I'll be traveling from Siena to the Cinque Terre in a few weeks without a car. Is it better to take the train from CT or is there a more direct bus route?

I was also planning a day trip to Florence during my stay in Siena. Any thoughts on whether it would be better to do this after checking out of my hotel in Siena -- then leaving my baggage at the Florence train station during the day and taking the train from Florence to CT that evening? (As opposed to returning to Siena and heading off from there to the CT.)

Thanks for any advice!

ttt

Hi Sea,

For your florence daytrip, good idea to leave Siena, drop your bags at the SMN station and then go on from there.

It might be easier for you to take the SITA bus rather than the train to Florence. The bus staton is about 3 blks from SMN.

I'd recommend doing a day trip to Florence from Siena without baggage - yes you can store luggage in Florence station but there are at times long lines to put it in - no lockers - and take it out - plus if havn't been to Florence a full day there will be much better. Yes like Ira says bus more convenient Siena-Florence because it leaves from near the top of the hill - Siena train station far below town in valley - from Siena by rail to CT:
Take train to Empoli, change to line to Pisa and La Spezia and usually have to change in La Spezia to local milk train that serves all five CT villages. Maybe SITA buses Siena-LaSpezia or CT but train service is very frequent. Should take at least three hours, however, with changes.

I don't know whether it was the fastest way from Siena to Monterosso, but we took the train. We had at least one train change, but we really enjoyed the trip.

We went through Pisa (got a glimpse of the Tower), and Carrara, where we saw the marble quarries up on the mountain. Along the railroad tracks were huge slabs of marble ready for shipment.

Byrd