Florence to San Gimignano and Sienna in one day

Alice Ong

New member
Dear Tuscan friends,
My friend and I will be staying in Florence in Oct and want to visit SG and Sienna in one day by bus. Is this doable? I'm thinking of taking the bus from SMN bus station (F) to Poggibonsi (which one pls - Pogg FS or Pogg L.Go Gramsci?) and take the local bus #130 to SG (which one to stop at pls - SG P.S. Giovanni or SG P S Mateo or SG Strada) - how long will be the journey?
Where and how do I take the bus from SG to Sienna? Then shall I take the train back from Sienna back to SMN(F) instead of bus? Thank you!
 
Florence to San Gimignano and Siena in one day

Dear Alice,
our opinion is that one day for San Gimignano and Siena is really not enough! Espacially for Siena, that is bigger than San Gimignano and offers a lot of interesting think to see. Generally speaking bus connections are better and faster than train connections!
Best regards
Tourist information office/ Proloco di Sovicille
info@prolocosovicille.it
 
Bus timetable

Hi all
We are coming to Florence in September and plan to do the trip to S.G. and Siena and found this site helpful for bus timetables - http://www.busfox.com/timetable/
But I have not found out if you can buy a all day bus tickets or do you have to buy a ticket for each trip.
God Bless
Doug
 
Ciao Alice,

The site linked to above by Doug is the best one for bus schedules in the Siena/SG area, even if it is only in Italian I think it is pretty easy to understand. I think you already found it, given you have names of the stops...
You plug in Firenze - San Gimignano and the time, it will tell you which stations are the ones you arrive at (generally Poggibonsi FS which stands for train station), how long you have to wait and the next bus to take. SG P.S. Giovanni will be your stop ;-)
The same site tells you how long is each "solution", from 80 minutes to 120 minutes (depends on waiting time in Poggibonsi).

Now I don't remember the main piazza in SG, which is round and surrounded by the road, whether there was a bus stop on each side for different directions... so it is likely that all buses might have the same spot, no matter the direction they are traveling.

But like mentioned above, trying to do them both in one day with public transport means watching the time and not spending enough time in each. This spring and summer we've been rediscovering SG and realizing there is a lot to see, and Siena itself requires at least a whole day (we always love staying there so generally take a whole weekend).
So if at all possible, do separate them into 2 days!

In SG, you HAVE to go into the Duomo and see the beautiful frescoes inside, then go into the Palazzo Comunale which has a small painting gallery (pinacoteca) with beautiful masterpieces as well as frescoes (in the main halls) AND includes the climb up Torre Grossa, the tallest of the remaining towers in SG. You'll enjoy a stupendous view of SG and the countryside around.
All of this you have to do, as well as just walk the entire town.... make your way up to see the remains of the old fortress, too!

So all this takes at least 4-5 hours, especially since I'd recommend enjoying lunch and a gelato there (the winner of the best gelato in the world competition is in SG in Pza della Cisterna, the gelateria with Torre Grossa behind it and not the one on the corner).

Bus from Siena to Florence is still a better choice than train, since the bus station is closer to the center than the train station AND requires no transfer while the train does. So bus is FASTER too!
 
Ciao Doug,

The types of tickets and cost is here:
http://www.tiemmespa.it/index.php/Viaggia-con-noi/Titoli-di-viaggio/Siena/Tariffe-urbane
but, in a nutshell, the all day passes/tickets are only available for travel within each urban town, not between Siena and the surroundings, so would not include travel to SG.

A daily pass (giornaliero) in Siena is 4,80 euro, while the single ticket within town is 1,20 euro.
The ticket to SG is instead 1,60 euro, so it really isn't that much more... and more convenient to just get your ticket there and back, costs less than the all day ticket.
 
Great Advise!

Dear Lourdes

Thank you for the great advise and will definitely plan 1 day each per town :)

Ciao!
alice
 
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