Small towns near Montepulciano without a car - UPDATE: found a new solution!

Jean,
I’ve been to Mill Creek. You are from a nice suburb near Everett, and I am willing to make the wild assumption you have a car and never take buses at home. I’m also going to make the wild assumption you are probably familiar with driving on two lane roads with some curves. There are plenty of such roads on the Cascades near you.
So I’m going to ask you if there is a reason why you wouldn’t rent a car in Chiusi and use a car to visit the Montepulciano area (Chiusi is near Montepulciano and most major rental companies are present there).

Hi Roberto, yes, we do enjoy living in Mill Creek.

To answer the assumptions you asked, I’m a regular bus rider taking a commuter bus to Seattle daily for work, and we find them handy for sports games. And when we enjoyed a recent trip to San Francisco, we didn’t rent a car - just used Uber.

Personally, I don’t want to rent a car which is why I posted the question for transportation options.

In that part of Tuscany the public transit is really designed for commuters and school children so not ideal for a tourist.

You may get lucky with a tour but seems unlikely to me one would ever start in Montepulciano.
A base of Florence or even Siena or San Gim may have tours like that.
Thinking a private driver would be the way to go.

Of course renting a car is superior to any of these alternatives.
Pienza and Monticchiello could easily be seen in the same day if you had a car and that would not be rushing it.
Both towns are tiny and most like the towns but a major part of the draw is the scenery along the way which on a bus you would barely see and not be able to get out at any viewpoint type places.
So in this example the car is for more than just getting point a to point b

Another town that you can easily take the bus to from Montepulciano is San Quirico d'Orcia. It was a place we were in for only a short time and thought we would like to return to. It's close to Montepulciano so might do well for your other half-day trip.

Well. Commuting to work by bus in the Seattle metro area, or visiting San Francisco, another large and populous city, using Uber, is not the same as visiting by bus a sparsely inhabited rural area like southern Tuscany, (which happened to be located in a country that has banned UberX).

Would you consider visiting Yellowstone in Montana or Wyoming or the Cascades by bus? I will make the wild assumption that you wouldn’t.

There are buses that serve, although not necessarily frequently, towns like Montepulciano. But Monticchiello? The 53A bus goes there, but good luck with the service schedule. There is one going to Montepulciano on school days in the early morning and one coming back from Montepulciano in the early afternoon after school.

Thanks everyone for your replies. Janet, I’ll check San Quirico - thanks! I may end up just renting a bike from Urban Bikery since they have GPS routes to wineries and villages, and the e-bike would be good for the hills.

I would suggest that you consider taking a private or group tour with Hills and Roads. I took a private tour with my son last summer and it was worth every euro. Not only were we driven around in an air conditioned car stress free but the tour was custom made to what we wanted and the history and area were explained. It was definitely one of the highlights of our trip. Talk to them. You’ve got nothing to lose.

Thank you Marionsher! I looked up this company which opened up a great idea of not using them for a half-day encircling the Montepulciano area on my third day. It makes more sense to use them for the journey to Lucca for my next 4-day stop, instead of taking the train. A customized ride could stop at multiple small villages - Volterra, etc. besides a quick stop at Monticchiello.

For other people who might be looking at this post, I just found a great option today! There's apparently one of those "hop on/off" type buses in Montepulciano, and they just started expanding their options as of yesterday. Now instead of just routing through Montepulciano, they have added different small buses. There are three routes per different days of the week that start in Montepulciano and circle through surrounding towns. One route stops at Monticchiello on one of the days I will be there! They have different language headphones, etc. to provide some info on the route.

Bus Name: Valdichiana GranTour

Jean, I'm adding their site here. This should really help those traveling this area without a car to see this beautiful area.

https://valdichianaliving.it/tours/valdichiana-gran-tour/?lang=en

What a fabulous idea! I hope there's enough interest that the company is still in business the next time I'm in Italy.

Just what we're looking for! Thanks for sharing.

You just saved me! Doing 5 days for Palio in Siena then chose to do 7 in Montepulciano for the Bravio Botti. I was seriously considering cancelling the 7 and just staying in Siena just to avoid having to rent a car and do day trips from there. This would be great so I could bus hop on and off during the day and still see the Botti festivities at night! Hope this will still be an option for August 2019. Props to post ! Thanks

Thank you for this!! We are going to be in this region late December and early January. I note from the website - it runs through December 31st. I will email them to confirm - but this is a great tip!