What's the best way to travel between Florence and Siena?

For most travellers, the bus is the better choice — it's faster, drops you inside the city walls, and costs roughly the same as the train. Take the train if you're motion-sensitive, travelling with bulky luggage, or chaining onto another rail leg south.

🚍 Bus (131R Rapida) — the practical winner

• Operator: Autolinee Toscane (took over from SITA/Tiemme in late 2021 — many older blogs are still out of date on this).
• Where to board: Florence Autostazione, Via Santa Caterina da Siena 17 — a short side street about 100 m southwest of Santa Maria Novella. It's tucked behind the church and easy to miss; ask for the "autostazione."
• Duration: ~75 minutes on the Florence–Siena superstrada, no intermediate stops.
• Cost: ~€9.50 one-way.
• Frequency: Roughly hourly from early morning until ~20:00, more frequent at commute times. Reduced service Sundays and holidays.
• Arrival: Piazza Gramsci / Via Tozzi, on the northern edge of the historic centre — about a 10-minute downhill walk to Piazza del Campo, all within the walls.

Make sure you board the 131R, not the plain 131. The 131R takes the motorway and skips the villages; the 131 ("ordinaria") stops at Tavarnelle, San Casciano and Poggibonsi and adds 20–25 minutes. Confirm "Rapida" with the driver before getting on.

🚆 Train — flat, predictable, but you'll arrive outside the walls

• Route: Regional (Regionale) trains from Firenze Santa Maria Novella. Roughly half are direct (~1h20); the rest involve a brief cross-platform change at Empoli (~1h35–1h45). Always check the specific train before booking.
• Cost: ~€10. Regional fares in Italy are fixed — there is no advance-booking discount, and these trains effectively never sell out.
• Frequency: Roughly hourly until ~21:00.
• Arrival: Siena station sits about 2 km below the historic centre, outside the walls. From there:
  • Escalators (free) inside the Porta Siena shopping centre directly across the road from the station. A 283 m underground climb deposits you near Porta Camollia; from there it's a 15–20-minute mostly flat walk to Piazza del Campo via Via Camollia.
  • City bus from in front of the station (lines 3, 8, 10, 17 to Piazza del Sale or Piazza Gramsci) — ~5 min, €1.50, buy at the tabacchi.
  • Taxi: rank outside the station, ~€10–12 into the centre.

The escalators are motion-activated and often look broken when stationary — just step onto the bottom plate and they'll start. Note: they only run uphill. Coming back to the station is a downhill walk or a city bus.

Quick decision

• Take the bus unless you have a specific reason not to.
• Take the train for stroller/heavy-luggage trips, motion sensitivity, or onward rail travel toward Chiusi or Rome.
• Skip Flixbus for this route — tickets are cheaper, but departures are from Villa Costanza (end of the T1 tram), so the savings disappear once you factor in the tram leg.

Tips that actually save you something

• Buy a round-trip bus ticket ("andata e ritorno") in Florence — buses are unreserved, so you can take any return at any time. Saves you queueing in Siena.
• Where to buy bus tickets: the autostazione kiosk, any tabacchi with a black-and-white "T" sign, the green Trenitalia machines inside SMN, or the at bus app.
• Validate or don't, correctly: paper tickets get stamped (bus: small machine onboard; train: orange/yellow machines on the platform). App tickets are pre-validated — don't try to stamp them. A €50–200 fine is the standard outcome for skipping validation.
• SMN is intense. Platforms are usually confirmed only 10–15 minutes before departure — get there early and watch the boards rather than committing to a café seat.
• Strikes happen. Italian transport strikes (sciopero) are scheduled in advance and announced on at-bus.it and trenitalia.com. Check the day before, not the morning of.
• Apps: Trenitalia for trains (excellent, shows live platforms), MooneyGo or at bus for the bus side.

---

Need personalized advice or assistance planning your trip between Florence and Siena? Ask me here, and I'll be happy to help!

Related reading

• What's the easiest way to get from Pisa Airport to Florence?