This will we an extension of our Switzerland trip ending with our stay in Varenna. We will be traveling exclusively by train or bus and are looking for interesting Italian towns that are accessible by train or bus and easily visited by foot when we get there. We will have about 8-12 nights to spend and would like to break it up into at least 3 areas with day trips from those places to visit quaint towns. Siena and Lucca are high on our list, but it seems Siena is difficult to reach from most places and a backtrack through Florence on most routes.

We don't have anything booked, so other than starting from Varenna after the Switzerland portion we are open to anything and plan an open jaw ticket so can fly back home from any airport that is affordable.

We are 2 couples in our 60's and fairly fit, so some walking will be fine. We have been previously to Venice, Rome, Florence, Pisa, Assisi and San Gimigano so please give me your suggestions for a workable train or bus route to take.

Lucca could be day trip to Cinque Terre and Montecatini Terme - one of europe's best spa towns - something different and Pistoa is very close too.

Siena could be a base for other hill towns like Montepulciano and others but I'd look for a better base - you've never been to Bologna it seems and that could be a great base - really neat old town center and great base for Ravenna, Mantua and other places.

Anyway for lots on trains check www.trenitalia.com and www.seat61.com; BETS-European Rail Experts and www.ricksteves.com. You will be dealing mainly with regional trains - best buy those tickets at stations - flat fare dirt cheap no advantage to booking ahead.

Florence is a major transportation hub, which is why so many itineraries require backtracking through Florence. Both Siena and Lucca are most easily reached from Florence. Do you have any objection to using Florence as a base? There are many other places you can visit from Florence, such as Arezzo. There is also somewhat limited bus service to some of the Chianti towns from Florence.

As Palenq says, Bologna is another excellent base for visiting cities such as Modena and Ferrara.

In Umbria, Perugia is a good base for bus and train trips to various towns.

Bus service is pretty scarse in most of rural Italy; the schedules are designed to bring people into the larger towns and cities in the morning and take them home in the afternoon or early evening. Tourists usually want to travel in the opposite direction, from their base in a larger town to a "quaint" town in the morning, and back to the larger town in the evening.

I will look into train schedules from your suggestions of a base in Florence, Perugia, and Bologna. I may have to rethink the idea of all train travel in Italy. It seems it may not be the best way to see the small towns in the countryside which is our goal. How difficult is the driving in those areas? I would be concerned with our inablility to read road signs and speak the language.

Not many of the small towns in Umbria have train service. These are mostly hilly regions, and trains aren't good at going up and down hills.

Florence: there are buses to the Chianti area and to Siena. There are trains to other towns, including Pisa, Lucca, Pistoia, Arezzo, and Siena. Arezzo is.a small city, and, to my mind, a quintessentially Tuscan city. It has one of the most famous works of Piero della Francesca, the fresco cycle known as The Legend of the True Cross, in the church of San Francesco. I haven't been to Pistoia, but I've been told it's well worth a visit.

Another possible base, maybe more to your liking, is Buonconvento, a smaller town, with train connections to both Florence and Siena, and bus connections to well-known small towns such as Montepulciano, Pienza, and Montalcino.

Perugia has bus connections to The Gubbio, and with a change of bus, to Todi and Spoleto. It also has train connections to Assisi, Spello, Trevi, and Spoleto. Trevi is on a hill, so you'd probably need to take a bus up.

Bologna has train connections to Ferrara, Modena, and Ravenna, all worth seeing, although not small towns.

Driving a car in Italy, especially rural Italy, is not very difficult. Road signs are pretty much the standard EU signs, pictorial rather than text, although there is sometimes added text. You can find examples on the internet, such as http://italyexplained.com/driving-road-signs-italy/ . Every driver must carry an IDP (international drivers permit) along with the regular license. Virtually every town has a ZTL (limited traffic zone). You should park outside the towns and walk in. In larger towns, you should be very careful of signs, including those for bus lanes, etc. If you have a car, you may not be visiting large towns.

You should also know the Italian parking conventions. Blue lines mean paid parking. Usually you need to look for a ticket dispenser, buy a ticket for the required time, and display it on your dashboard. White lines indicate free parking, but often for a limited time. In that case, you need to display a "disck orario", a sort of clock face where you set the hand to your arrival time. Yellow lines mean parking restricted to a specific type of vehicle, such a police cars The page explains it pretty well. https://www.italian-connection.com/i...kets-in-italy/

They say AutoEurop is an excellent car rental agency, which works with the major agencies. I live in Italy, and drive my own car here, so I can't vouch for them personally.

Of course you can't get to small towns and villages by train. They wouldn't still be small towns and villages if major transport stopped there. Your choices are to use trains and visit well-traveled spots, or hire a car and venture to small, out-of-the-way places.

Before I lived in Europe and had my own car, I always rented through AutoEurope.

Plus the average small town or village for most tourists would be boring after a day - those who want to learn the culture, language, etc great.

Most small towns have at least some bus service, but the schedules are designed mostly for students and commuters. There's usually no service on Sundays. Still, with careful planning, a tourist can get around with a combination of bus and train.

Here are my TRs that might be of help. The first one ended at Bellagio (we trained from Varenna) but it might help with distances. We made some great day trips from Spoleto.
Turin, Spoleto, Bologna and Bellagio TR

We ended up getting a driver for some of the Perugia side trips but loved the area:
Perugia and Rome by train and bus

I will look for maitaitom's Italy TRs--he has some gread ones.

Here's one of maitaitom's to get your started: 2001: A Maitaitom Italian Odyssey - "The Lost Trip Report"

Make that 'great' not 'gread' above.

Pitigliano is a very scenic little town, even though the center is not very lively. There is a very interesting old synagogue you can visit, with the ritual baths, the bakery, and other. The agriturismo I mentioned recently in another post is just outside Pitiigliano, offers cooking lessons, and is near the hot springs of Saturnia. I'll paste in part of that post.

If you want cooking lessons in English, you have to reserve well in advance. The proprietor's son-in-law helps her with the English cooking lessons, and he has a job, with a flexible schedule.

If going to the hot springs, do bring a swimming suit. Anything else you might need, such as wading shoes for the stony springs, as well as changing rooms, is available there. We didn't bring swimming suits, as we thought it would be too cold for the springs when we were there, but we regretted that when we felt how warm the water was and saw so many people enjoying a dip.