Florence/Siena, Stay in Florence or both?
 

We will be in Italy the beginning of Oct for 18 days and roughly our itinerary is as follows:

Rome - 4 nights
Siena - 4 nights
Florence - 3 nights
Cinque Terre - 4 nights
Venice - 3 nights

We will not be renting a car but will be using buses and trains as our means of transportation. Our original plan was to use Siena as a base to visit some of the towns such as San Gimignano, Cortona, etc. and then from Florence possibly Pisa or Lucca. Now I am beginning to wonder if it would just be better to go to Florence and use that as our base for exploring.

Would it be easier to get in and out of Florence to these smaller towns or should we stick with our original plan. Or perhaps the experts on this forum have another suggestion!

Thanks!

Florence probably is a more convenient base than Siena without a car, though personally I enjoyed Siena (did as a day trip from Florence) as a town more than I enjoyed Florence (where I spent three nights). The train station in Sienna isn't right in the center of town like it is in Florence, though buses get to/from the center of Siena more easily.

you may be better off using a bus to some of those other smaller towns, too. Siena is obviously smaller and does not have the rail connections Florence does.

It depends on what you want to see in Florence and how much time that will take. If you're not much interested in art or museums and don't mind your exploring being constrained by bus schedules, then Siena may be the better base. For me, 3 nights in Florence wouldn't be enough time to see Florence.

Cortona, Assisi, Perugia have good train service from Florence and great bus service to Siena and San Gimi - and good train to Pisa - you could do all those from Siena but check bus schedules - buses tend to be dirt cheap and frequent - I have taken buses to many hill towns.

I would give Florence 4 nights and the Cinque Terre 3 nights.

I enjoyed spending nights in both Siena and Florence... after the daytrippers left. So much more enjoyable and you can get into the best restaurants. Then you are there in the morning before the daytrippers arrive again!

Thanks everyone! Based on your replies I think we were on the right track and will probably do 3 nights Siena, 4 nights in Florence and 4 in Cinque Terre.

I would take a night (or two) off CT.

Montalcino is an easy day trip by bus from Siena.

I too would take a night or two off the CT, but some people love relaxing there, and you could easily take trains to Rapallo, Santa Margherita Ligure, then a bus to Portofino. If the weather is good, you can also day trip by boat from the CT to Portovenere, or if not by boat, by train to La Spezia and then bus to Portovenere. My point is that there are day trips you can take from the CT if you do decide to spend more time there.

What are your interests? It's hard to tell someone how long to spend in a place if you don't know what they like to do.

Can you reverse it and fly into Venice and home from Rome. I only mention it because other Americans on these threads have commented that flights out of Venice to the US depart VERY early in the morning ie 5am.

Apart from that I don't know, you are visiting several of my favourite places in Italy.

We are going with another couple and they want to do lots of hiking in the CT, so DH and I will use that time to just relax and possibly take some of the side trips as suggested by Tuscanlifeedit. We have a pretty wide range of interests and I am travelling with three persons who have masters degrees in History so Art and museums, etc will be a big part of the trip as well as exploring towns and enjoying the culture of Italy.

Cathies we are Canadians and we got very good prices and flight times with Air Canada Rouge service, but thanks for bringing that up for any Americans who may be making plans. Nice to hear we are visiting others favorite places. This trip has been a dream of mine and it is exciting to finally be planning it.

Thanks all!!

I would put your trip in a different order. If you are flying into Rome, I would put Siena second on the list. It's easier to get to CT from Florence than from Siena.

With art and history the focus, I would drop two days in CT and add at least one of them to Rome. You will be jet-lagged arrival day so the first day tends to be a blur. You need to plan your trip in nights in a location and factor in the travel between places to see if you are actually leaving enough sightseeing time in each location (check for closing days of museums, etc.).

Day 1 - depart Canada
Day 2 - arrive Rome (time?) - you might not be able to check in your hotel early, but some will store your luggage
Day 3 - Rome
Day 4 - Rome
Day 5 - Rome
Day 6 - Depart for Siena

As you can see, you only have three sightseeing days in Rome. Will that be enough for this group?

The reason I say to put Siena next is not only the long transfer Siena/CT, but also there is easy bus service (Sena) from Rome to Siena that has about 10 departures daily (about 20€). It's better than the train (the train requires changing either in Chianciano or Florence and the bus is just as fast) and it drops you at the edge of the historic center of Siena. There is also easy bus service (SITA) from Siena to Florence.

Rome/Siena bus:
http://www.sena.it/Home/78-1-en.html

It will be a very long day from CT to Venice (about 6 hours) so you will pretty much lose that day in transit. Since three hotel nights only give you two sightseeing days

You should also consider how early it will get dark the end of Oct/early Nov. There will be very little to do in the CT after 5pm and it's the start of the rainy season.

Thanks Kybourbon for your suggestions. The couple we are travelling with are not going to Rome with us, they are going to Orvieto while we are in Rome, so that is why our time in Rome is shorter than we would have liked. Our plan now is to go from Rome to Siena and then Siena to Florence. Your comments just affirm our initial plan.

We are travelling the beginning of October so we are hoping that we will have good weather. We will be nearing the end of the vacation in CT so we will be tired and at that point it may be nice to just chill with the other couple at our Hotel in the evenings. DH and I had considered adding another day to Florence and meeting the other couple in CT (they are keen on 4 nights), so perhaps we will think more about doing that.

DH and I were just in Venice this past September and the other couple has been there as well, so for us the fact that we will only have two complete sight seeing days isn't so critical. We also have a direct flight from Venice which is the reason we are even going to Venice.

Thanks for the info on the Rome/Siena Bus.

>>>Oct for 18 days<<<

Sorry, misread this as starting your trip Oct. 18.

If the other couple will be in Orvieto, they would take the train from Orvieto to Chiusi-Chianciano (4€) and change to Siena (about 8€). The stop for Siena is Siena, not Torrita di Siena (a stop on the route). These are regional trains so no reserved seating and no discounts so you don't need to buy in advance. Tickets need to be validated before boarding.

FYI - The scheduled stops are 1-2 minutes for these trains in places like Orvieto (1 minute regional trains and 2 minutes IC). They must be ready to get on or off (standing at the door with luggage ready and know how to open it if it doesn't) as the train won't wait. Ditto for the change at Chiusi so they should validate both tickets in Orvieto or remember to while switching at Chiusi. It helps to print the list of stops so you know when you are about to reach yours. Many old regional trains don't have the electronic signs giving the stops.

The Sena bus departs Rome's Tiburtina train station which can be reached my metro (it's also a major local/long distance bus hub).

Thanks for the helpful information Kybourbon! Will be sure to pass the info along to them.