We’re heading to Tuscany in June. This is our 3rd trip, so we’ve done all the major tourist things. Now we want to just enjoy Tuscany. We’ll be staying just outside of Siena and will have a car. We’ve been to Certaldo, Lucca, Pisa and San Gimignano, and of course Florence and Siena. Looking for ideas of how to spend 5 days in Tuscany. Of course, we’ll want to visit some wineries and I’d like to take a cooking class. I'd appreciate any ideas!
Posted by
San Franciso Bay Area, USA
989 posts
This sounds like a fantastic trip. Last year, we took a vacation from our vacation in Tuscany, staying 20km outside of Siena at Borgo Argenina: https://www.borgoargenina.it/. We choose it exactly based on the same criteria for your trip, wineries, cooking classes, and relaxing. We stayed 4 nights, but could have stayed a week. The property is several old Tuscan farm houses, beautifully restored, overlooking vineyards. The cooking class is on site (bonus for us), so that we could tour in the day and return in the early evening to make a lovely dinner with family recipes. There are wineries near by and Eleana the owner will introduce you to the smaller wineries in the region. Additionally, there is a cute town down the road (1.5km), Monte with the most fantastic truffle restaurant (and a pet owl). The owner hunts his own truffles and if you are so inclined can go on a truffle hunt very early in the morning.
If you don't already have reservations for a place, you may want to consider Borgo Argenina.
Sandy
Posted by
Colorado Springs
2889 posts
Pick up a copy of "Back Roads Northern Italy" from DK Publishing. Can find used copies on Amazon for just a few dollars. We used the guide extensively during our own trip to Tuscany earlier this year. As the name implies, it's full of scenic, off-the-beaten tourist path excursions to some out of the way attractions and hidden gems that aren't included in most of the other guides.
Posted by
Carmel, CA, USA
2455 posts
Thanks Robert, I just ordered the book you recommended for my own spring trip to Tuscany, Umbria and Emilia Romagna..
Posted by
Colorado Springs
2889 posts
Great. Be aware that there are two seperate guides - one specifically for Northern & Central Italy as mentioned above, and another titled "Back Roads Italy" that obviously covers the rest of the country and which does have some (though not all) of the scenic drives described in the other. We happened to have both and ripped out pages for the drives that particularly interested us. You may want to consider getting both and comparing them ... especially if you can find copies for less than $5 as is usually the case.