Tuscan countryside and towns with tweens. Would love some insider suggestions please!

You might want to investigate visiting Monteriggioni. I went there by bus from Siena one afternoon. Getting up into the fort entailed walking a little bit of the Via Francigena. It has an armor museum and a Knights Templar museum, and walkways up close to the top of the walls, so you can look out over the countryside. I gather that is possible to walk there all the way from Siena (in 3 hours or so), and there is a tour company, Tuscan Escapes, that leads such excursions.

Wow! Thanks so much Inbsig. I'd not heard of there, and it sounds great! I love the idea of a walk to get there too. I'll investigate further.
Thank you!

The Siena Cathedral has a Gates of Heaven tour, I discovered it on this forum and am planning to do it with my 14yo daughter in July.

Are you daughters Twilight fans? Montepulcianoand Volterra have tie ins that were enough to interest a trip to Tuscany for my daughter.

Good Luck and have a great trip!

The Gates of Heaven tour looks great LauraM. Just the thing to spark some interest. Thank you! I'd forgotten the Twilight link to the area! They've not read/watched yet ... but that can be some great trip preparation! We were in La Push a few years ago and telling them all about it, but they were a bit young then. This can be a neat add on to their vampire chasing holiday theme! 🤣
Enjoy your trip in July too!

For something a bit different consider the hot springs in Tuscany. There are some great spas (we took our two college-aged girls to one. The girls and I wanted to try the “free hot springs”, but my friends were not so keen, but it may be something fun for your teens.

https://www.visittuscany.com/en/ideas/free-natural-hot-springs-in-tuscany/

The other idea is going truffle hunting. I haven’t gone in Tuscany, so there isn’t a place I can recommend, but this is a great area for truffles.

Enjoy

Hi Sandy. Those thermal pools look wonderful! I wonder if they're as quiet as in those pictures or if they've become Instagram hot spots! I'll definitely investigate those further. Did you make it to any?
And I love the idea of truffle hunting. I wonder if that's during the summer months? I'll look.

Thank you for taking the time to reply.

And for anyone else that finds this thread looking for similar, I've just come across a company that offer rafting trips down the Arno and going under the ponte vecchio. They look great and are really reasonably priced.

https://www.firenzerafting.it/rafting/

Have visited both of these free outdoor natural spas. Prefer the first.

https://maremma-tuscany.com/saturnia/le-cascate-del-mulino/

https://www.wanderingitaly.com/blog/article/1066/bagni-san-filippo

These might be of interest. Horseback riding.

http://www.chiantiriding.it

Adventure park, think zip lines and rock walls.

http://www.saltalbero.it/en/index.php

Cooking class. https://www.artandcooking.com

Have done all of these except cooking class, she lives in Italy.

Sadly, I don't think you will have Saturnia springs to yourself in August--we visited in May and found it too crowded for comfort.
I am not sure if it would be too far to drive, but I read about this park that I thought sounded fascinating. I unfortunately did not make it when I was in the area!
https://www.visittuscany.com/en/attractions/le-biancane-nature-park-00001/

Hi Alex,

We did not go to the thermal pools as my friends really wanted to go the spa. If it was just the girls and I, we would have gone to the thermal pools. So, I can't tell you how busy they are, but I can say that in mid-June, the spa was not that busy on a week day.

As for truffle hunting, our B&B recommended Giorgio who owns a restaurant in Monti (about 20 km outside of Siena). Here is the link to the restaurant which has contact information if you are interested in truffle hunting: http://www.locandadeltartufaio.it/dove-siamo.html. If you find yourself in the area, this is a spectacular restaurant. We had a 4 course meal (with three of the courses with an abundance of truffles), all the wine you could drink for 39 Euros. The equivalent meal with the amount of truffles in my area would have been over $200/person. The other cool thing about this restaurant is the pet owl, Mary. Giorgio brings her out to meet the guests. My niece loved holding and petting her (although she said that the bird is really heavy).

Enjoy Tuscany.

Sandy

Hi Alex,

One other thing for Venice. My friend just took her 10 year old daughter there during Carnival and they took a mask making class at Ca' Macana who make many of the masks for the Carnival. They really enjoyed the experience. Here is the link: https://www.camacana.com/.

Sandy

Since you're planning to be in Malcesine, you could take the cable car up Mt. Baldo (https://360gardalife.com/en/cable-car-malcesine-monte-baldo), and do some hiking and view-admiring up there.

Hi Inbsig,
The cable car is definitely on our itinerary and was my reason for choosing Malcesine to stay at in the end. It looks beautiful! And hiking with a view without the hard work to get up there is always a winner!
Thank you!

I have been to Petrolio, and though it STUNK for the first 5-10 min we were there, you got used to it, and it was AWESOME. Just bring an old swimsuit for the sulfur water, as it might discolor a favorite suit.