Itinerary in Tuscany

Chinotto

New member
Hello!

Congratulations on building such an amazing conversation platform. I was lost while planning for our short Tuscany trip but now I feel like I speak Chianti! Yet...

The first day (Thursday): We're planning a 4 nights trip to the area. We will arrive at Pisa, pay a short visit to main square and take the bus to Firenze. We're going to spend our first night there. Unfortunately this is the day we arrive so we will not be able to take the chamber of commerce's wine tasting tour that you suggested.

The second day (Friday): We're going to take a bus from Firenze center to Chianti. Here is where I am lost mostly. I've been diving through a thousand very useful articles and comments posted on the forum (mainly Valentina and Lourdes, you are amazing!). I checked different towns on the route through Chianti but still can't be sure. We will not be driving a car; vespa might be an option but responsible driving keeps our hands tide. We like picnics and hiking but since we have limited time, we'd love to make the most of local food and wine around. I'd love to stay at one of the historical or traditional (vinary) houses but as far as I can see, we cannot both be central/on foot and nostalgic. Any recommendations on how to manage this, and which of the Chianti towns we should pick?

The fourth day (Sunday): I saw that there is a morning market in Panzano. I was thinking we could go there and head to Siena so we could also see the old town's beauties. But I don't know if it's realistic. Are there buses back to other Chianti towns (since we're planning to stay in one of those) late? Would you recommend an alternative itinerary? Bonus question: Are there similar local markets, events that we should keep in our plans, especially when we're coming (11-13 Oct)?

Last but not the least: When is vine harvesting?

Edit1: We're open to all suggestions but somehow I feel closer to Castellina, Panzano or Greve.

Thank you in advance! Your suggestions will be much appreciated!
 
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I am glad to hear you found the forum useful!!

The hard part about visiting Chianti is that it is a wine region covered by vineyards and so land has not been given over the train tracks or to train stations.... so visiting without a car is not easy to do. Even bus schedules are not great - they cater to workers and thus concentration of buses are in the mornings or late afternoons when commuters use them. There are hardly any buses after dinner time so it makes it hard to be out for dinner somewhere and plan to return elsewhere by bus.

So if you have your heart set on visiting Chianti, I'd suggest renting a car...... OR using Florence as your base and then do guided tour into Chianti one day and another day take bus to San Gimignano or Siena and make a day trip out of visiting those two towns.

You can do SG and Siena on your own - here are two useful articles for getting there without a car:
https://www.discovertuscany.com/san-gimignano/how-to-reach-san-gimignano.html
https://www.discovertuscany.com/siena/tourist-info/getting-to-siena-without-a-car.html

And a guided tour to Chianti to do wine tastings would make it so much easier to taste without the risk of driving after - here are some tours:
http://tours.discovertuscany.com/en/8357/Chianti/d26111-ttd

Enjoy!!
 
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