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Tuscany Itinerary - Please critique/offer advice!

Posted by (North Carolina) on

Planning a week's vacation in Tuscany in April, 2010. We are arriving in Pisa and staying in Montecatini the entire time (and we have a car).

Day 1 - Drive to Lucca, rent bikes, tour city, drive to Pisa, see tower and sights

Day 2 - Drive to La Spezia, train to Riomaggiore; hike Cinque Terre towns, seeing as many as possible and stopping to eat/sightsee along the way, boat/train back to La Spezia (would have liked to stay in CT, but can't)

Day 3 - Florence (have tickets to Academia and Ufizi); eat gelato (any good restaurant recommendations near Ponte Vecchio for dinner?

Day 4 - Have reservations for wine tour at Castello di Verrazzano in Chianti region, possible side trip to La Greve

Day 5 - Siena and San Gimignano (no major plans - suggestions)?

Day 6 - Return :-(

Any restaurant recommendations, "must do" sights, small towns to see (we'll have car!), good stops for picnics, castles? Thanks!

Posted by
168 posts

Hi Elizabeth,

For your Day 1 is this the day you fly in? If so that might be a lot to do especially with Jet lag. Otherwise if it's your first full day after you arrive that should be fine.

I'm excited to hear that you are going to Castello di Verrazzano. My husband and I also went there last May and it was the highlight of our entire trip. It's so beautiful and the wine is delicious. If you are doing the lunch tour the portion is HUGE..make sure to have room to eat. And I recommend taking your time...when we went everyone else left to go to other wineries...my husband and I took our time drinking wine/eating and they let us sit for as long as we wanted and checked in to refill our water (I think it was just the 2 of us for 2 hours enjoying the views).

Sienna & San Gimignano may be a longer drive for you...but I think it's worth it. I personally enjoyed San G. the best because it was a smaller town. The white wine I highly recommend in San Gimignano (Vernaccia)...I finally found it in a few places in the US and it is my favorite now. Sienna was great too and especially fun to sit in the square and grab a bite to eat.

Cinque Terre is beautiful and one of my favorite places in the world. The hike is probably 5 hours depending on how fast you go and stop in each town. One place to definitely seek out for food is Il Pirata delle Cinque Terre which is in Vernazza. It's located at the top of town and looks like a cafe...they have a lot of pastries but also have food for lunch & dinner. The twin brothers Massimo & Gianluca are so friendly and hilarious. The food there is so great and I know it's one that RS has written about in his book. When we went we had a Cannoli and it was so delicious!

Have a wonderful trip!

Posted by
15788 posts

Day 2 - CT.

Hike as long as you care to, but then take the train the rest of the way to Monterosso. Then take the boat back, so you get to see all the towns from the sea, with the afternoon sun behind you. Priceless.

Florence, if you enjoy sculpture, consider adding the Bargello to your list.

If you haven't already, do read the posts regarding the No-Drive zones!!!!

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