My husband and I are taking the Heart of Italy tour in Oct. The tour ends in Florence. We plan on staying another 4 days after the tour ends and would like to stay outside of Florence. We would like to go on a Truffle Hunt and also do a Wine tour, but all the tours I have looked at start in Florence. If we do stay outside Florence does renting a car make sense.
Posted by
WPB, FL & Firenze
3112 posts
Imo a car only makes sense if you want to explore areas in Tuscany other than those covered by your Truffle and Wine tours or you want to stay in a place with limited public transit. Driving and drinking is not a good choice. Otherwise I would stay somewhere near Florence that has really good (and early/late) bus or train service from the city center. Fiesole is a good option (20 minutes on #7 bus). Galluzzo is an option I like (15 minutes on bus #11, buses #36 and #37 don't run as late). If you want a nice small town, I like Pontassieve (25 minutes by train) although hotels and tourist apartments are limited there. There are also neighborhoods outside the city center but within Florence that have a much more relaxed feel than the busy city center. You might consider those, as many have easy access to the city center. Some are better than others for early/late buses. Lots of options.
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area (USA)
16187 posts
Whether you need a car or not, depends on what you want to do.
If you stay outside of Florence to visit the Tuscan countryside or small villages, then you need a car.
If your intention is to visit only the city of Florence from an out of town location (for whatever reason), then, as Frank said, you may not need a car, but you should at least choose a nearby location with good public transportation that can take you to Florence city center and back, or close enough that using a taxi wouldn't break the bank. If this no. 2 is your plan, then my first choice would be Settignano, my 2nd Fiesole, my 3rd maybe Bagno a Ripoli.
Posted by
Maryland
913 posts
A possibility is to stay at an Agrotourismo that may have/can arrange truffle hunts and will be able to arrange wine tours. They will probably require a car to get there and back. The one we stayed at had truffle hunts (not cheap) on site. One can also google "Wineries, Tuscany" to see what tours are available at individual wineries. Or try tours/agrotourismos near Montepulciano to visit wineries.
There are obviously many others.
Posted by
3 posts
We used Pistoia as our base for Florence. Only 40 min away by train. A peaceful and nice town. And only 40 min to Pisa!