Two weeks in Tuscany - February

Hello stanr333, and welcome to the boards,

Are you open to renting a car during part of your Tuscan exploring? Rural Tuscany tends to be one of the areas where public transportation is difficult to use for exploring. All of the "surrounding towns" you mentioned are all worth visiting but unlike Lucca, Pisa and Siena they do not have train stations so without a car buses are the main public transportation option.

This sounds like an amazing opportunity! Assuming you're American be sure you do not stay more than 90 days with travel included.

Let us know what you're thinking and you'll get tons of advice here,
=Tod

Thank you for the welcome. I have been lurking for a while but finally joined ;-)

Yes, I will have a car for my entire trip after Rome. A long term lease through AutoEurope. When staying in big cities I will park it for the duration and take public transportation or walk everywhere. Seeing the various smaller towns and the countryside is my main reason for having the car. I will use it for most of my travels outside of cities.

My total trip is 87 days in the Schengen region so I left myself a little buffer to not overstay. Trying to make the most of it.

I appreciate any and all advice. I have already made some changes to other parts of my trip based on reading a number of threads on the forums. Thanks for the advice.

We stayed near Pienza and did day trips from there. Pienza itself is lovely. From there we visited Siena, Montepulciano and Montechino. If you like hotsprings consider Saturnia. The warm weather feels wonderful on chilly days. Cascate del Mulino is the amazing cascading natural hot springs near Saturni.

I'd allow a day or two for Siena itself - assuming you'll be spending evenings there. I was just there for 3 days and that felt about right to explore the town itself since the "sights" are kind of limited and following so much time in Italy and Florence I don't know how "Duomo-ed" out you might be.

Siena is a decent base for some of the Tuscan towns but it depends on your tolerance for driving and how long you want to spend in places. For example it's about an hour from Siena to San Gimignano and another 45 to Volterra and then probably 1:15 or so back to Siena. So this could easily be a day trip depending on how much time you want to spend and how tolerant of driving you are. Greve, Pienza and Montalcino are an hour by Google - I'd add at least 15 minutes to Google times - so it workable.

With that much time I think I'd like to choose at least one small external town as a second base for exploring Tuscany - maybe Pienza especially for architecture - itself but that's up to you. I think the very small town is part of the Tuscan experience - Siena is a large city relatively speaking - although in February it will probably be very quiet. As always check for special markets, events, festivals and celebrations in Tuscany for the time you are there. I believe there are end of Carnival events in San Gimignano and Montepulciano but especially with a car I would look for events in towns around Tuscany to attend.

My only warning is going to sounds a bit strange but after a while distances in Tuscany feel much further than they actually are. We spent a week outside Castellina in Chianti and after several days touring to San Gimignano and Siena and the like we found increasingly that places felt very far away. I'm still amazed that I didn't visit more places but at the time they seemed very far away and while I knew they would be lovely and there would be amazing wine... But it was lovely and there was amazing wine where we already were so why drive all that way? Maybe after all the time in Italy you'll be more immune to the seeping languidness of Tuscany but I encourage you to risk it.

It will be old hat for you at that point but be careful of ZTLs in the small towns and just take the outside of town car park. In Florence and Lucca you won't have any use for a car except for outside trips.

Hope that helps. Have an amazing trip!
=Tod

I have stayed all over Tuscany on many trips and prefer the peace of small towns to stay in, although you may like the liveliness of larger towns and cities. My last trip there was last February and Florence and Siena both were very lively and crowded. I think that I would break it up and stay in two different small towns just for a slightly different experience and having more restaurants to choose from, as well as being closer to other towns for day trips.
You are right about the weather, and know that the trees and vineyards will be leafless and not very attractive. It is certainly possible that you may need chains to go to the higher hill towns.
We were warned about driving to Volterra and the need for chains the only time that I rented a car. Have used public transportation every trip since then.

How wonderful you get to spend some quality time in Tuscany! My vote would be break it up into 2 or even 3 stops. Even though Tuscany is Tuscany we felt there are unique differences in different areas/towns. We just came back from 21 days in Italy with 10 of the days in Tuscany. We spent 4 nights in Florence picked up the car and spent 3 nights in Lucca, and 3 nights in Volterra. We split up our "small town" part of Tuscany into the 2 locations to cut down on the driving time, and to get a different flavor. Lucca was a good jumping off spot for day trips to Pisa, and Cinque Terra. It was also a nice town for some bike riding, shopping and being inside a walled town. Some of the group also visited a cave in the area that they said was pretty interesting. The restaurants were great there too. The area of Piazza Anfitearo is stocked full of restaurants and shops. 2 of our favorite in that area were SottoSotto, and Angolo Tondo We just loved Lucca, and said had we known what Lucca area offered we could have skipped the 4th night in Florence to spend an extra night in Lucca. We selected Volterra as another mid location for seeing that town, San Gimignano, doing a wine tour in Tuscany area and a cooking class in Certaldo. We did not go to Siena as we just ran out of time and chose Assisi on our way to Rome instead. In Volterra we rented a short term "apartment" that gave us the option to do some light meals which was good as the meal options were not outstanding in Volterra. History and culture however was much more evident in Volterra than Lucca with all the Etruscan sites and Roman ruins. Hope you have a wonderful trip.

In Tuscany you must have snow tires or chains from November to April.

Thank you all for the great ideas and information. Very helpful for planning this out. I think I have decided on the schedule below for this part of my trip.

Venice (Feb 6-11) - 6 nights (Carnevale)
Padua (Feb 12-14) - 3 nights
Milan (Feb 15-17) - 3 nights
Lucca (Feb 18-20)- 3 nights with day trip by train to Pisa
Florence (Feb 21-26) - 6 nights with day trips to a couple of close places by bus or train (Fiesole, ?)
Visit San Gimignano on way to Siena
Siena (Feb 27-Mar 1) - 4 nights with day trip to Volterra
Pienza (Mar 2-5) - 4 nights with day trips to Montepulciano and Montalcino (do Rick Steves Heart of Tuscany loop drive)
Rome (Mar 6) - spend night near airport, return car and fly home on March 7

I will buy some chains and hope I don't need them since it will be late February and early March. I appreciate the comments about things starting to feel too far away. I did a similar long trip in Spain and Portugal last year and spent a bit too much time driving. I hope to do better on this trip. The car is a necessary evil for parts of the trip and I ended up doing a three month lease rather than several separate rentals. I am going to a lot of effort to pin down parking lots outside of ZTLs since some of my stays are within those zones. I don't mind walking, so parking outside the zone and walking in works for me. I have reserved parking ahead of time in some places using the Parclick and EasyPark apps. In many places the car will remain unused for days at a time.

Any other words of wisdom are welcomed. Thanks, --Stan

If the requirement is SNOW TIRES or Chains, snow tires may be less expensive. If you have no experience in attaching tire chains to your wheels, be prepared to not move at all. Not easily done. But any reputible garage can mount an balance 4 snow tires for a nominal fee. Of course, the cost is the tires themselves. Not sure if your car is a lease or rental but it may be worth checking pricing.

In Padua you'll need a timed ticket for the Scrogegni Chapel. I don't think they sell out early, but you cannot normally buy a ticket on-site on the day of your visit. You might benefit from the city sightseeing card (Urbs Picta), depending on your sightseeing plans. It's not likely to save you a great deal of money, but it's handy, and you'd be able to hop on the tram from time to time. The card is available for 48 hours and for 72 hours. The shorter-duration card might be the best option if you plan to take a side trip from Padua to Vicenza or Ferrara.

https://www.turismopadova.it/en/visit-padua-urbs-picta/

You mentioned Ravenna in your original post. I think Ravenna's too far from Padua to be treated as a day trip unless you plan to get an extremely early start. There are so many mosaic sites in Ravenna, plus the mosaic museum and the historic center. The city art museum usually displays some modern mosaics, but that section was closed at the time of my September 2022 visit. Out in Classe, not far from the important mosaic site of Sant'Apollinare in Classe, is a new historical museum I haven't seen, Classis Ravenna—Museo della Citta e del Territorio. It covers the Roman, Ostrogoth and Byzantine periods.