day trips in Tuscany

[Anne]

I will be staying outside Florence in a villa for one week in September with a group of 9 family members. We want to take several day trips into Tuscany and do some wine tasting and spend 3 days in Florence. The trips we have planned are to Siena/San Gimignano, Pisa/Lucca, and winery tours along the Chianti Road. We are not renting cars but plan to a hire a vehicle with a driver.

It seems that 9 passengers is difficult because the small minivans can only accomodate 8 passengers. We now have the choice of hiring 2 small vehicles (2 minivans or 1 minivan and 1 car) or one larger 12-16 passenger minibus. We would like to be together but I have been told that there are disadvantages to using the larger minibus when travelling to small hill towns. There is a fee plus the minivans cannot go into the center of some towns.

My question is this: How far from the center of the towns that we plan to visit can the bus go? Is it so far that we would spend a larger part of our time walking to the historic parts of town or is it just a few blocks? Which type of transportation would you recommend?

Grazie,

Anne

[Elena]

Ciao Anne and welcome to the forum!
Your tuscan itinerary sounds very interesting to get the best of Tuscany:-)

In my opinion the best thing to move around the region for your family would be to hire a larger minibus, so you'll be all together.
Actually, there aren't disadvantages using larger minibuses to travel to small hill towns; the historical centers of many if not most towns in Tuscany are forbidden to traffic, so also to small cars.
Anyway, you should not worry about that, as in every town or village you'll visit, you will always find a parking area very near the city center, usually quickly reachable in 5 or maximum 10 minutes walking. That's true especially for the towns you are going to visit, but in general for all villages in Tuscany.
In case you'd like to receive further suggestions also regarding your itinenary, proper accommodations and winery tours, I'll be waiting for your reply:-)

Have a great vacation in Tuscany and enjoy your trip!