We will be staying in Florence for 1 week. After that, we would like to rent a villa in 2 different Tuscan areas (1 week at each location). We are looking for areas that are nearby (max 30-minute drive) to downtown areas for site seeing, wine tasting and restaurants.
We would appreciate your recommendations. Travel month would be October. Thank you
Posted by
Gettysburg PA
8588 posts
Will you have a car?
Consider one location in the Val d’Orcia area-Pienza, Montepulciano
Another further north and west-perhaps near Lucca or San Gimignano or Volterra
Or consider a week in Umbria-near Spoleto
Posted by
OP
bellevue, wa, usa
27 posts
Thank you! Yes, we will have a car.
Posted by
San Diego, California, USA
1707 posts
We stayed outside Castellina in Chianti for a week and it is well positioned in chianti wine country for the surrounding area. The town is surrounded by wineries. Rada is 15 minutes away and Greve is about 30 minutes. San Gimignano is probably 45 but a day trip loop of SG and Volterra was easy and the driving was very low stress.
I haven't done the lower rural Tuscany stay yet but the cluster of Pienza, Montalcino, Montepulciano, and San Quirico d'Orcia make it a likely target. Pienza is a beautiful town and central to the area so I would start in that area and circle outward. Driving in the south is also less dictated by the valleys like it can be in the north and the country is more open.
I think the north/south solution is a good one - the closest area I've found to a compromise is around Buonconvento. It is relatively close to Montalcino and Pienza but also has bus and train service to Siena. The northern places like Rada and Greve are really starting to push the limits of a day trip for me. Although a long looping trip with multiple stops would probably be lower stress than it looks from here.
The usual caveats apply - be sure to read up on ZTLs of towns you're going to visit, be sure to get IDPs for each listed driver before you leave, do not drink and drive in Italy as they take it very seriously. Their BA level is .05 and they just raised the penalties on last year - especially on people over .08 generally the US limit.
Have a great trip, rural Tuscany is as beautiful as advertised,
=Tod
Posted by
9331 posts
We did a great Road Scholar tour that visited smaller cities and towns.
We were based in Siena for Tuscany and Spoleto for Umbria.
Umbria is great, especially Assisi, Gubbio, Perugia and Orvieto.
Posted by
616 posts
That area is massive from a wine standpoint. There are a ton of good and great wineries, so I don't think there's a "correct" answer. Every destination you can choose is gonna have access to wine bars and wineries, so maybe choose the non-wine aspects first and narrow it down from there?
If you mean to do winery visits, October is gonna be a really busy time for winemakers. They'll be wrapping up harvest and starting the long days/nights of winemaking. That's good and bad. The bad is that many little places won't be able to do visits. Larger places that have a more formal and fully staffed direct sales program will welcome you. The good news about that time is that you'll have some area festivals that you can google. If you can hit a wine festival in a city, you can taste a lot of producers is a fun, convenient atmosphere. Lucca, for example, had a month-long consortium tasting when we were there last time in the Fall. Plus it can be a fun event with entertainment, food, and great people-watching.
My general advice is to go more for an experience than a geeky tasting. A solid wine drunk with friends, on a sunny day, under a grape arbor, overlooking the vineyards > the best Tre Bicchieri wines.
My second advice is not to drive drunk. Italy is .005% which is really not very much. Some wineries will arrange transport with the idea that you'll actually buy some wine. A private driver and a large van is gonna be $$$ if you have a large group, so try to leverage free stuff when you can.