Somewhere to stay for 1 night in Tuscan countryside. Near Florence

My husband and I are planning a trip to Italy. We have limited time unfortunately but are planning to stay in Florence Aug 26-Aug29. I want to plan a trip to the countryside for one night of our stay. We will be arriving by train from Rome late on 26th and leaving by train to Milan on 29th.

I am an artist and it is one of my bucket list items to do a plein air drawing in the Tuscan countryside! Can you recommend a Villa or B&B with a nice view? We had not planned to rent a car but would it be best or is there another way to get to the countryside from Florence? We entertained a guided day tour but I am afraid we wouldn't have enough down time for sketching. What is your advice?

Thank you in advance!
 
Drawing in Florence --- what a dream. There is so much to offer!

The idea of a guided tour is really a good one - they can show you a lot in even just a half day AND if you tell them your interests they can actually cater the tour to your artistic talents maybe even offer one or two of their favorite places for sketching, after all it is their city...they know the secrets.

In any case, one of my faves is Boboli Gardens (especially at lunch time noon, when you can hear the bells chiming all over the city unhindered by the sounds of today's traffic) another great place with views is up at San Miniato Church.

Buon Viaggio
 
I am looking forward to sketching in the city, but I'm really interested in some time to do a landscape in the countryside. Can you advise the best area to do this? Would it be possible to combine a trip to Chianti (from what I can find in my research this seems to be the best for tuscan landscape painting) with Pisa (for my husband)?

I'm having a hard time finding a good tour to do this. Can you recommend a good guide? I'm assuming I'll need to do a private tour unless I can find a painting tour/class to join. No such luck with that yet.
 
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