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Florence

Posted by (Houston, TX) on

My husband and I are in the beginning stages of planning our delayed honeymoon in May. It will be our first time in Italy; however, for this trip, we have decided to stay mainly in the Tuscany area, with a few day trips to visit other cities. So far we have our flight in and out of Florence.

We were thinking about staying in Florence the first 2 nights to explore the city and get our bearings, then renting a car and staying somewhere north and south of Florence for 4 nights each and then back in Florence for the final evening before our flight home - early morning flight.

Looking for advice on which towns to base in for each of the 4 nights and then where to take our side trips. Southern Tuscany - Siena or San Giminiano and doing day trips to Montalcino, Montepulciano and the Chianti area. Northern Tuscany - Lucca and doing day trip to Pisa and Cinque Terre. Would this work? Or would you split up differently and any other points of interest?

My co-worker recommended Verona, but that may be a little out of the way. My husband also wants to visit Milan, but again, not sure if this would take too much time.

Given that this is our honeymoon, we are pretty flexible when it comes to our budget, would like nice accommodations -~$200-250 per night on the higher end.

Appreciate the feedback, looking forward to planning our trip!

Cheers

Kristen

Posted by
8371 posts

Your reasoning on your trip is sound. You're taking the trip slowly, and you'll get so much more out of your trip.
As far as where to go, I'd suggest finding a good agriturismo south of Florence around San Gimignano or Certaldo--just west of Poggibonsi. From there, you can hit a bunch of hilltowns like Sienna, San Gimignano and Volterra. You certainly won't be spending what you have budged for rooms either.
I'd suggest you go to Lucca on the next stage. From there, you could hit the Cinque Terre and many other cities doing day trips.

For accommodations, you can find places on Booking.com, agriturismo.com or other online websites. Virtually every farm in the area has apartments and rooms as secondary sources of income.

Posted by
16234 posts

I would head straight to the countryside location of your choice with the rental upon landing, and leave Florence for your last 3 nights before coming home. You would return the car as soon as you return to Florence, since you won't need a car for Florence.

If you stay near Siena (like Colle Val D'Elsa or Monteriggioni area) you can hit a lot of places from there.

For Lucca/Pisa you can do that better as a day trip via train from Florence. In that case increase your Florence nights and use a day for that day trip. It's faster by train because you don't have to deal with parking and traffic in Pisa and Lucca, which both have traffic restrictions in the city center. (Lucca is nicer, so spend more time there than Pisa, where you need just an hour or two max).

The Cinque Terre are not that easy to reach and cars are not the best way to go there. It's actually faster to go from Florence to Venice or Verona or Milan by high speed train, than to go to the Cinque Terre by any means of transportation, in spite of being closer.

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