10 People in Tuscany!

If you are visiting small villages you'll run into problems parking that van. Also, that ties the whole group into doing everything together or finding alternative transport. And you would certainly need a designated driver. Consider two cars, and booking tours where drinking is on the agenda.

Under Italian regulations, vehicles up to 9 seats (including the driver) are considered cars and you just need an ordinary license (the so called type B license) to drive them (different regulations may apply to professional drivers like taxi drivers). But a vehicle with 10 seats or more is considered a bus and needs a bus license (type D).

Why don't you rent a van and a separate smaller car that'll seat 4 people? You'll find your trip so much more pleasurable with the right transportation because the really great places to visit are not always on a train or bus line. And you don't want to be on other people's time table.
The Tuscan roads are well paved and easily navigated, but they're just a little crooked. Don't worry about ZTL's except in Florence. They're otherwise pretty easy to spot with a blue sign with a big diagonal red mark through it.
A villa would be great for that number of people. It'd be even better if everyone would chip in and get a great Italian chef to woo your tastebuds for the whole week.

Or, you may want to rethink your location if you - or others in your group - really don't want to drive and aren't wanting to do the homework on that? Does your group want to do EVERYTHING together and if not, are they willing to hoof it to a bus stop a mile away and figure out their own transport logistics?

Trying to orchestrate a group is a far different animal than doing it for just a couple, and you've given us little to go on as far as everyone's ages and previous experience. You might want a location which offers easy train and/or bus transport to key towns/cities around the region so that you don't have to plan every day's itinerary, manage the transport, and do a lot of hand-holding if your companions are not into to striking out on their own.

Ages can matter greatly as well: small children and seniors can tire sooner and have different comfort requirements than ages in the middle. Also, going wine-drinking and "zipping around Tuscany" in a rental van/cars means that someone has to abstain from the vino and be willing to be the designated driver for everyone else.

I vote for hiring a driver with a large van/mini bus to take the group around when traveling en mass. If you have arranged the villa thru a local rental firm, perhaps they could recommend someone. Or check w/ the local tourism office, even if just in the closest larger city in Tuscany ... or even Florence or Rome.

We just sort of asked around (in advance by email) before our trip to Ireland several years ago, and we were given the name of a local driver who turned out to be fabulous, and he had a very large VW van. I wish you equally good luck.
There is a US company called Backroads that organized biking/hiking trips in various places around the world (including Tuscany), and they typically have a vehicle/van that goes behind. Not that you would even begin/need to hire them, but perhaps they could point you in the direction of a service for your group...maybe. Or perhaps they could recommend someone or a service with whom you could check.....you just need to find a ground operator used to small groups.

Hi All!

Thanks so much for your replies. We are all around 40 years old and we are in pretty good shape (college friends!).

We are doing 3 days of tours together and the rest of the time, we can do our things. I'm thinking that we will likely rent 2 cars to utilize for our free days, but otherwise, we will take our three tours with two vans. None of us mind the 20ish minute walk to Impruneta, so I think we will be ok with that.

Impruneta to Florence... it looks like there's a bus. Any thoughts on that?

Thanks all!

If you are all adults you should rent not 2, but 3 economy/compact cars.
3 economy cars cost less than one van. One van would not be sufficient anyhow, because you can't have more than 8 passengers plus the driver in a van. Anything bigger needs a bus driver license.
From Impruneta to Florence drive to the Oltrarno Parking lot on Piazza della Calza, basically behind the Porta Romana