My wife and I plan to be in Florence from 11-17 Sept 2022. We aren't museum type people. However we would love to explore some type of cheese farm, olive oil producers and vineyard/winery. We do not plan on renting a car so is that only possible through a tour agency? Looks like visiting Siena is possible by bus and plan to do that as a day trip and hopefully find other towns we can visit using the bus or trains . Any thoughts or recommendations
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area (USA)
16129 posts
There are many tour companies that offer driving tours into the Chianti area (located between Florence and Siena), using cars or vans, depending on the number of people in the party. You can google "Chianti Tours" and find many. Below is one that some people recommend:
https://www.toursbyroberto.com/daytours/chianti
There is a lot to see and do in Florence, even if you don't do lots of museums, so devote at least two full days to the city (or more if you include some museums).
Posted by
Portland, Oregon
173 posts
There are a lot of tours available. We drove to Siena and montalcino and montepulciano. Those are all nice places with great wine and food. Less so Siena, IMO. There are agriturismi that have cooking classes, winery tours, food tours. Check Google and validate with trip advisor and this forum.
Posted by
Gulf Coast, usa
1191 posts
We aren't museum people much either, but you have to go see The David at the Accademia. It is truly spectacular and leaves you in awe at the perfection of Michelangelo's work. It's worth the ticket to go.
As Robert mentioned, there are lots of tour companies that can get you where you need to go. Here is a link for day trips via train.
https://www.thetrainline.com/via/europe/italy/florence/day-trips-from-florence
If you haven't booked accommodations the https://www.7florence.com/en/ is across the street from the train station (above McDonald's), and a lovely hotel. Nice size rooms, clean, friendly, and easily accessible to the sights. Makes day tripping easy. Friends recently took a cooking class at the home of one of the vineyards locally. Could ask for the info if you are interested. They said it was their favorite thing to do on their personal tour of Italy.
Posted by
OP
19 posts
JR if you wouldn't mind we'd love to hear about the cooking class at the winery you mentioned. Was it accessible via public transportation or was transportation part of the tour/class
Posted by
Southeast of Seattle
732 posts
Maybe?
https://walkaboutflorence.com/tours/cooking-class-and-lunch-at-a-farmhouse-in-tuscany-with-local-market-tour-from-florence
I just signed my husband and myself up for this one. Liked the countryside option and transport included.
Posted by
California
1625 posts
Walk About Florence has an all day "Best of Tuscany Tour" that takes you to an organic farm for lunch which also makes wine, we had a really fun time with them. They will take you to two hill towns and Pisa, look on their website for the exact itinerary. It is a large bus tour with a big group and all day and the pace is fast, we had enough time in one town grab an ice cream, sit and people watch and shop, and in another town we got coffee and a snack and shopped. They have lots of tours but I can vouch that they are a reputable company. When I am doing independent travel and planning it all, once and a while during the trip it is nice to just hop on an Air conditioned bus and just let someone else figure it all out. This was one of those tours.
Posted by
Sunriver
1321 posts
We just returned from Florence. We did use Tours by Roberto with some modification of his standard tours. It was well worth the expense. One of the best tours we have every done. His knowledge of the region and his love for Siena comes through 100%
We also did a walking food tour that we booked through Viator. Our guide was a women named Sarah and it was also excellent.