Help me plan Tuscany in March with older kids

Since you will have a car, staying outside of Florence would work best. It can be nearby like Fiesole.

And if we split the week, we’d drop the car for the Florence portion.

Sounds like a wonderful Spring Break for your family. I love Italy but it has been a while since my last trip there. Your idea of limiting the stay to Florence or perhaps adding one other stay in Tuscany is good and to make it a short drive from the Florence airport. I assume you are flying into Florence and not Pisa. If it were me, I would choose either Sienna or Lucca for the first night or two and then focus on Florence. You will all be getting over jet lag and since you have some teenagers, perhaps they would like to sleep in that first day. Easier to do that in a sleepy village. Riding bicycles around the ancient wall in Lucca was a highlight of my RS tour. It looks like the drive to either Lucca or Sienna would take about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. There is the train option too, instead of driving.

Just some thoughts. Drivers will be tired after such a long flight from the West Coast. Have you driven in Europe? I have not, but figure the advice for making a SHORT drive from Florence just after a long haul flight would be important. Have a great first trip to Italy. You will get many responses from the wonderful forum members here.

Ciao!

Since you only have a week, I agree with your plan to either stay in one place the entire time or move only once. Given your family size and ages and your interests, it sounds to me like an apartment in Florence would suit you best.

Some family members might want to take one or more day trips to surrounding towns while others stay in Florence to shop or visit museums. You could use public transport (mainly buses) to see other towns in the countryside, or take a small group (van) tour (advantage being a tour guide), or else rent a car or hire a driver if you want to customize where you'll go and how long you'll have at each stop. Hiring a driver means you won't have to worry about getting lost, getting a traffic ticket, or parking.

I'm not sure Fiesole would really be ideal for you because you'd be "commuting" into Florence to make connections to other towns and to visit the famous museums, churches etc.

Not only does IT have very strict speed and ZTL zone laws, it is not safe to drive the day of arrival, especially if you’re arriving from the west coast.
Are you dead set on seeing Tuscany? Another option is to spend your first two days seeing Florence. Do buy tickets for the Uffizi Gallery two months out to guarantee reservations and don’t miss seeing David either.
Day three – take a direct train to Venice (2h 15m).
Day four - take a direct bus to Siena (1h 15m).
Day five – take a direct train to Rome (1h 45m).
Day six – take a direct train to Milan (2h).
Day seven – take a direct train to Orvieto (2h 15m).
If you’re interested in this itinerary, buy Rick Steves 26th edition IT guidebook.

We arrive in Florence at about 7 pm on a Thursday after a red eye...

By the time you get your luggage and go through customs, it's going to be more like 9:00 pm. You don't want to rent a car and drive in a country you've never been to at that time of night. I understand your desire to wind up in Florence the night before departure. Given that, I think you have some options. One would be to stay a night near the airport, then rent a car in the morning.

Given the length of stay I really recommend you find a great place in Florence to stay and use Florence as your home base. You could satisfy everyone's wish list in Florence.

There are plenty of day trips you can take from Florence. If you want to see the Tuscan countryside, there are many options for a bus tour. You could also take one or two train trips, such as to Siena or Venice. You could take a bus to Lucca. Florence is a great place to just wander around. I also suggest you take some Walks of Italy tours. They keep the tour to no more than 12 people. We've done several. Their guides are very knowledgeable. It would be a great way to see the Uffizi. You get skip the line tickets.

Don't worry about not knowing Italian. Learn a few key phrases like "thank you" and you'll be fine. Even in the most remote areas of Tuscany, we could find someone who spoke English.

BTW, Florence holds a special place in our hearts. My wife and I were on a high school trip to Europe and started hanging around together. By the time we got to Florence, I'd worked up enough courage to kiss her. That was August 10, 1966. We've been going steady since.

Another vote for just staying in Florence, sstankey. As already posted by others, there are umpty day trips you can take from there via public transit (not having to deal with a car is a plus, IMHO, and you definitely don't want one for Florence) and a city base will allow your group to easily split up to enjoy their individual interests. Your museum lovers will find enough to occupy them in Firenze alone to fill the better part of the week; I pretty much lost my mind over the fabulous Renaissance art and architecture. A lot of the art isn't in museums as you might think of them, either. Sure, there's the Uffizi and Accademia and Pitti Palace but many of the churches fall into that category as well, and a fair amount of them of them are free for the looking. LOL, if you've never set eyes upon some fascinating old Italian churches, you're in for a treat; no need to be religious to marvel over them!

Your wanderers? Same deal. It's a fun city to walk, and compact enough not to need public transit at all if you're happy to expend the shoe leather (we were). Have a good guidebook along so you can reference some of the more interesting things you'll run across. We didn't shop there but I'm sure one can if one wishes to. Anyway, I wouldn't plan an overload of day trips and shortchange Florence itself. Additionally, tickets for the "fast" trains necessary to reach some other cities in least amount of time (Rome, Venice and Milan) will be pricey for all of you unless purchased far enough in advance to land some price breaks. Weather can come into play as well; allow flexibility for a rainy day more suitable for staying in town versus leaving it.

A few of the shorter, less expensive trips by bus or rail would be Siena (bus), Lucca (inexpensive regionale train; no need to purchase tickets in advance as they're everyday priced,) Pisa (inexpensive train too) and Fiesole (just minutes away by city bus).

Yes to an apartment. The only potential snag would be if your plane is seriously delayed and the owner/manager is not available late at night to hand over keys.

Oh, and I'll also strongly advise NOT to get behind the wheel in an unfamiliar country in right off the plane! Hazardous to your health, that. Same goes for car rental + enjoyment of the grape; Italy has very strict drink-and-driving laws. Wine is pretty much everywhere anyway. English? That's almost everywhere too. :O)

With your arrival time in the evening, it’s going to be difficult to pick up a rental. Keeping this in mind, you’re going to have to change locations more than once if you plan on departing from
from Florence.
The other option is to stay in Florence and do day trips from there. I’d allow 2-3 full days for Florence.

Here are some easy day trips by train or bus.

Florence-Bologna 39 min. Train

Florence-Pistoia 43min. T

Florence-Certaldo 52 min. T

Florence-Lucca 1H20m. T. Mid afternoon train-
Pisa 35m -Florence 52min.

Florence-Siena 1H28 min. Bus/Train.

Thank you, all. You definitely convinced me not to drive right after flying. We had decided to stay in Florence the whole week-with some day trips. However, due to flight cancellations and rebooking we now have nine full days there, not counting travel days, and instead of flying out at 6 am on a Friday we leave at 2 pm on Sunday the 27th.

So, thoughts? We’d still like to minimize moving and prefer to stay in apartments rather than hotels (5 people). Florence to start and a few nights in Siena? A friend who is a frequent business traveler to Italy loooves Bologna and it seems like that’s an easy trip.

To recap-we love to eat, drink wine, and wander. Not looking to be super scheduled. Want to see David and go to Uffizi, take a cooking class, perhaps ride bikes in Luca.

hey hey sstankey
how fabulous to have a family vacation. make the most of it.
look right away for accomodations since many are taking spring break also, florence is always busy. an apartment is great for more room but there are pros and cons.
booking.com:
carapelli apartments (2 bed/2bath)
my home sweet home in san frediano (3bed/2bath)
apartments florence-santa maria balcony (3bed/2bath)
parione roof terrace (4 bed/2 bath)
cross-pollinate.com
look under florence put in dates
read fine print, check in times, if late there is charge, communicate with owner what arrival time, security deposit, get two sets of keys.
know how all works in apt with walk thru, ask questions. pack light some have washers, hang to dry
another idea, keep apt and take a day trip to lucca, spend night and back next day
ride bikes around the walls, train to leaning tower of pisa, train to viareggio on the coast, walk the center piazza, have lunch
fattoriaaldotto.it in lucca winery and tasting, take the bus or a taxi email them
train to pistoia for day trip, walk/roam all over florence, sit at cafe with appetizers/wine, people watch
educated-traveller.com (wine windows in florence) (buchettedelvino.org go to lists of maps, then down to florence interactive map)
read up about them, found out about these distinct windows from pedicab driver that were put back in use.
lacucinaitaliana.com has half day cooking classes and accomodations in lucca, email them
walk over the river/ponte vecchio bridge and roam around, stop for gelato, carry small coins in case you run into "free" street entertainment.
cucciolo bar pasticceria on via del corso for the bomboloni donuts.
just a few thoughts for you to check out. have fun with your gang that will absolutely love it. have them check out and research too.
aloha

Lucky you having to stay longer! This happened to us a few years ago and we were able to add another destination.
I'm loving this thread-I'm thinking that the next time I go to Italy, I'll just plan to spend a week in Florence (my 2nd favorite city next to Charleston) and do some of these day trips. It's so freeing to just hope on a train without luggage! Is Ravenna possible as a day trip from Florence?

We have done this trip many times also from the West Coast, and love Chianti, easy train to Florence from Figline Valdarno. Lots of small towns to see in the area. A nice family place to stay is Villa Castellacio, http://www.villailcastellaccio.com/. The owner is quite gracious and caring. We have found staying in country apartments, houses lets us experience much more of Italian life and lets the kids have some down time.

We are booked! Six nights in Florence and four in Siena. Plan to day trip some from both-Bologna and Lucca from Florence and perhaps rent a car from some driving around Tuscany for the Siena portion. It’s starting to feel real (and my 25 year old found her passport-thank god-now just waiting for my eldest daughter’s to come. Hers was burnt in the oregon wildfires and there is a free replacement program. Cross your fingers for us).

Your trip sounds wonderful! I think you have the perfect amount of time allocated. I just wanted to comment on one point from a previous poster- You will actually go through customs and passport control in your first European arrival city, not Florence.