Tuscany Tours

We used tour company Walk About Florence for an all day excursion to Siena, San Gimignano and Pisa which also included a stop at an Organic Winery where we toured the wine facility, the farm and then had lunch there. It was a really wonderful day but long, like 12 hours I think. They use very nice air conditioned buses (no bathroom) and we felt we had enough time in each place to explore. I highly recommend them!

I am from Tuscany and one of my friends organizes custom tour, both short and 1 week. If you are already in Italy or in Tuscany you can give him a call. But first have a look at his website you may find something that you already like among the existing tours. I hope it helps. Otherwise Walkabout is good as well. They have been around for long. However trust me, Matteo (the founder of Tuscany Untouched Tours is really a nice guy. Send him an email for a quote if you want to have some good ideas.

http://tuscanyuntouchedtours.com/

Cheers

We did the Fun In Tuscany vespa tour in October. They pick you up in Florence and take you to Tuscany. There you get vespa lessons and then you ride your vespa to San Gimignano. After a brief tour you ride back to the winery you started at for lunch and wine tasting. Then they drive you back to Florence. Had a great time.

None of the locations are that difficult to reach using public transportation so escorted tours are strictly necessary. Lucca is particularly easy to reach by train. We did a self-guided day trip, all by train, to Pisa (morning) and Lucca in the afternoon. I would recommend that order and to arrive Pisa as early as you can in order to avoid the worst of the motor-coach crowds. (These were the worst tourists I've every encountered.)

If you want to take an escorted trip into the Tuscan countryside, I too, recommend WalkAbout - Florence. They have a marvelous Chianti wine tasting tour.