We have time for a day trip from Florence and want to do a drive into Tuscany. We're trying to decide between:
- Taking the Via Chiantiagiana, (SR222) down to Siena, spending the
afternoon/early evening in Siena, and the driving back to Florence; or
- Driving down and doing the Rick Steves Heart of Tuscany drive around
the Val D'Orcia/Montepulciano/Pienza.
We don't have time to do either as an overnight on this trip. Any opinions on those options? RS gushes over Siena (I have already been and it was a really lovely experience but my husband has not). He only mentions SR222 in passing as a scenic drive - is the drive in Val D'Orcia really that much nicer?
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area (USA)
15214 posts
Both are beautiful, and frankly similar, but it depends on personal preference.
Chianti has more trees and especially vineyards. Val D'Orcia has those characteristic hills (fewer trees) with lines of cypresses along roads etc.
Just do a Google image of both, and you can see what they look like.
What time of the year are you going? If you go in June, when daylight lasts until 9:30pm, you can do it all in a day. Rushed, but doable.
The problem is Siena itself, which takes a lot of your time, especially if you want to visit museums and stuff. That is because of the issue of finding your way driving to the city center and park your car outside the ZTL, if you don't know the city.
The drive from Florence to Greve via Galluzzo and Ferrone( taking the Passo dei Pecorai), is about 1 hour.
From Greve to Siena (SR222) is another hour. Then from Siena to PIenza is about one hour. Montepulciano is 15-20 minutes past Pienza. The from Montepulciano back to Florence you'd take the A1 freeway, and you can do that late in the evening, since there is nothing to see there. I don't know how many days you have in Florence, but you might even consider to do Siena separately on another day preferably without a car (by bus), which I think is more convenient given the ZTL issues in Siena.
Posted by
OP
9 posts
Grazie, Roberto! We'll be there the last few days of April, so sunset isn't quite that late, but there's a good amount of daylight. But my concern is really what you mention - that doing both would be rushed, especially since we are only renting the car for that day - and picking up a rental always eats up some time. But you make a good point about doing Siena on another day as a half day trip. I'm planning on doing this day trip our day in Florence, so maybe we can play by ear whether that would work out.
Posted by
Firenze, Italy
1533 posts
If the weather is good, go for Montepulciano/Pienza. If the weather is not so good, go for Siena driving the motorway. SR222 is very very curvy so driving it would be better reserved to people that have time to spend.