Private Day Tours From Florence

You can try Roberto Bechi from Rick's book and TV show for tours. He does pickups in either Florence or Siena. I used Roberto last year and loved our day in tuscany. I'm using Roberto again next month too. http://www.toursbyroberto.com/tours.html

For a drive I was recomended to Luca by Roberto. His website is http://www.hillsandroads.com/

In March 2011, we took a full-day (10 hr), private tour into Tuscany with Giuseppe Aulisa of Florence Tour. Guiseppe and his wife, Paola Migliorini, own the company. We worked out all of the arrangements with Paola by e-mail several months before we left. We told them where we wanted to go and they then quoted a price. Giuseppe was very punctual in meeting us at our hotel in Florence on the arranged day in a comfortable 8-passenger minivan. The way it worked was that Giuseppe dropped us off at the center of several towns, and then we arranged for a time to meet him to go on to the next town. I would imagine if you wanted a fully guided tour that it could be arranged. The RS Florence and Tuscany guide, as well as some other info I collected off of the internet, was all we needed to easily negotiate the towns (Volterra, San Gimignano, Monteriggioni, and Siena). We were always a few minutes late getting back to the van, but Giuseppe was very patient about it. I highly recommend Florence Tour if you are considering a day trip into Tuscany from Florence.

If you don't find what you want, those day trips are not difficult by train and bus. Cinque Terre is the furthest, but if you can get an early start, there is a 7:30 departure from Firenze Campo di Marte station (not Santa Maria Novella), that reaches La Spezia in 1.5 hours; further connection time in Cinque Terre depends on the day of week. There's a matching fast-train return that departs from La Spezia to Firenze Campo di Marte at 20:00.