We're staying in Florence for a week the first of June and want to do daytrips to San Gimigano, Siena, and Lucca. We will not have a car. I have traveled by train to Pisa, Rome, Venice, etc but a lot of my tour books suggest it's easier to go to Sienna and SG by bus. Has anybody had experience with bus vs. train to those cities. Is there a web site for the buses??? Thanks !

It's much easier to take the bus from Florence to Siena. The bus station is near the train station in Florence so leaving is about the same, but the bus station in Siena is within walking distance of the center and the train station is not. From the Siena train station you have to take a city bus or taxi (if you can find one) into town. Don't know about a website, but there were frequent buses going between the 2 when we were there.

We took SITA buses as recommended by Rick Steves and they were good. <BR><BR>SITA probably has a website somewhere... ???

Take the bus...it's much easier than the train. As stated earlier, the bus station is in the center of Siena. The Siena train station is quite a distance away. <BR><BR>I took the 9:10AM bus from Florence to Siena. Apparently, SITA knew that lots of people like to travel at this time because there were two buses ready to depart at 9:10. The rapido bus gets there in about 75 minutes. The other bus takes an addition 30 minutes. They leave at different times. If time is important to you, make sure to catch the rapido bus. Right now, the fare is 6.50 Euros each way.<BR><BR>The bus station in Florence is adjacent to the train station. If you're coming from the Duomo towards the train station, the bus station will be on the left side.

You can see a basic bus schedule on line at www.turismoverde.com. Go to transports. The site is for Siena. There are a number of buses listed for Florence-Siena and for Siena-San Gimignano, but nothing for Siena-Lucca. We've been told by people who stayed in Siena that bus travel to Florence is much easier (and quicker) than train travel.<BR><BR>The SITA website is www.sita-on-line.it. Don't know if that will help you.<BR><BR>