First visit to Florence have 5 full days to explore, need help in planning....reading the travel forums i think will need 3 days in Florence, want to see Pisa, Siena, any other towns nearby? i read something about Tuscany...don't have a car is public transport good? from Florence will be going to Venice for 3 days.
please help :-) thanks
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area (USA)
15193 posts
Unless you are an art fiend and a museum mouse, two full busy days should be enough to see Florence's main sights.
Florence is an excellent base to visit the rest of Tuscany with public transportation as Florence is Tuscany's capital and main transportation hub. Some towns are easily reached by train (Pisa, Lucca, Arezzo, Certaldo, and others). Most of the rest are probably better reached by bus or a combination of rail+bus.
Many ancient towns were built on top of hills for defense and health reasons (hills are more difficult to conquer by enemies and the valleys below were mosquito infested swamps in antiquity), therefore buses are the only option in some cases as rail goes only in the valleys below.
There are numerous entries in the forum that you can search to see what towns are famous.
Fiesole, Siena, San Gimignano, the Chianti Hills, Certaldo, Colle Val D'Elsa, Pisa, Lucca, Arezzo, Cortona are some of the famous ones that are more easily reachable from Florence with public transportation. There are others south of Siena, but coming from Florence without a car it might be a challenge to visit in a day.
Take a look to this site for some ideas:
www.borghiditoscana.net
Posted by
Tucson
4156 posts
You may not be a bus tour type, we certainly aren't. But we, our daughter and grand daughter thoroughly enjoyed the walkaboutflorence.com Best of Tuscany Tour. It's a long day, but well worth the price, especially since there seems to be a sale on now.
Posted by
Brisbane, Australia
7175 posts
With 5 full days staying in Florence you should spend 2 days exploring the city itself - Accademy, Uffizi, Duomo, Medici Chapels, Ponte Vecchio, etc That leaves you 3 full days to get out into Tuscany, using public transport.
1 Siena by train
2 Pisa and Lucca by train
3 San Gimignano and Volterra by bus
Posted by
Ann Arbor, Mi
3696 posts
Last trip I stayed in Florence for 3 xtra days after friends left, and while I am not a 'bus tour' type either, I did hop on a few and it was nice and relaxing. Fun to have someone else worry about the logistics. I went on a wine tour with lunch and an evening tour of a few villages. Don't remember the company but all the hotels have brochures with options. To go to Siena I just took the train as I did not want to be herded around with a group. It was easy enough and spent about 5 hours there, which was plenty for me. It was near the end of my trip and I was tired, so I might go back sometime. I am sure its more fun to spend the night there.