Day Trips from Florence

[Fancypants]

We will be visiitng Florence for 3 days in September, I was hoping we could make it to the coast, in particular Cinque Terre. Would anyone have thoughts on day trips to that area, and what is the best way to get there.. car, train, bus tour...
Any info would be appreciated.
Thanks
Tracy

Happy traveling

[Lourdes]

Ciao Fancypants,

Three days isn't very much time, I definitely suggest spending at least 2 full days in Florence if not all three. But if you want to see more than just Florence, on your third day I would recommend something closer than Cinque Terre, something in Chianti or Mugello or a day trip to Lucca or Pisa.

If you've got your heart set on Cinque Terre - it is beautiful! - train is the easiest way to get there but it takes about 2.5 hours each way. You'd have to leave early enough and maybe at night head toward your next destination rather than come back to Florence.
There is lots of info about getting to Cinque Terre and what to do there on this forum - you can do a Search on the middle navigation bar above to find all related threads but here are a few to get you started. That way you can decide whether or not you want to include it on your itinerary:
Two days in Cinque Terre
Cinque Terre
Tuscany to Cinque Terra

If you are interested in getting to the coast but not necessarily Cinque Terre, are you interested in beaches? Just getting to the coast to enjoy a romantic sunset? Hiking?
Let me know so that I can offer some more ideas of where you could go along the coast.

[Fancypants]

Its been some time since I posted this, but maybe you could give me some idea as to any companies that do an organized wine trip in tuscay. realizing now that Cinque Terre is a long way to be able to only spend 1 day..
Or maybe there is a thread that I have missed.
Thanks

Dream.....Discover........Travel

[Lourdes]

Not a problem, Cinque Terre is a bit further away and more manageable if you were here for longer. Three days is very short and will pass by really quickly.

For wine day tours, I'd check out Vinarium. If you happen to be here on a Thursday, you could also try the Chianti day trip organized by the Florence tourism office that includes wine tasting as well as discovering a few towns in Chianti. We went last fall, you can read about it here and email Marco ahead of time to reserve your spot (email address at the end of that post).
You can also do wine tasting near Greve in Chianti on your own by taking a bus out, read this thread for more details.

Hope these suggestions are useful!