Florence to Siena: Get Off at the Top of the Hill

Florence to Siena by bus or train: which one gets you up the hill

• Take the 131R express bus from Firenze Autostazione, a few minutes' walk from Santa Maria Novella, to Siena - Via Tozzi. It takes about 1 hour 15 minutes and leaves you at the top of the hill, about 10 minutes on foot from Piazza del Campo.
• The direct regional train takes about 1½ hours and stops at Siena station, about 2 km below the center, with an escalator up part of the way.
• The traps are on the clock. On an ordinary Sunday the bus leaves Florence at 09:10 and then not until 14:10, and the last bus back from Via Tozzi is 20:45 on weekdays but 19:10 on Saturdays and Sundays.

For a day trip from Florence to Siena, the 131R bus beats the train: about 1 hour 15 minutes against about 1½ hours, and it ends at the top of the hill instead of below it. Siena is a hill town, and the ride you pick decides whether you arrive on top of it or at the bottom, looking up.

The table compares the three ways from Florence to Siena, one way: where each leaves from, where it leaves you in Siena, and how far that is from the Campo, on the timetables in force from October 2026.

How often each one runs, and what to do when the bus timetable doesn't fit your day, is what the next two sections are for. San Gimignano sits off the rail line, a bus ride from Poggibonsi-S. Gimignano station, so adding it the same day is a puzzle of its own, further down. The car is the easiest of the three right up to the edge of town, and the hardest inside Siena and San Gimignano, whose medieval streets were not laid out with your rental in mind.

The 131R bus from Florence to Siena: where it leaves, the ticket, and the Sunday gap

The bus from Florence to Siena is the 131R of Autolinee Toscane (AT), a route the company itself calls fast and direct: a weekday 09:10 from Firenze Autostazione reaches Siena - Via Tozzi at 10:25.

Firenze Autostazione is the bus station on Via Santa Caterina da Siena, about 320 meters from Santa Maria Novella station. The street is named for Saint Catherine of Siena, so at least the address points the right way.

The 131R leaves Florence at these times on the timetable valid from October 5, 2026. Each kind of day runs to its own list, and holidays count as Sundays, so read the row for yours.

The 131R has a slower sibling, the plain 131, which makes intermediate stops. AT's fast extra-urban ticket covers either line, as long as you're not getting off along the way.

Buy the ticket before you get on: AT says Florence to Siena needs that fast extra-urban ticket (extraurbano veloce), and bought from the driver on board, the same ticket costs more. To be sure which one matches your trip, AT points you to its Travel Planner or the at bus app. Skip the machines at Florence's tram stops, which sell only tickets for Florence itself. The ticket covers the route printed on it, not the reverse, so the ride back needs its own. And validate it, or activate it if it's digital, when the journey starts.

AT's 131R line page links the current timetable PDF, with the date that edition is valid from (valido dal) printed on it.

Stay on to the end. The 131R's last stop is Siena - Via Tozzi, beside Piazza Gramsci, so there is no stop to watch for. On my own day trip it set me down right at the top of the hill, a short walk from the Campo.

The train from Florence to Siena, and the climb from Siena station

Direct regional trains from Florence to Siena leave Firenze Santa Maria Novella about once an hour Monday to Saturday, with fewer on Sundays and holidays. The ride takes about 1½ hours and costs about €11 one way, and every direct train stops at Poggibonsi-S. Gimignano.

On an ordinary Sunday, inside the bus's five-hour gap, direct trains leave Santa Maria Novella at 11:10 and 12:10, so a missed 09:10 bus costs you a slow morning, not the day. Monday to Saturday the directs leave at 06:20, then every hour at :10 from 08:10 to 20:10, and at 21:38, a timetable even a jet-lagged brain can hold. In the search results, pick a departure with no change.

Buy a digital ticket for the train you've picked on Trenitalia's site or app; it validates itself at that train's scheduled departure. Santa Maria Novella checks tickets at gates, so have the QR code ready, on paper or on your phone, before you get there, not at the gate with a line building behind you.

Search Firenze Santa Maria Novella to Siena for your date in Trenitalia's journey search.

The catch is at the other end. Siena station sits at the bottom of the valley, and the Campo is about 2 km away on foot, uphill. An escalator, the risalita, climbs from the station through the Porta Siena shopping center to the Antiporto di Camollia, a few hundred meters from Porta Camollia, and it runs 24 hours a day. It does part of the climb for you, not all of it. From the station, even with the escalator, it's a long way up to the center, and that climb is the whole reason I put the bus first.

So the train is the backup that is sometimes the better plan: on an ordinary Sunday, on any evening you want to stay in Siena after the last bus has gone (both last departures are in the return section), and on a day that adds San Gimignano, where that Poggibonsi stop becomes the whole point.

A day trip to Siena from Florence: the tower ticket first

Tickets for Siena's Torre del Mangia can't be booked. They're sold only on the day, at the Palazzo Pubblico ticket office on the Campo or at Dear Guests on Via di Città, for climbs every 45 minutes capped at 25 people. So on a day trip to Siena from Florence, the tower slot comes first and the day fits around it.

The climb is €10 and about 400 steps from the level of the Campo; children under 14 need an adult with them, and a day's tickets can sell out. Climbs run from 10:00, the last one in the late afternoon from March to October and at 15:15 from November to February, and the tower is closed on Christmas Day. The Museo Civico is €10, or €15 with the tower on a one-day ticket, open 10:00 - 19:00 March to October and 10:00 - 18:00 November to February (last entry 17:15).

The current tower and museum hours are on the Museo Civico's visit page, in Italian, titled Organizza la tua visita ("plan your visit").

The cathedral complex is a separate ticket. The Opa Si Pass is €14, or €16 while the cathedral floor is uncovered; it's valid for three consecutive days, covers every museum site of the complex, and the full route takes about two hours. Three days is generous for a day trip; the two hours are what count. The €21 Porta del Cielo ticket covers those sites plus the roofs, March 1 to January 6.

The cathedral complex's visiting page lists the Opa Si Pass prices, each season's hours and the floor dates.

Standard hours for the complex are 10:00 - 19:00 from April 1 to October 31 and 10:30 - 17:30 from November 1 to December 24, with last entry 30 minutes before closing. On Sundays and holidays the cathedral itself opens only from 13:30 (earlier while the floor is uncovered), and the rest of the complex keeps its weekday hours. In 2026 the floor is uncovered from June 27 to July 31 and from August 18 to November 15.

The Campo is the part of Siena I carried home: a whole square of brick, shaped like a giant shell. The Palazzo Pubblico stands on it, and its frescoes alone are worth going inside for. Then the cathedral, black-and-white stripes laid across its facade, and inside, the marble floor.

Siena and San Gimignano in one day from Florence, without a tour

Siena and San Gimignano fit into one day from Florence without a tour, but only just. Take the regional train to Poggibonsi-S. Gimignano, then the Autolinee Toscane bus from outside the station to San Gimignano: a day trip from Florence to Siena and San Gimignano is a day built around that one connection.

The 131R is no help here: it never calls at Poggibonsi's railway station, only at Poggibonsi - Salceto on some runs. The Florence leg is the train, the same direct one you'd take to Siena. Trenitalia sells the train and the bus as one ticket: choose "S. Gimignano Centro Storico" as your destination. It doesn't sell the bus ticket by itself. AT's line 130 links Siena, Poggibonsi and San Gimignano, so the day has two shapes: finish in Siena, or head back to Florence from Poggibonsi.

The combined ticket has its own page on Trenitalia's site, in Italian.

I did both towns in one day, Siena first on the morning bus from Florence, then on to Poggibonsi and the local bus to San Gimignano for the afternoon. Three hours there covered the walk from the main gate to the central square, the towers and a pistachio gelato before the evening ride back to Florence. The schedule was very tight, and all of it hinged on that change at Poggibonsi. If Tuscany is a rare trip for you, two towns in one day is a fair trade. If you'll be back, give Siena the whole day: San Gimignano is small and more theme park than town. One day for both means a little of each.

If running those connections sounds like the opposite of a day off, a guided day tour from Florence handles the driving and the timing. The trade is time: a tour that packs in both towns can leave you very little of it in Siena itself. Pick one whose listing states the free time in Siena, and check where it starts in Florence.

Driving from Florence to Siena: ZTL and parking in both towns

Driving from Florence to Siena takes a little over an hour without traffic. The hard part is the end: Siena and San Gimignano both put their medieval centers behind a ZTL.

I've driven it, and in both towns legal parking outside the ZTL is harder to find than it looks. Park somewhere in Siena you weren't allowed to, without knowing it, and a fine can arrive by mail.

Siena's temporary ZTL permits, from 30 minutes to 3 days, cover only the needs the city lists: carrying heavy or bulky things, accompanying someone over 70, a child under 6 or someone temporarily disabled, or taking an animal to the vet. The city's mobility company, Sigerico, charges €2 an hour or €35 a day at its Il Campo, Il Duomo, San Francesco and Santa Caterina garages, and €26 a day at Stadio-Fortezza. Its escalators connect to the multistory garages around the historic center.

Sigerico's parking fees page lists the rates garage by garage.

San Gimignano has watched its six ZTL gates with cameras since May 1, 2026, generally every day from 09:30 to 05:30 the next morning. For parking, the town lists P1 Giubileo, at most €7 for the first 24 hours, and P2 Montemaggio, at most €15 for the first day, under Da Sud ("from the south").

A car earns its place on the day you add San Gimignano or the countryside, if you accept parking outside both centers. Pick it up in Florence the morning you leave, not the night before, when all it would do is need a parking space.

Moving base between Florence and Siena with bags, or traveling as a group? A private transfer puts someone else behind the wheel. Give the exact drop-off address when you book, and check that the quote is per vehicle, not per person.

Siena to Florence: the last bus and the last train back

From Siena to Florence, the last 131R bus leaves Via Tozzi at 20:45 on weekdays and at 19:10 on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays. The last direct train from Siena station leaves at 21:40 every day.

These are the last rides back to Florence by day, with arrival times, on the timetables in force from October 2026.

The train means walking back down to the station, on the route shown on the Siena map above. On a Saturday or a Sunday it still leaves two and a half hours after the last bus, which is the difference between dinner in Siena and dinner in Florence.

If you came up by bus, the morning's ticket won't take you back: buy the Siena to Florence one before you board, as you did in Florence. My own rule for this trip is the bus up, so the day starts at the top of the hill, and the train down whenever the evening outlasts the last bus.

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