changemaven

We will likely have a week to tour Florence and Tuscany region. Researching a car with automatic transmission is about $600+ for 5 days. That seems outrageous. Since we want some days for hiking and cycling maybe a car is either necessary for 2-3 days or not at all.
What towns in Tuscany have good bus or train service to other hill towns?

greg

You can find out bus connections at www.busfox.com/timetable and the train connections at www.trenitalia.com. You will find that Lucca, Pisa, Florence, San Gimignano, and Siena are well connected while other towns are harder to get to. The bus schedules are set to be convenient for workers and students -- convenient for morning travel from small towns to big cities and afternoon travel the other way. What this means is that traveling from big cities to small towns in the morning is inconvenient.

dtph

I am going to Montalcino in the next 10 days and was also originally planning on staying there without a car. I then tried looking for an automatic and was finding prices of $600 for 3 nights. A poster on this forum really helped me out and found me a great deal for an automatic at kemwel.com and autoeurope.com. I booked automatic car at $409 U.S. for 3 days and then checked back a few days later and it dropped to $380 so auteurope gave me the lower price. i'm picking up and dropping off the car in siena b/c that location's open hours are better and they had a choice of a small automatic.

kybourbon

You might consider staying in Siena which has easy bus transport to Florence, San G., Montalcino and quite a few other towns. There are also quite a few bike/hike companies that run tours out of Siena (much easier/faster to get in and out of than Florence).
http://www.cicloposse.com/
http://www.tuscantrekking.com/

The tourism website will have other suggestions.
http://www.terresiena.it/index.php?lang=en

Siena Mobilita handles the bus connections for the area.
http://www.sienamobilita.it/EN/index.html

zeppole

How do you take the bus to Montalcino from Siena?

There is a bus that goes to Panzano in Chianti along a scenic route.

hobbitthefoodlover

what a great thread. wish I had known about it earlier. for the future

zoecat

zeppole,

There is a bus from Siena to Montalcino. It leaves from the Siena train station.

zeppole

I didn't know that! Thanks!

kybourbon

The bus to Montalcino (114A) from Siena departs at the train station (there are a couple of departures from Piazza Sale which is near Piazza Gramsci, but most are from the train station) with stops in Monteroni D'Arbia, Buonconvento,Torrenieri before reaching Montalcino. There are multiple connections per day. Bus 114A has workday (M-S) departures at 7:05 (arrives Montalcino 8:20), 10:50 (ar 12:00), 12:45 (ar 13:55), 13:46 (ar 14:55), 14:17 (ar 15:25), 20:20 (no Sat. ar 21:45), 21:20 (ar 22:25), 22:17 (ar 23:20). There is also a scholastic bus which you want to avoid and a few seasonal buses. On Sundays there are only about 5 departures. Returns (bus 114R)from Montalcino start very early (4:25) with most departures within 5 minutes of the arrival times from Siena above. There are late morning and mid-afternoon gaps in the return service. Last return from Montalcino is 20:30 on workdays and 19:30 on Sunday.

FYI - My Siena Mobilita schedule book may be out of date so schedules should be double checked upon arrival. Do not count on buying a ticket mid-afternoon at Siena train station Siena Mobilita/tourist office as they close for lunch a couple of hours and there is nowhere else to buy a ticket (other shops there do not sell them). You should also be able to purchase these tickets at the tourist office at Piazza Gramsci (it is underneath the piazza).

kraines

Personally, I would not stay in Tuscany without a car!

kybourbon

Here's the schedules (all 180 pages) for the Siena area. You need to know the legend keys which Siena Mobilita has not bothered to put in their PDF.

Crossed hammers = workdays (usually Mon-Sat)
Cross = Sunday or holidays
A circled = workdays except Sat
Scholastico - school bus run
estivo or invernale = summer/winter

http://www.trainspa.it/train04/extraurbano.pdf

Ann1

Just a suggestion to people renting a car. See if you can learn to drive a stick by renting one or having someone teach you. I think driving in Europe is so much more fun with a stick. In fact my husband and my daughter will not buy an automatic car for their cars at home. It's easier to rent in Europe.

zeppole

Thanks for all that copious information -- although some day I am tempted to start a thread asking people to post their most traumatic experiences in Italy. I think for you it has to be that school bus full of kids, for nytraveler it was traveling with a teen who was addicted to soda, for bobthenavigator it was driving the road Bellagio, and stududley the A12 in Italy.

I actually enjoy buses full of school kids.

Anyway, for people who DON'T WANT TO DRIVE IN TUSCANY for whatever reason, it does seem to me highly useful to know there is a bus from Siena to Montalcino! To me, Montalcino has many of the very best Tuscan views, if one is going to Tuscany for views. If you are going to Tuscany to enjoy driving, then of course you want a car to drive. But not everybody enjoys a driving vacation.

Does the bus from Siena to Montalcino travel a scenic road?

zeppole

Sorry -- I meant to put "kybourbon" at the top of my post. It was in response to kybourbon.

kybourbon

School buses aren't traumatic, but they aren't enjoyable either. People should understand if they plan to ride one that it will be noisy and there won't be any seats. So if you don't mind standing for an hour or two on a very loud bus, then hop on.

>>Does the bus from Siena to Montalcino travel a scenic road?<<

Are there any roads in southern Tuscany that aren't scenic?

zeppole

There are plenty of roads in Southern Tuscany that aren't scenic but any reasonable definition of the term! Surely you jest. Southern Tuscany is a fairly large place. It's not the tourist destinations.

And many people do enjoy bus rides with school children. I have. I know you are just speaking for yourself when it comes to never enjoying them, and many people will indeed want to know there aren't seats -- but that can happen on the buses tourists use too. I find Italian adults often just as noisy as the kids.

zoecat

There is also a bus from Siena to Monteplulciano that leaves from the train station. I think it runs only a couple of times a day (early morning, around 7:00, and afternoon). I don't know the route because is I just missed the morning bus so I had to take a train to Chiusi and then a bus from there to Montepulciano.

I recommend that anyone considering using the busses makes sure to double check the times. I found that even the posted schedules are not always correct. Be sure to double check by asking the person selling tickets.

kybourbon

Siena to Montepulciano is bus 112A with stops in Monteroni D'Arabia, Buonconvento, Torrenieri, San Quirico D'Orica, Pienza. I don't think there is an early bus as it's not listed in my book or online. There is also the LFI bus (139)on workdays at 2pm.
http://www.lfi.it/orari_linee_si_mob/139.pdf

Another option to get to Montepulciano early on workdays is to take the train from Siena to Buonconvento and switch to the bus to Montepulciano there. You can take early trains (at 6:00 and 6:30)which take 20-30 minutes (2.40€) and catch the early 112 bus that only operates between Buonconvento and either Montepulciano or Pienza (7am and 8am). That would take less time than going all the way to Chiusi to catch a bus. You can catch any of the later Siena/Montepulciano buses at Buonconvento also as they all make that stop.

cbgetaway2015

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