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Tuscany Itinery (Chianti?)

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My wife and I are planning an Italy trip (later fall). After other top spots will be a one week driving tour of Tuscan villages and countryside. Our main focus is enjoying the scenery, appreciating the culture (including food and wine) at a fairly reasonable pace. There seems to be no shortage of options.

My initial thoughts included two days in Chianti. Rick Steves Italy book (1200+pp) barely mentions Chianti: no hill towns, no accommodations, no recommended places to visit. Which makes me wonder why.

Is the Chianti region worth a couple of days? Or better to focus energies/time on other Tuscan destinations? (e.g. Lucca, Montepulciano,…). Grazie.

Posted by
1864 posts

The term Chianti is useful to a traveler as a type of wine, but not as a travel destination. Use descriptions of the cities and towns to make your itinerary.

Posted by
1560 posts

Hello tu_profbill, and welcome to the forum,

Rick has a Florence and Tuscany book that covers more of the smaller Tuscany towns in detail, but nothing covers everything.

Chianti wine is generally produced in the area between Florence and Siena. Good towns to visit are Greve and Castellina in Chianti but there are others. Most of these small towns require a car so many people stick to towns like Arezzo, Pisa and Lucca that are connected by trains.

Volterra is another favorite but there are so many little towns it’s up to decide. The southern cluster of Pienza, Montalcino and Montepulciano are popular and covered in the Tuscany book.

I like Lucca and it is in Tuscany but it is not the rolling hills and cypress lined Tuscany of film and photos. That Tuscany does exist and it is as beautiful as advertised but there’s a lot of it so you need to decide which parts you want to see.

Have a great trip,
Tod

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