Agriturismos in Italy without a car

Tuscany is hard to do without a car.

Start in Florence and follow 222 south. There are regular buses that run down 222. For instance, there are some agriturismos near Greve. We stayed at Castillo di Verrazano. It would be about a 10 minute walk from the apartments to the bus stop to go to bigger cities and about a 10 minute taxi ride from the apartments into Greve.

Thanks so much. do you think it would be possible to walk into Greve without a taxi?

Google Maps is great for questions like "Can we walk from X to Y?" Turns out it's over an hour to walk between Castello di Verrazzano to Greve in Chianti. See link: https://goo.gl/maps/y7h69HwFXYQ2

Do you mind if I ask what your particular interest is in staying at an agriturismo? Someone might have an alternative suggestion that would fit the bill.

I was looking for a different accomodation other than a hotel, something in a small town where there would be good food and wine and a taste of Italian life. I've heard from friends that Agritourismos are great but they all rented cars. Friends also told me that they were lower prices than hotels, but I've noticed that that's not necessarily true now that I've been looking.

Agriturismo are farmhouses which are located in the middle of the countryside, often rather isolated. They aren't in the middle of town the same way as farmhouses in America aren't in the middle of town.
A car is really necessary, unless you are willing to spend a lot of money on taxi cabs (where available).
Agriturismo offer good value for the money especially for larger groups or for a family. But if you have to spend a lot of money on taxicabs, then there is no advantage.

Thanks for your response. Any suggestions of small, non touristy towns in Tuscany or Emillia Romagna to visit??

what do you want to see in Tuscany, villages, small towns seaside, vineyards? Would you be interested to go to the Village of Pinocchio? Are you find of museums or little churches? Mountains would be hard without a car.
You will get great food anywhere in Italy.
I would devote my 13 days to Tuscany and do Veneto and Emilia Romagna for a two week stay another time.

http://www.borghiditoscana.net
You will find a lot of ideas.
The easiest bus and train connections to Tuscan villages and towns are from Florence, Siena, Arezzo.

Anghiari
Pitigliano
Lucignano
Monteriggioni
Massa Maritima
All of these are wonderful little villages

The Argentario and the Tuscan archipelago is wonderful and offer wonderful fish dishes.
Versilia seaside resorts is more posh.

Here's one that we will be staying at just a 5 minute walk to the village of Imprunetta (Chianti region) and a bus every 30 minutes at the driveway to/from Florence- it's a 15 minute ride http://www.relaisvillalolmo.com

Thanks for all the good ideas!

Michael is right about using Google maps as a tool. In regard to walking from Castillo di Verrazzano to Greve, I think Google is measuring from the winery into town. The accommodations are near the bottom of the hill, much closer to the road. Still, it would be too far to walk to Greve.

If you won't have a car, check into B&B's in towns instead of agriturismos. They can be reasonably priced as well. You'll be there in the off season and should be able to find comfortable accommodations in the 70-80 euro range.

Since you are from NYC, do you just not drive? Is it a budget issue? It does cost more to rent a car than to take public transportation, especially if you don't move around a lot, but the flexibility of schedule and routes provided by a car is well worth the additional cost, especially in Tuscany. If you are concerned about driving in Italy I can assure you that if you feel comfortable driving in the States, you'll be comfortable over there. I found the stories of ZTL's, speed zones and Italian drivers are exaggerated. I'd much rather drive on the Autostrada than I-95. Driving in Tuscany is like driving in rural areas in the States; the pace is more relaxed and drivers are friendly. Italian cities are another matter. I had no problems in Siena but I wouldn't attempt to drive in Florence or Rome.

Even the difficulties of driving in large Italian cities are wildly exaggerated.

Driving in Florence or Rome is easier than dealing with the total lack of courtesy and aggressiveness of some NYC cab drivers.

I do have a driver's license but I haven't actually driven in for a few years.
I have read a lot about how crazy Italian drivers are but I'm sure that is exaggerated.
But nevertheless, I don't think we're going to rent a car so we'll just have to deal with it.
Maybe we'll rent a car the next time. I have read guide books that say it's easy to get around
on buses and trains so that influenced our decision.
I appreciate all your ideas and advice!

One of the reasons we've stayed away from renting a car is that we often enjoy a late afternoon beer or two at a cafe or a dinner with wine on our day trips. I wouldn't drive at all abroad for a good reason (I'm sort of dyslexic so lefts and rights don't come quickly in unfamiliar places) but neither of us would risk getting behind the wheel in foreign territory with different road rules if we'd had even the littlest bit of an adult beverage.

Taking the trains/buses leaves us free to indulge in the wine or do some fun people watching/foot resting over a Moretti when the spirit moves us. I'm guessing we may not be alone?

If you don't want to rent a car stay in Siena or Florence. You can enjoy Tuscany in both of those cities without a car with doing day trips via bus or guide. Getting into each of those town via bus/train/plan will be workable. Forget the country setting in Agritusimo if you don't want to drive. Keep in mind, as I always do when driving in Italy, that the Italians have no concept of death when they drive.
Enjoy your time
John

Kathy, I appreciate your comment about being able to drink without worrying about driving! That's important to me too.
And John, I love your comment about the concept of death and driving--I'll remember that!

Another question: Now I'm thinking about staying in Siena and/or Bologna for three days each. Has anyone been to
those two cities and do you think they're worth three days? Also I might go to Ravenna for a couple of days.

Janet,

I can't speak to Bologna. I can see spending two sightseeing days in Siena. Add another day if you want to do more exploring and soak up the ambience of the old town. If it came down to a choice, I'd take one of the three Siena days and take a short bus ride to San Gimiagno and/or Volterra.

BTW, the computer I'm using to type this has a skyline of Siena that I took when we visited in December.

Thanks! I'll check to see if I can figure out how to get a bus to Volterra. I had been looking to stay there for a while but I decided Siena might be better.

Without a car, I'd stay in Florence and use it as a base to visit other places.
Siena is also a good choice to use as a base to visit the towns within its province (like Montepulciano, and others in the Val d'Orcia).
Bologna itself doesn't need more than a day to visit, but it's the rail hub of Emilia (actually of Northern Italy), therefore a good base to visit towns in the Emilia region (like Parma, Ferrara, Ravenna, etc.) or even Venice, just 1.5 hours away.

We've traveled to numerous towns in Italy and never rented a car. To us, it feels much more like a vacation using the train and the occasional bus.

Of our list of towns, we would put Bologna at the bottom of the list. Nothing "wrong" with it - just wasn't special.
Venice, Verona, Moena, Padova, Stresa, Florence, Siena, Grosseto, Bologna, Orvieto, Rome

We really like Siena and would recommend 3 days, so you could explore some of the smaller towns in that area by bus or a small tour. If you're not familiar with their history & the Palio, check it out on the web.

I don't know whether you'd find enough to keep you busy for three full days in Bologna without using one for a day-trip, but two days sounds fine to me. The medieval center is quite large and there are food shops to peruse.

I loved Ravenna. In addition to the fabulous mosaics at 6 or 7 different sites (one a short bus ride away), the old town is lovely. It's not large, though. I imagine a day and a half would be sufficient for visiting all the mosaic sites and wandering around the historic district, both in a leisurely manner. You could probably cram it all into a day.