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Exploring Tuscany in December

Posted by (USA) on

My wife and I are visiting Italy for our honeymoon in December, and we are looking forward to taking advantage of the quieter off-season mood - and the holiday spirit - in Florence, Rome, and Tuscany around Christmas. We've booked stays in Florence and Rome at the beginning and end of our time and have left 3-4 nights in the middle to rent a car and explore "the heart of Tuscany." We would like to experience some of the beautiful towns such as Volterra, Montalcino, and perhaps one or more of the hot springs in the Val d'Orcia.

In light of the weather (including the short days) this time of the year and the holidays and the decreased flow of tourists perhaps affecting businesses' and sites' hours, we're trying to decide whether to do one or a combination of the following:

  • Station ourselves at one B&B/agriturismo in the countryside and plan to take day trips to different small towns for the duration of the time
  • Station ourselves at one hotel/inn in a town and plan to take day trips, similar to above just keeping a more central location with an eye towards limited daylight
  • Town-hop, spending a day and night at different hotels/inns/B&Bs in a series of towns
  • (Could be combined with any of the above) Plan to return the car in Rome and drive from Tuscany to Rome by way of a night in Assisi

Anything here seem like an especially good (or especially bad) idea? We would love any and all experienced winter travelers' recommendations!

Posted by
16236 posts

All will work, although I'd be careful to go to an agriturismo in winter. Some of those farmhouses are hard to reach and involve some long dirt driveways, which, in winter, can get pretty muddy.

To me the decision should be made based on which specific towns/villages you want to hit. If they are close to one another, selecting a base, rather than hop from one accommodation to the next, is more time efficient, because changing accommodations is time intensive (check-in paperwork, unpack, repack, checkout paperwork, re-checkin re-unpack, etc....). For example, San Gimignano, Volterra, Monteriggioni, Siena, Colle VE, Chianti, Certaldo are all within a few km radius, therefore it would make sense to visit them from one common base in that area. Orvieto, however is pretty farther south close to Rome, so it would make sense to visit it after you check out from Tuscany and you are on your way to Rome. If you stay close to Siena, which is connected to a large part of Tuscany by several freeways, you can pretty much hit almost everything from there, including Assisi.

Posted by
4 posts

Thanks for that feedback - very helpful, and the point about not overdoing it on check-ins and check-outs is well-taken.

What are folks' thoughts on Montepulciano as a base town - how well would that set us up to see a good range of other towns/cities we're interested in (i.e. Siena, Pienza, perhaps a hot springs)?

Posted by
1136 posts

We have been to this area of Italy many times, although never in winter. We are also going this year in December and are basing in Florence. We have arranged a full day winery tour with Tours by Roberto and that will take us to Tuscany and wine country.

Even though we have been to Florence several times, there is always more to see, especially at Christmas time.

We have some friends that went to Tuscany a few years ago in winter and they forgot about the shortened days. And the possibility of snow. And that a gps isn't always the most reliable way to navigate Tuscany. And that there is not much to do after 4:30pm when it gets dark. These friends got caught in the snow on their first night on the way to their agritourismo. Their gps and their phones didn't work. They got stuck in the snow in their rental car and had to walk 1.5 miles to their agritourismo. Although they loved the beautiful place where they stayed, they were bored out of their minds.

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