aussie_10

After spending a week with us in Montepulciano our son and his girlfriend will be moving on to Florence. Is a bus or train the best option? Should they book it ahead or wait until arriving in Montepulciano. Their day of departure will be a saturday in October.

DH and I (with car) will be heading off to San Gimignano but wasn't planning to arrive until the afternoon. Meandering on the way.

kybourbon

They can either bus all the way (involves changes) which takes over two hours or they can bus to Chiusi and train the rest of the way (no faster, but probably more time choice options).
http://www.busfox.com/timetable/

It would work better if you could drop them at the train station in either Siena or Poggibonsi on your way to San G.

Jean

Could you drive them to the Montepulciano train station? It's only 10 kms. from the town.

If not, there is bus service between Montepulciano (the town) and Montepulciano F.S. (the train station) and train service from Montepulicano F.S. to Florence.

http://www.trainspa.it/EXTRAURBANO.htm [scroll down to F_ST5]

http://www.ferroviedellostato.it/homepage_en.html

On the Trainspa website, you'll see there is bus service to other towns with train service (Chiusi, Sinalunga, Siena, etc.). Your son and his GF can do several searches comparing bus and train schedules and find a combo that will get them to Florence in about 3 hours.

gtravel1

Bus to Siena then again the Express bus Siena-Firenze.
Here is the schedule from Montalcino, change bus in Coroncina to Siena:

Soluzione 2: 12:25 -> 13:45 (80 min) 2 linee in coincidenza
Soluzione 3: 13:30 -> 14:48 (78 min) 2 linee in coincidenza
Soluzione 4: 14:45 -> 16:06 (81 min) 3 linee in coincidenza
Soluzione 5: 19:25 -> 20:53 (88 min) 2 linee in coincidenza

Siena-Firenze runs about every half hour.

GAC

1. LFI bus to Chiusi Scalo
2. Trenitalia regionale train to Firenze SMN

www.lfi.it

http://www.lfi.it/orari_linee_si_mob/F_T4.pdf

www.ferroviedellostato.it

aussie_10

Thank you for your replies and links, they are all very helpful. We will do some more research on the links suggested.
We are happy to drop them off somewhere convenient. We are just a little concerned with fitting in luggage. We have rented a compact car from Hertz. They say a VW golf or similar, not sure of its luggage capacity.

kybourbon

Half of the connections from the train station Montepulciano require changing in Chiusi so they are just adding an extra leg to their journey instead of doing directly to Chiusi to catch the train (unless they select a change elsewhere such as Siena).

gtravel's solution says Montalcino, not Montepulciano.

Jean

You might ask where you're staying in Montepulciano how much the taxi fare would be to Montepulciano Stazione. It's only about 10 kms. Depending on the type of lodging, they might even offer this service to guests.