9 days in Tuscany and 5 days in Florence

We are planning a 6-7 week trip to Italy. We'll start in Rome for a few days, take a train to the Amalfi Coast where we will stay for a week, take a train for a week in Sicily, fly to Florence for 5 days, head to Tuscany with a rental car for 9 days, a week in the Cinque Terre region, and back to Rome for a few days before we return home. Does this sound reasonable? I am mainly interested in getting advise about the best area to stay in Tuscany to relax and soak in the ambiance and to also take in points of interest. We want to be able to take day trips. We are also interested in cooking classes. We would like to stay in the countryside but not too far from a town. Any suggestions about an area? We are wondering about an area slightly north of Siena, Castellina in Chiant. Would this be a good area for our purposes. Thank you. Terri
 
Wow, what an awesome itinerary you have. I certainly think the time you've given each place sounds pretty good. You'll get a chance to see everything calmly and quite a good amount of places in the time you've allotted to Florence and Tuscany as well as the area around the Cinque Terre.

Castellina in Chianti is really central and close to the Florence-Siena roadway making it also very convenient to move around. What period of the year are you coming in? I'd highly suggest a countryside farmhouse in the area around Castellina - it seems you will have a car during that time so it will be easy to get around. Distances here are quite small, you'll see that anywhere around Castellina places you 10 min from that town or less than 30min from Panzano and Radda as well as Poggibonsi, Colle and Siena. You might widen your area to include the entire area between Castellina and San Gimignano, the whole area is really central and perfect for day trips to Siena, Florence, Pisa and the smaller hilltop towns in between that you'll end up visiting.

If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask!!
 
Top