Siena Travel Forum

I would like to take a day time train from Nice to Siena in September 2008. I cannot find train timetables that cover this journey on the internet. Has anybody done this trip recently, and where do I find information? Also, I will hire a car in Siena. Are there any car hire firms operating from Siena railway station? Any other tips? Thanks for your help

The Italian rail timetables can be found at

http://www.trenitalia.com/en/index.html

If you enter Nice and Siena, and your date of travel, you will see that there are a number of possible trains. I must admit, that I tried several times, and couldn't always get a solution - the site can be temperamental. When you can get it to work, you can find out the ticket prices by clicking on buy at the the right of the screen.

If you just want to look at times and train connections, go to www.raileurope.com It is very user friendly. The downfall is...it's more expensive. I use it as a quick tool to find out times etc. You can always price compare. Believe it or not my Thalys ticket was cheaper through them, rather than Thayls.

Depending on how much time you have...I would take a budget airline flight. There are so many that are cheaper than the train and get you there a lot quicker. If you need a specific one, email me and I will find out exactly which one goes that route.

I always use www.bahn.de to check timetables as this german site is very use friendly. I have found previously that timetables are posted around 60 days only before date of travel. You can choose a closer date for the same time and day if you want an idea of departure times etc.

It will be a long day trip and there seems to be two main options, one a 9.20hr trip with 4 train changes and the other longer at 10.5hrs with three changes (but on more premium type trains - Eurocity, Eurostar Italia etc which is more expensive)

1. Nice-Ventimiglia-Genova Piazza Principe-Pisa Centrale-Empoli-Siena. (9.20hrs)

2. Nice Ville-Ventimiglia-

Sorry runaway finger... Post continues.

2. Nice Ville-Milano Centrale-Florence SMN-Siena (10.5hrs)

When checking timetables note that some services do not run every day.

I've done the Nice-Genoa-Pisa-Florence leg of your planned trip but I took the bus from Florence to Siena as I wanted to arrive closer to the old town centre.
The train station in Siena is on the outskirts I think.

The bahn.de site in English is my first choice for train times across Eruope:

http://www.bahn.de/p/view/international/englisch/international_guests.shtml

although it only gives fares originating in Germany.

For French trains/fares you can look at www.scnf.com

Siena station is some way outside the town centre (about 1/2 km, I think...enough for people to get a bus, anyway).