We will be staying in Radda for a week this fall and would like to visit Florence for a few days during our visit.We will be renting a car but do not want to drive into Florence.
What is the best way to travel from Radda to Florence and- if by bus -how late do the buses run?
One option to consider is driving to Piazza Michelangelo and taking the bus/walking/cab from there.
There are buses from Radda to Florence, but there are more frequent departures from Greve. The schedules are here:
http://www.acvbus.it/orari/365.pdf
The schedules into Florence start on page 6. There are only two morning departures from Radda, but buses leave several times an hour at peak times from Greve. The trip takes a little less than an hour.
You have to pay attention to all the notes and little symbols. The SAB at the top of some columns means the bus runs only on Saturdays. The numbers at the top indicate either extra stops or the dates that the bus runs. For example some buses run only in the summer and others run the rest of the year. You can see the dates in the footnotes even if you can't read Italian; remember that in Europe the date is written day, then month. "giorni scolastici" means when school is in session.
In addition, there are symbols in the columns with wavy lines connecting them. The crossed hammers mean working days, which is Monday through Saturday. The cross means Sundays and holidays. I have no idea what the A means. I suspect it means every day, but on most bus schedules, that's indicated with a G (giornaliere).
The A on the SITA timetables means working days except Saturdays.
You can take the bus from Radda but it would be safer, in the sense of not missing your bus back, to drive to Greve, park there, and then take the bus for the remainder of the route to Florence.
Be sure to check the bus times locally. The link given above by bvlenci opens a timetable but the website itself doesn't link to that timetable because the timetable page is under review and has been that way for weeks.
