My fiance and I will be spending our honeymoon in Italy (Venice, Florence, Siena, then Rome). We're doing it all on our own and have booked the hotels and flights. We've been putting together a list of the things we want to do in each city, but for the most part we're leaving our schedule open to be flexible in what activities we choose to do each day. The one section of the trip I am having a hard time working out is the trip from Siena to Rome. We could simply go straight from one city to the other, but I am curious if there are stops we should make in between. We won't be renting a car so we are relying on public transportation only. Does anyone have a creative suggestion for how to maximize our travel time? Or, is it better to just get to Rome right away? Or stay in Siena longer? How should we get from Siena to Rome (i.e. bus or train)?

Here's some more info that may help:
We will be in Siena for one full day and two nights
We will be in Rome for 4 full days and 5 nights
The travel day between cities is Monday (in late October)

The best connection is by bus from Siena to the Rome Tiburtina station and a taxi from there to your hotel.

We went through this same dilemma for our trip last month. We strongly considered stopping in Orvieto between our time in Siena and Rome but decided it would chop up the trip too much. We spent 3 nights in Siena and 4 in Rome but really wished we'd spent an additional night in Siena and 2 more in Rome. We took the train from Siena to Rome (transfer in Chiusi), and it would have been easy to stop in Orvieto. If you are already set for 5 nights in Rome, I wouldn't eliminate any. While in Siena, everyone told us it is easiest to get to Rome by bus. We liked the train experience, despite the crazy story in my trip report.

Was just at Orvieto great etruscan hill town one of my favs

stayed at the Grand Italie there 110 euros had an awesome time.

Would be the perfect stop for you.

Congrats!

Did regional train great ride seat61.com cheap hop on beats the pants off of bus for me

For me, there's never enough time in Rome, but how much time will you have in Florence?

We'll be spending 2 days and nights in Florence.

And I don't want to eliminate any nights from Siena or Rome, I'm just wondering if we should stop in Orvieto (or any other city on the route) for a couple of hours on our way to Rome.

Basically I'm just debating whether to make the straight trip or stop on the way. If anyone has experience doing this, how did it work?

You could take a train to Chiusi, and change for Orvieto (total journey time around 2 hours on faster trains (€13) or 3.5 hours on the slow train (€8) then get a later train down to Rome (75 - 90 minutes at €15)

The only problem would be what to do with your luggage. I do not know if there is a left luggage department in Orvieto.

I was surprised by qwovadis using cheap in connection with the train, as I have used the bus several times and never paid more than €11. The bus was always cheaper (and it was usually slightly quicker than the train), but looking at the Sena site, the bus is now €22, very similar to the train.