Hi all. I've been to Italy many times but have not had the opportunity to visit towns like Montepulciano, San Gimignano or Montalcino. Since I don't rent a car I reply on mostly trains, sometimes buses, for travel. I'm going to Italy in March and was given the name of 2 tour companies by hotel staff in Florence. I was wondering if anyone has any experience with these tour companies. If so, would you recommend or could you recommend others? Thanks in advance!
Posted by
Coral Gables, Florida
455 posts
I reply on mostly trains, sometimes buses, for travel.
No opinion on the tour companies but I’ll say that San Gimignano is not that hard to reach using public transportation and is worth spending at least one night there. I spent two nights and would do it again. If you day trip, you’ll be there only when it’s packed with day trippers. It’s much nicer before day trippers arrive and after they leave.
Posted by
9491 posts
Posted by
Seattle, WA
670 posts
In 2024, our RS Sicily tour guide was David Tordi. He was excellent.
David is an Orvieto native and leads his own tours in central Italy. Might be worth a look. https://www.davidtordi.com/
Posted by
OP
85 posts
Thanks for all the replies---good information! @Marco, you're right about doing a day trip. It's hard to experience a city when you're only there for a few hours.
Posted by
16 posts
Hi,
I think that you have a few options here. It depends if you want to spend the night in the towns. All three you mentioned are quite small and , in theory, be spent with one day at each. I don't have any direct experience with either of those companies above, but I have taken a great day trip with thetourguy from florence. It included Siena, San gimignano and a vineyard lunch.
Any chance you would want to rent a car? It goes you a lot of flexibility and driving the Tuscan roads is not like the nightmare in the main cities like Rome.
Posted by
OP
85 posts
@JamesW, thanks for the info about TheTourGuy. There are a lot of tours available. Though it limits where I can go, I really prefer not to rent a car since I don't want to deal with parking, ZTL, etc.