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Tuscany Family Group Trip Help

Hi all!

I'm in the early stages of planning a trip with family (15-20, all adults) to Italy for June 2025. Part of the trip we will be in Tuscany (thinking 7 days) and the other part will be in Naples/Amalfi Coast region. I know the thought of coordinating 15-20 people sounds like a nightmare, but everyone is pretty flexible and we don't have to do everything together. We did 2 weeks in Ireland and England in 2022 and it went surprisingly well! It's often a choose your own adventure for people, with a few all-group activities over the course of the trip, and getting together in the evening. Wife and I were in Florence and Siena in 2022 and loved it! What we know so far:

1-People would like to stay in an agriturismo, villa or other house as a group.

2-We will have some cars, too early to say how many.

3-Most haven't been to Tuscany, let alone Italy, but have been in other parts of Europe.

4-Lots of agreement on wine tasting, cooking classes, and exploring some of the area.

Right now I'm struggling with finding a place to base us in. I know people will want to day trip to Florence and some of the surrounding towns. One part of the struggle is staying close enough to a town for people to go eat dinner and maybe other meals as a big part of the trip will be to enjoy the food.

Another struggle is the transportation logistics. For flexibility, it would be great if we were near a town that would have good rail or bus connections to other places. That way if there was no access to a car that day, people could head out on their own.

Siena would probably be a decent choice, but I wanted to see if there are other towns as options out there? I know we're probably looking for a unicorn with the above, but thought I'd ask! Once we have an area(s) nailed down then we can start looking at lodging.

Thanks all!

Posted by
133 posts

We did a big family trip for a wedding in 2019 to Tuscany. We stayed in a big villa just a few km outside Poggibonsi, it unfortunately was not walkable and did required cars for leaving the property. But from Poggibonsi, there were trains & buses into Florence and Siena. With our rental cars, we visited Sam Gimignano, Siena, Volterra, daytrip to Florence via train (but should have driven to the park and ride bus station outside of town), and a few wineries up the hill. There are many such places nearby, though I don't know if there are any that are walkable to downtown.

Poggibonsi was a decent little hub and had a few nice restaurants, even though it's not a picturesque/old/charming an option as Siena.

Posted by
519 posts

Thanks for these recommendations! I'll definitely look at Arezzo and Poggibonsi in more detail! Took a quick peak at Poggibonsi and it looked like it had frequent train service. I'll need to do a bit more research on the wine tasting around Arezzo and connections, but seems intriguing. Poggibonsi looks to be right smack in the middle of the Chianti area too. I did notice in 2022 when we were there that a lot of the wine tours either left from Florence or Siena so will need to look more at that if we stay elsewhere. We can do some driving to different tastings, but then not everyone can taste. Appreciate too the info on staying near a bus line for ease of getting into town. I think that would be a good option to look at villa's near one. One step at a time....

Thanks again for these two options!