What you should know before traveling to Tuscany
Your first glimpse of any of Tuscany’s hill towns will take your breath away. You may have seen images of these stunning places in movies and books. But nothing can prepare you for the real thing.
Once you experience this otherworldly field of plenty for yourself, you’ll fully understand why even the smallest of these peoples have been the subject of continual strife throughout history. Who would not want to own the top of one of these hills, overlooking brilliant landscapes, covered in vineyards that produce bountiful harvests for the best wines? Who wouldn’t be inspired to paint or sculpt or scour the hills for precious stones to make exquisite jewelry?
If you have decided to travel to Tuscany, you have made an excellent choice. But there are three essential points you will need to understand before you set out on your travels.
Point #1: Give each destination at least a full day or three or five
For a wonderful trip to Tuscany, plan to include five destinations, one large, one medium, and three small. florence, of course, it is the absolute necessity as its great destiny. Your trip to Tuscany would not be complete without a visit to Florence. Few cities compare to Florence in terms of breathtaking beauty, as well as abundant and impressive experiences. With its art and sculpture, gardens and architecture, history and culture, crafts, wine and food, Florence will captivate you. Your time will run. And you’ll probably decide that you just have to come back another year.
Since Florence is the biggest destination on your itinerary, plan to spend 5 days here. But then take day trips from Florence by train to two of its other destinations: the small but fascinating cities of Cortona Y san gimignano. Add an additional five days to your trip and split them between the remaining two destinations, Montepulciano Y sienna. So, your ideal trip will be 10 days in total.
And what a trip it will be. You will have the time and freedom to really immerse yourself and enjoy this wonderful region. Places to see. art to read Food and wine, savored at outdoor tables, overlooking the lively and spacious plazas. Craft shops. Local exuberance. Landscapes to inspire you. And the considerable fun of moving between these towns and cities, the journey being as much a part of the delight as the arrival.
Speaking of having time and latitude… This leads us immediately to…
Point #2: Avoid group travel and have a better experience on your own
This trip to Tuscany will be rich in experiences. And it may seem that it will be a complex trip to organize and carry out on your own. Therefore, you may be tempted to take the easy route of signing up for a bus tour. Yes, the descriptions of these tours always sound attractive. And it sounds like it would be a lot easier to flip the controls on your ride and let someone else be in charge.
If your thinking leans in this direction, think again. Your trip to Tuscany is full of possibilities, too many to waste trapped on a bus with 30 other people. You’ll want time to savor the experiences of each of these remarkable towns and cities.
A group tour will move too fast and try to pack too much. It will be too limited, even when you’re sitting crammed into the seats of that bus that was designed for a smaller race of people than your imposing American husband. You’ll be choreographed to someone else’s liking, with plenty of time wasted waiting for your chatty fellow tourists to return to the bus. And as you race through a city the tour guide has already seen several hundred times, you’ll be traveling in a noisy bunch, passing all those intriguing shops and alluring bistros.
This is not what you want for your own long-awaited trip to Tuscany. Instead, you’ll want to move freely, walking and stopping as you please, spending more time here and less time there, depending on whether or not things grab you. Some of your most memorable moments will be your bistro stops, your visits to the shops that catch your eye, your pause to take in a view of tranquil hills and valleys, your stroll through a restaurant on the plaza with a fabulous pianist.
You’ll want the freedom to take your time to explore Florence’s leather market and study the original oil paintings and watercolors by the artists who display their own original work in Piazza Michelangelo.
Sitting at an outdoor table in a restaurant behind Florence’s Duomo, or on the wall facing Siena’s Duomo, you might find yourself caught up in a photographic orgy, snapping photo after photo of the intricate marble work, beginning with the complete structure. , then focusing closer and closer for a sequence of photos that captures the green, pink and white marble inlays or the golden image above the door or the statues looming over you from the eaves.
A group tour, of course, takes care of your needs to get from one place to another. But you’ll be able to handle this just as well, if not better, on your own. When you need a ride, grab one with an Uber or Taxi in the city (keep your contact info handy!), combined with trains to take you between towns and cities, and shuttle buses to take you up the hills to the top. Getting around, especially on trains, is part of the fun and adds to your experience as well as your sense of accomplishment.
Speaking of needing a ride from time to time, we’ll move on to…
Item #3: There will be many hills wherever you go
As you may know from the term “Hill Towns”, there are very few places in Tuscany that are flat. You will walk and ride up and down, up and down, wherever you go, both within cities and while traveling from one city to another.
For each Hill Town you visit, you’ll need to take a train to get to the bottom of the hill, then a shuttle bus to get to the top. This means that when you leave the train station, in Cortona, San Gimignano, or Montepulciano, you’ll need to turn your attention to buying a bus ticket and taking a ride to the top where the city awaits.
As a general rule of thumb, when you’re headed somewhere in a city or town, plan get onafter go down, every chance you get. In Florence, take a taxi to Michelangelo Square. Ask the driver to drop you off even higher, in front of the charming Abbey of Miniato, just above the square. From here, every direction you walk will take you down!
After visiting the Abbey, wander to Piazza Michelangelo. While you’re there, if the time is right, try the phenomenal lasagna at the restaurant just above the square, having lunch at an outdoor table, overlooking Florence.
Then walk a few steps down to explore the art and crafts for sale in the square. Pause frequently to look over the wall at the rooftops of Florence, with the dome of the Duomo towering above your surroundings and the Ponte Vecchio spanning the shimmering thread of the River Arno. From here, go down a little more until you reach the level of the river.
So are you ready for this? Grab a guide, make your arrangements, and embark on a travel adventure that will become a part of your life story.