Overnight in Siena or day trip only?
 

My dad and I are interested in visiting Siena on our upcoming 12-day trip to Italy (12/11-12/24). Should we stop there on the way from Rome to Florence, spend the night, and head to Florence the next evening, or spend an extra night in Florence and do Siena as a day trip?

From the standpoint of minimizing travel time, it seems more sensible to take the ES train from Rome to Florence and do Siena as a daytrip. I guess the question is whether we'll have enough time to see everything we ought to see inside the walls if we don't make it to Siena until, say 10 or 10:30am (vs. an 8:30 or 9am start if we spent the night).

ETA: Finally, is it possible to to Pisa and Siena in a day without getting too exhausted?

Having just traveled in this area last month, I would say that Siena can easily be seen in a day. If you have extra time on your hands, I would think that time would be best spent in Florence -- we spent 4 full days in Florence.

(However, the hotels might be significantly more in Florence, which might tips the scales towards spending the night in Florence.)

I do not think you can combine Sienna and Pisa in one day, especially if trying to navigate all of that by train.

Instead, I would suggest that you take a morning train from Florence to Pisa (70 mins). There's really not much more to see than the Tower/Duomo complex. (We arrived by train at 9:30 am, walked to the Tower, bought our tickets right away ... and were given an entrance time of 2 hours!) Then, for the rest of the day, we took a 20-min train to Lucca; there was a heck of a lot more to do and see in Lucca than anything else in Pisa. Lucca was a charming city!

Based on your somewhat incomplete travel itin and trip background, I assume train is your main mode of transportion, and you only have 1 day during which you want to cover Siena (and possibly Pisa).

I think you would save time and energy if you train it from Rome to Siena, then do Florence. Be worth while to spend a night in Siena (most people would spend more time in Siena and might use it as base to see Tuscany. I would not advise trying to do Pisa and Siena in 1 day.

If you provide more details of your trip plan, FTers might be able to further assist you.

So here are the details: My dad and I have never been to Italy. I assume that I eventually will come back if I like it enough, but that he won't (he only travels when I invite him places, and he's 74). We're getting into FCO at 11am 12/12. The current itinerary is:

12/12-12/15 Rome
Bus to Siena evening 12/15
12/16 Siena
12/16 evening bus or train to Florence
12/16-12/21 Florence
Train to Venice evening 12/21
12/22-12/23 Venice
12/24 depart Venice early am.

I have hotels reserved for all nights of the trip, but they are all changeable and refundable reservations.

We do not plan to rent a car; we plan to travel inter-city by train and bus

Stopping in Siena on the way to Florence is a good plan. If you are taking a day trip to Pisa from Florence, I'd suggest considering going to Lucca also. As a previous poster mentioned, you can do Pisa in a pretty short amount of time. The key is not to rush...Italy is to be enjoyed slowly :D

Siena and Pisa are in different directions from Florence, so I would not recommend combining them.

Pisa and Lucca is a good idea, since they're just a half hour train ride apart.

Don't take to much baggage!

12/12-12/15 Rome - you can take the train to Termini. Taxi lines are very long at Termini/
Bus to Siena evening 12/15 - to get to the hotel can be a problem. Many streets in the city center are only for pedestrians.
12/16 Siena
12/16 evening bus or train to Florence - You arrive by train in the city center. In front of the station are buses from Hilton and others. Also other buses.
12/16-12/21 Florence
Train to Venice evening 12/21 With the train you can direct walk to one of the public boats.
12/22-12/23 Venice
12/24 depart Venice early am. There are private boats to the airport, don't know about another connection.

Have fun.

I have hotels reserved for all nights of the trip, but they are all changeable and refundable reservations.

We do not plan to rent a car; we plan to travel inter-city by train and bus[/QUOTE]

I also like the suggestion of doing Pisa & Lucca together.

Looks like you have 5 days (day light days) in Florence (given you depart by train in the evening) and only 1 in Venice. I would shift 1 day over to Venice. Ultimately, it depends on how many day trips you will make from Florence, and how much time you need for the city of Florence. I do think Venice deserves 2 full days.

We actually have 2 full days in Venice -- we arrive by train the evening of the 21st and fly out the morning of the 24th. I thought Florence would be the best "base" for doing some day trips in the region -- we'll do Siena for sure, and if we get tired of museums and churches, we'll head out to Pisa and Lucca for a day.

I have been researching for my travels to italy next spring. I have found there are all day bus tours that will take you from Florence to Siena, San G. and Pisa for about 100-120 euros per person including lunch. We have decided to go a different route and hire a private tour guide for the day to take us on a tour of Tuscany from Florence which will cost about the same.