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traveling with six folks in Tuscany

Posted by on

Hi, we will have three couples (all around 60) traveling from Cinque Terre to Tuscany, spending 3 nights in a villa near Volterra and 4 nights in a villa in Monticchiello in mid-May 2023. We are looking to relax, explore various hill towns, enjoy good wine and food. We don't want to be limited in our ability to get around, so we are planning on a car(s). We are considering our options. It looks like cars that can accommodate six people are a challenge to find, and then will make it harder to get around with narrow roads, small towns, etc. We'll also clearly stick out as tourists. We're also open to an option of two cars, but since we plan to do everything together, that isn't ideal. We're also open to renting a driver for a few days, particularly if it's on a day when we might be visiting vineyards. From our first Tuscan home base near Volterra, we are hoping to visit Volterra, San Gimignano, Siena, etc. From our second home Tuscan home base in Monticchiello, we hope to visit Montepulciano, Pienza, Montalcino, and perhaps Cortona, and also are considering a day trip to Orvieto and Civita.

Thoughts on the best way to get around Tuscany with a group of six?

Posted by
11647 posts

When we travel with two others, we rent one car. If more than four, rent two cars. On a 10 person family group trip, we had three cars. You can’t drive into small Tuscan medieval towns with large vehicles. You could not easily visit yours list of towns you hope to visit with a large vehicle.

Posted by
7979 posts

At least you're in May, but parking spaces can require a Mall-at-Christmas wait in some towns, like San G. Read up on IDP, ZTL, and insurance.

Hard to see Siena in less than a full daytrip. Two cars , while necessary, could slow down eating in a different place than the last sight of the day.

Just an idea, we had long, gourmet winery lunches and bar snacks at the hotel for dinner. That requires sensible timing for the drivers. We really needed a dip in the pool at night.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/val-d-orcia-wineries

Posted by
1605 posts

I realize that Tuscany is not Puglia, but we drove all around Puglia for two weeks in a 9-passenger van (rented from Europcar) and visited lots of hill towns and other towns with ZTLs --- you can't drive a car into these towns anyway, so there are parking lots and other places to park outside of the historic centers in both regions. Then you can walk in or there's a bus or (in Siena) escalators or some kind of people-moving device. There were 6 of us, including 2 kids in carseats, and we wanted to stay together, which you may also want to do. For all our day trips, we could have squeezed into a regular mini-van, which are available to rent. I'm not at all advocating for renting one big vehicle rather than two smaller ones, I'm just saying it is perfectly possible. I do not know how the cost would compare to hiring a driver as needed.

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