Itinerary help-Tuscany area

Sorry about your experience with another forum. You're not alone. Sometimes I think we all (me included) get so wrapped up in our own dreams that other people's ideas of a vacation seem more like a nightmare. Oh well . . . to each his own.

Train? Yes, I only take trains. The trick is to check trenitalia.com and figure out schedules and destinations. If you can't "get there from here" then check the bus (amazing how nice buses are in Italy). For me the train trip becomes part of relaxing on a vacation. Personal choice.

Adverturesome? Cinque Terre is a hikers destination . . . but can be very crowded with tourists during the summer. How about Lucca? Beautiful little city, few tourists, lots of culture and "vibe." Orvieto is an easy train ride from Rome.

Now, about the 6 days. Gonna be a challenge, sorry to say. My advice would be to really research the places on your wish list. Sometimes a day trip is enough; sometimes an overnight is minimal; sometimes you just don't want to leave! Remember: you can always come back next year! Whatever you decide I am sure you are going to have a marvelous time and go home with lots of stories and memories and plans. Best wishes!

Is it six days or six nights? Do you want to spend your first night in Milano (great vibe, plenty to do in the evening, happy hour buffets are everywhere, and economical hotels are very near the Milano Centrale train station)? Then you could head to Montecatini Terme the next morning. Check Rome2rio.com for transportation by different modes, they have links to the train and bus schedules as well.

My best advice is to get hold of a good guidebook for Tuscany and plan what you want to see, then check your transportation options. Orvieto is 90 minutes from Roma Termini by train, but there is no luggage storage at the train station (although I think a nearby restaurant or hotel will hold luggage for a few hours). I would stop in Orvieto on your way back to Montecatini Terme (sounds like you are going back after your overnight in Roma?).

Welcome to the helpful community at Rick Steves. Plans may get shot down, but hopefully gently and not ridiculed. It's never personal.

Most of us would say that in Tuscany, a car is a good idea. One just has to be careful of ZTLs, and a GPS is useful. You can do anything by car, but if you do decide to stick with trains these are within reach, mostly less than 2 hours by train:

• Lucca (fabulous walled city)

• the coast at Viareggio (an OK beach)

• Pisa (worth 1/2 day since you are in the area)

• Florence

• Bologna - maybe - 2 hours each way

If you really want to go to tiny towns and take scenic drives, a car is nice, but you can see a lot by train. I am sure the others will have more suggestions for you.

You might want to reconsider driving. In my opinion, based on 16 visits, the negatives about driving in Italy are greatly exaggerated. While I wouldn't plan to drive in any big city of Europe, driving in the Italian countryside is not so bad. No need to be terrified. With just 6 days, however, there's plenty you can do by train or bus. Florence, Lucca, and Pisa immediately come to mind as places you might want to visit.

I'm not sure what you mean by saying that you're more interested in culture than in seeing every church. A major part of the culture of Italy is its historic and beautiful churches (this from a non-Christian!). That of Pisa is very beautiful , and the Tower is an iconic sight. The duomos of Florence and Orvieto are stunning.

Cheer up. Don't let those who get off on put-downs get to you.

Welcome to this forum!

Your profile doesn't say where you're from, but assuming you're from the USA, consider this: here in the USA, people's cars get towed, people get speeding tickets, people get into car accidents, and you can circle the block for hours in some places and not find parking.

Do you let that stop you from using your car to get where you need to go efficiently?

Please reconsider your decision to rely exclusively on trains. If you're an energetic, adventuresome traveler, don't let people's negative experiences deter you from doing your vacation your way. In six days, you will so much more enjoy your time if you aren't trying to figure out where you have to be when in order to catch a train or bus to your next destination. (And because Tuscany is so hilly, trains don't cover very much of it, so you'd have to take buses primarily.)

You can use the train or bus to visit Lucca, Florence, and Siena if you want, but to really get a feel for Tuscany, and to visit the kinds of places you are interested in (with scenery, vibe, and culture), use a car at least for a few days. The scenery in Tuscany is stunning. You can easily drive from one town to another without worrying about traffic, parking, and ZTLs. You'll enjoy the smaller towns, driving the back roads, and you will have a wonderful experience. And maybe you'll get lost, and end up somewhere off the beaten path and have a truly unique experience.

I speak from experience. I stayed in Siena for four nights, and for two of the days I was there I had a rental car and went exploring. In addition to the popular hill towns, I found a few that are not mentioned in any of the guide books, and those were really special too!

I've never driven in Europe and have no plans to, for reasons both practical (can't drive a manual-transmission car) and economic (I travel alone), but I agree that having a car for at least part of your time in Tuscany would be great. It comes down to this: If you're using public transportation, it's very difficult to visit more than 2 towns a day. Three requires some luck with the schedule and possibly an earlier start than you want to make.

Bus schedules, even more than train schedules, can be a bit tricky to read. You must be sure you know what is a school day, as that can really affect the time and frequency of buses (and of trains to a lesser degree). Be aware that there is often no bus service at all on Sundays to places you might want to visit--and the smaller towns/hill towns are often not served by trains.

I regularly do day-trips to a couple of small Italian towns per day by public transportation; only once did I get lucky and make it to three. It's part of the adventure for me, but I take lengthy trips and can afford to be a bit philosophical about how long it takes to reach a destination that's only 30 miles away. However, I'm always disappointed when getting there means I miss out on the opportunity for a nice, relaxing lunch, as sometimes happens.

If your itinerary is ambitious but flexible, and if modifying as you go won't cause a big argument, then go ahead and start out optimistically. Not much needs to be reserved in small-town Tuscany. Try to visit your top priority sites early in the stay, in case time does run out, or serendipity raises new opportunities. In my driving, I found the ZTLs and parking areas well marked and guidebooks will also mention approach roads and parking options.

Hey there! Sounds like we bought the same deal! Also a mid thirties couple, and we are going to ROCK an aggressive itinerary and I'm psyched about it. Bottom line is keep it flexible, for all I know I'm going to fall in love with a spot and skip the rest.

We plan to use the supplied rental to travel as needed, and train as needed. Here is what we are doing for reference, sure it's not for everyone but this is my vacation not theirs right? I might not EVER get back to Italy, I also might never COME BACK to the states and pull a "under the tuscan sun" but regardless this form has been amazing along with Rick's videos and book.

Day 1: (tues)
We fly in to Milan arriving about noon local time on a Tuesday then plan to drive 4 hours or so to Montecatini Terme. Depending on that drive, I might swing through Pisa prior to going to the hotel since it's not far to see the tower, otherwise I'm skipping it likely. That night stay local, explore MT, get dinner then sleep.

Day 2: (wed)
Up early, we are going to Rome by train (already booked) arriving at 10am. Then we are going to crush what sites we can in 10 hours, back on the train at 8pm, back at hotel around midnight I suspect.

Day 3: (thur)
Might depend on the weather but likely going to get up early and drive to Cinque Terre and park on the outskirts. Perhaps in La Spezia and train in. Still investigating. We have no goal here other than to see the towns (connected by an easy train) eat, and enjoy the views.

Day 4: (fri)
Driving Tuscany villages and hill towns. There are tons of them, and this form and others have a lot of suggestions. Going to play it by ear.

Day 5:(sat)
Short train ride to Florence, again only real goal is to check it out and walk around. See the David, the Duomo and EAT.

Day 6: (sun) we could fly home, but we extended the trip for a few days on the cheap and are going to Venice. Driving the rental to arrive midday, find a spot at the enormous garages and then stay through to Wednesday.

Day 7: (mon)
take it easy in Venice

Day 8: (tues)
take it easy in Venice

Day 9: (wed)
gotta go, drive to Milan (probably stop along the way, maybe Verona? who knows, who cares it's probably all wonderful!) Arrive in Milan (place doesn't interest me much, but I'll check it out and walk around)

Day 10: (thurs)
perhaps the Last Supper in the morning if I can make it work before we need to drop the rental off and fly back to NYC/BTV

Don't worry what other peeps say, just do what you want to do.

Cheers,

Dan

We are in our 50s and adventurous :) As two former exchange students in our youth, we like to (mostly) avoid crowds and chat up locals in our travels whenever we can. So excited about 17 days in Tuscany and northern Italy in May. Here's what we are planning: First, definitely renting a car! We rented a car and drove it all over northern Europe in 2014 and it was wonderful. (In fact, we drove a British car on the continent with zero problems. Many (Americans) thought we were crazy, but since I had some health issues at the time, it worked much better for me than extra flights from Great Britain. Lots of Brits do it and it was truly no big deal.)

Looking forward to driving that Fiat 500 on the little back roads of Tuscany. We'll hope to avoid the ZTLs by parking on the outskirts of any towns.

Landing in Milan, heading south to an agriturissmo in Pienza for four days. Heading to hill towns south one day. (Thinking about a stop at Terme di Saturnia._ Likely a visit to Volterra and San Gimignano. Another day, hoping to do one of Rick's half day loop drives to Tuscan hill towns (from his Italy book). One day in Florence, including an opera performance. A vespa tour in Chianti for a castle visit and tour of their olive oil and wine making. A market visit and cooking class with a local outside Florence another day.

Then heading to an Airbnb outside Lucca for four nights. Possibly Cinque Terre if I can miss the cruise tourists. (Thanks to the person who posted cruise dates here awhile back.) And last, four nights at another adorable Airbnb in Comnago, near Lake Maggiore with day trips to Lake Cuomo and Switzerland.

It's always great to get input from seasoned travelers, but in the end, there's many ways to design a great trip. Don't let naysayers get you down :)

Hi - sounds like I booked the same deal as you did too! I may have also downloaded the TripAdvisor itinerary you mentioned as it sounds like exactly what we wanted to do! So thank you for your post! I am traveling with my friend and the only 2 must do's are Lucca and Florence. Like others have said there are the same issues in the US so it will be what it will be. I am actually looking forward to the driving adventure. My friend and I will be traveling Sept 21 - 28 so if that is your time frame as well it would be great to have some other traveling friends. I can tell you we arrive on the earliest Delta flight on Wednesday and planned to drive the coast to get to the hotel since we were so early arriving. I agree with the others - it is your trip, do what you want. I did the same thing when I went to London, Paris and Switzerland in 10 days because I might not get back....and Paris in 45 hours I saw everything I wanted and then some! Safe travels and enjoy!

There is the train going from Montecatini Centro or Terme to Florence ( 1 hour time), so I would dedicate two day trips to Florence.
I would take the bus to Siena and dedicate one full day there
https://busweb.it/autobus_Montecatini_Napoli.html.
I would try to get to San Gimignano.
When you get to Montecatini, go to a Tabaccaio and ask him how do I go there with the "Pullman" which is the bus.

In the small hill towns, would use the car.
To Florence I would use the train.
Taking the bus is nice also (when it is convenient to your organization) because you do not have to pay attention to winding roads, just admire landscape.
Best is a mixture of train bus and car as our mood tells us.
We are on holiday?!!

OK, my wife and I may be the exceptions, but we drive everywhere. In our youth we were stationed in Germany so driving in Europe seems the norm, and not too much different from driving in the states. For two people, I don't find much difference between trains/ buses and renting a small economical car.
Other than a couple of tickets for entering into a forbidden zone in Padua, we had zero issues. In three trips to Italy, I've never had an occasion to regret my approach. A car to a tourist is the same as it is to a teenager, freedom. Freedom to pop off the highway to follow a side road up the hill to a monastery, freedom to "get lost" a little, and the ability to leave your luggage in the car and not have to schlep or store it.
Also we do not travel light as Rick advises, so the car is the place the luggage lives. We'll be back in Sept and are planning an itinerary now which will be train/bus free.
We tend to split our time between the country/ city sightseeing and love the flexibility a car gives us.
Enjoy your travels.

I live in Pistoia, very close to Montecatini.
So, this is my advice.
For first visit the charming places near Montecatini, from Colle di Buggiano to MAssa and Cozzile (three small fascinating medieval villages).
Then take a day trip to Pistoia and Lucca.
Reserve a full day to visit Florence and a day for the Chianti area.
I suggest to take a trip in Lunigiana, you will definitely love it
Last but not least a trip in the countryside of Volterra (and a trip to Volterra and San Gimignano). Take a walk around Montaione, Iano di Montaione, Castelfalfi (there's a delightful path surrounding Villa Ciggiano, where you can discover the Via Francigena and the set of Pinocchio by Roberto Benigni).
Enjoy Tuscany!

I like to impose an upper limit of 90mins travel time to a day trip destination. Consider these easily done by train...
1) Florence - 2 days
2) Lucca
3) Pisa and Viareggio
4) Cinque Terre (yes, a little further)
5) Siena (also, a little further)

Thank you everyone for your helpful suggestions. Definitely feeling a lot better about things now! All of your suggestions sound great!

To tsj1991, we are travelling in October, so we will just miss you by a few weeks. Too bad as it would have been fun to meet up and explore some things together!

to dantbarnes - did you extend your stay after you had booked the original package or before? we are considering doing the same thing but not sure how much Gate 1 will charge us to make changes after the fact.

I will be in Italy next month for 2 weeks and experienced the same thing! My calendar was full to the brink and I know its just not possible to see and do so much. I was also weary about the car driving though I drive in Germany a lot on the autobahn and I also own a manual and use one overseas. How about a mixture of driving your own car and train? We are flying into Milan and driving to our 2 week hub Reggio Emilia. From there we are driving to Assisi, a winery , Siena and possibly Pisa. But I am taking a train from Reggio to Bologna to attend a cooking class I also want to see Rome but after mapping it out and with just 1 day there we are not doing it. The time will be too hectic. We also added 2 nights to Siena instead of just 1. This way we have time to take in the culture, have a picnic in a park and enjoy leisure time. Try to just focus on 2 areas and truly explore those. 6 days is just not enough time to see all you like to see. Don't forget the jetlag which will impact you the first day for sure. Good luck..