My husband and I are planning a visit to Florence and the wine region, Tuscany.
Would you recommend staying in Florence and the countryside in Tuscany or just Florence?
Recommend hotels please...
We are considering a few additional visits and would like recommendations? Siena? Pisa? Lucca? Milan? Cinque Terre?
How long is your trip?
We absolutely loved Lucca. From there we did a day trip to Cinque Terre.
We only got a day trip to Tuscany, but next time I would choose to spend a longer period there.
Our VRBO apartment in Florence was great. you could see the Duomo from our patio, walking distance to everything.
I think it just depends on budget and how you like to travel. I like a mix of big and small cities. I also like to be in towns when day trippers go home and I don't like the backtracking of day tripping, although when it works for us, we do the day trips. It also may depend on how it works with accommodations. We are taking our first of what I think will be several trips to Italy and we are spending 3 nights in Florence, 2 in Cinque Terre and 2 in Siena before proceeding to Rome and beyond. I highly recommend watching the RS tv shows on this website or on Amazon, PBS, etc. It will give you an idea of what appeals. Except for Tuscany and Umbria, for us, it was EVERYTHING.
"We are taking our first of what I think will be several trips to Italy and we are spending 3 nights in Florence, 2 in Cinque Terre and 2 in Siena before proceeding to Rome and beyond"
IME it would be advisable to not stay in Siena, but visit on a day trip by bus from Florence. Two nights yield only a single full day. Whether the saved night would be best spent in Florence or a CT village has to do with the schedule of cruise ships, and the passenger capacities:
http://crocierelaspezia.altervista.org/calendario2019.pdf
If the presence of large ships is unavoidable, then it would be wise to stay in Manarola or Riomaggiore which are the least impacted; Monrerosso and Vernazza the morst. If there is a ship on the arrival day, it would be expedient to arrive early to avoid the crowd at La Spezia. You do this by taking the train from Campo di Marte at 7:28AM, connecting to the local train:
We are considering 3-4 nights in Florence, 2-3 nights in Milan and 1-2 nights in Cinque Terre...
We are considering a day trip to Siena and a day trip to Lucca?
We are open to suggestions.
We are considering 3-4 nights in Florence, 2-3 nights in Milan and 1-2 nights in Cinque Terre...
We are considering a day trip to Siena and a day trip to Lucca?
From where will you take your day trips? Milan is too far away and you don't have near enough time for Florence already. 3-4 nights means 2-3 days.
If you want to see Florence and Tuscany, then spend 4 nights in Florence, rent a car and spend the rest of your time in an agriturismo near Siena. Leave out CT altogether. If you must, you could day trip to Lucca from there. It's a ~2 hour drive. However, I recommend exploring towns nearby, such as Radda, Castellina, Greve as one day exploring. Then San Gimignano and Volterra as another day and Montalcino and Montepulciano together. Spend an entire day in Siena.
What time of year will you be going?
Where are coming from; exactly how many nights do you have; where are you going next? Are you willing to rent a car if needed? Difficult to make sensible suggestions without knowing these things.
