence - Volterra - Cinq Terre - Milan or Bellagio. I realize some of this will require busses, but would like some clues as to using the Italian bus schedules on Italian! Thanks!
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
32701 posts
That can all be done by train if you'd like to do that. Firenze- Volterra Saline-Pomarance in just over 3 hours and 2 stops or 20 minutes longer with just one stop. Volterra Saline-Pomarance to La Spezia (you don't name a village) in similar times with 2 or 1 changes. La Spezia to Milano again 3 hours and a couple of minutes or longer depending on time of day. Don't know anything about buses.
Posted by
OP
Sacramento, CA, USA
4 posts
Thanks, Nigel. I'll look into your suggestions.
Posted by
Vernon, Canada
32198 posts
Skip, As Nigel indicated, you should be able to do all those trips by rail. Are you planning to visit each place you've listed as a day tour from Florence, or stay for a few days in each place? The easiest route from Milan to Bellagio is to travel by train to Varenna, walk down the hill and then take the 20 minute Ferry ride to Bellagio. You could of course also stay in Varenna. If planning to stay in the Cinque Terre, which of the five towns are you considering? Good luck with your planning!
Posted by
OP
Sacramento, CA, USA
4 posts
Ken, Thanks for the additional info. I noted in Rick's travel guide for Florence and Tuscany that there is bus service from Florence to Volterra (2 hrs) which seems faster than trains. I was wanting to get a schedule of the bus but am hampered due to the website being in Italian. So am planning a day trip to Volterra with return to Florence. Am resigned to discover the schedule upon arrival in Florence. Then plan to travel via rail to Vernazza then to Milan to do the very thing you suggested - day trip to Varenna with ferry to Bellagio. We then plan to go Milan to Venice then on to Slovenia and Croatia. Thanks again for your help!
Posted by
Toledo, Ohio, US
11613 posts
Skip, not sure what website you looked at, but most transportation sites have a series of little flags at the top of the page - pick the British one for information in English.
Posted by
New York, NY, USA
11294 posts
If Zoe's trick doesn't work to get a web page in English, here's another one: Open a new window or frame in your browser, and go to translate.google.com (sorry, can't get it to hotlink). Then paste in the URL of the foreign language page. The translation is far from perfect, but it will usually get the job done. Google Translate is supposed to auto-detect the language, but I find it works better if I specify them on top (in this case, Italian into English).