Good evening,
I will be in Florence from June 6-16th. Have two days free- Sunday June 11th and Thursday June 15th.
The group is already visiting Pisa, Lucca and Padua.
What are the closet, best cities to visit? I was thinking San Gimignano for one day. What city for the other day?
Thank you so much,
JT
Siena is a must
Overnight, if possible
No. San Gimignano is so small and feels more like a town you just visit for a couple of hours or less on a the way somewhere else like bigger Siena. Also it is not that well connected by public transportation if you don't have a car you have to take a couple of trains and a bus.
I would probably choose Siena and Volterra. Both are well worth visiting and very different, in size as well as sights to see there. If you really want to see San Gimignano, I would suggest trying a one day tour that visits San Gim plus one or two other towns. That might not be the same as doing it on your own but you'll see so much more and I agree with the poster who said you can see much of interest in San Gim in a couple of hours.
Another vote for Siena. It is a large enough city with a fantastic Cathedral. It is easy to get to with public transportation.
Last time I was there I went to Arezzo for the day.
It’s a little further out but was well worth it.
I picked the weekend of the big antique market and it was great to see all the treasures there for sale.
I believe it’s the first Sunday of each month, and the preceding Saturday?
Someone correct me if I’m wrong.
I also went to Pistoia on another day.
I picked the market day for going there too.
A nice small town with no other tourists that I saw.
I like Padua a lot (just spent 3 nights there last year, my second visit), but it's 1-3/4 hours from Florence by train. If you haven't already purchased your train tickets, I'd seriously consider a different destination that would cost you less travel time and money; at this point the round-trip tickets to Padua are approaching 60 euros. Perhaps Bologna, which is only 38 minutes from Florence. If you don't want a city that large, Ferrara would be an option; it's 68 minutes away.
I'd caution against trying to see San Gimagnano with a day tour group. I did a tour that was supposed to go to SG, Siena and Pisa with a nice lunch at a winery along the way. At the last minute, they changed the itinerary saying nothing would change other than the order in which we saw the places, however, the leader was actually cross with people for wanting to take a few minutes to buy wine after the lunch (which I suppose is the whole goal of doing the lunch for the winery) because we were late for Siena, then by the time we got to SG, it was already nearly dark and they said we had 1/2 an hour to wander around before we had to meet to get back on the bus. It was terribly disappointing, but what could I do at that point? My experience may have been rare, but it reinforced my feelings of dislike for tours, even just for a day. If you go on your own, I think you have to take a train from Florence to a nearby town, then switch to a bus to get there.
I agree with the others that Siena is well worth a day trip. I'm going back to explore more at some point because I'm sure I missed a lot and I like wandering with no time frame when possible. If I recall from reading here previously, a bus is the best way to get to Siena from Florence.
Bologna is also a nice day trip from Florence, although it's been hit by flooding recently. Pisa was a hard no for me. The tower is interesting, but even in mid December, which is not a high tourist season like the summer, there were sooo many people everywhere doing the typical pose to look like they're holding up the building so it felt more like an amusement or a curiosity rather than a historical site. The good news is that even on my worst day in Italy, I'm still in Italy, so that makes it a pretty good day.
Oh, Fiesole is a super cute town with amazing views down over Florence. It's about 1/2 an hour away and an easy bus ride (sit on the right side leaving Florence if you can). I really enjoyed wandering around the ancient amphitheater and just the town in general.
Thank you all for your reply's.
Easiest to go by bus between Florence and Siena. The buses are direct and drop you off in the main parts of the towns.
Siena is nice, but if you would like to see San Gimignano and Volterra, there is a private tour-4 participants only-that leaves from the Biblioteca Nazionale. Luciana is knowledgeable and fun. The lunch is very good. If interested, Tuscany4Explore is the site. Push to spend more time in Volterra.
Siena is easy by bus.
Depending on where else you’re going on this trip, I would personally take the 2-hr direct train to Venice. You could be there by 10:30am. Or, Rome is 1.5 hours by direct train.
Arezzo is slightly over an hour by a direct train.
Due to the recent flooding, I won’t recommend Ravenna.
And I’m another vote to skip SG.
As you’ll notice, some of the places that are farther geographically take less time by transportation than closer ones because of the faster train lines.
I was in Siena and San Gimignano last week. San Gimignano was packed with tourists in the early afternoon . . . I bet it's a lot better after dinner. Siena was very manageable in terms of crowd sizes and it was a great place to see.
Thanks again to the additional comments. SJS I think I will go to Volterra and San Gimignano with the tour you suggested
Luciana prefers Volterra and loves to show it off. Not discounting San Gimignano, but the best is the views from backroads that she takes you on. It’s also fun to not have an agenda and just let her do her thing. She’s quite the character. If you have traveling companions, hope they want to see Volterra more than SG. Enjoy! If you go hope you like the tour.
