15 Day Visiting CT and Tuscany in August. Need Advice.

Hello!

My girlfriend and I are flying into Milan early August and plan to visit CT and Tuscany for 15 days (at the tail end of the trip, stop in Venice 1 night and Milan 1 night before returning home).

My thoughts are to go directly from Milan to CT and spend 3 nights. Do you recommend staying in one of the 5 towns or might you suggest Lerici or Portofino and just do day trips to CT? Is 3 nights too many? Not enough?

From CT my thought is to go to Firenze and stay in the city center for 3 nights. The thought is to spend 1 day visiting Pisa and Lucca, but the rest of the time really experience Firenze. If you think this is a good idea, have you any recommendations where to stay? Or are all hotels rather equal here?

From Firenze, we would like to travel a bit farther into southern Tuscany and spend 6 nights. We would like to relax, but also see the sights, go to wineries and eat wonderful foods. We don't necessarily wish to be touristy but would rather experience real life in the region. We do enjoy nighttime, so staying someplace that may have restaurants/bars at night may be nice, but we also do not wish to stay in a bustling, noisy area. We would like to visit so many towns: Siena, Montalcino, Montepulciano, San Gimignano, Arezzo, Val D'Orcia. So we would like to stay somewhere that's not too far from any, but travel is not much of a concern (just not wanting to drive far after visiting wineries nor too far in the dark, etc.). Had originally thought of staying in Pienza, but it seems like it may be too desolate at night. Any recommendations what town might be most suitable?

After Tuscany, our thoughts are to visit Venice 1 day/night then to Milan for 1 day/night before our flight home.

What do you think of these plans? And have you thoughts on trains vs. car rental? I know we will rent a car for at least the southern Tuscany portion of our trip, but wasn't sure if a train would be good from Milan to CT and then to Firenze. I am a bit concerned about having to drag luggage on the trains.

Your advice would be MUCH appreciated! :)

Ian
 
CT in August

Hello Ian -

I would definitely suggest heading directly to CT from Milan - there are trains that will get you there easily. It takes about three hours and costs approx. 25 Euros each. It is not a speedy gonzalez train, but efficient. I have done this with two in laws, three children under 10 and a husband...and lived to tell about it :) so don't worry it is do-able even with luggage. It will also save you from renting a car right away - since you will NOT need one in CT. And the money you save on a car you can put forward to a great dinner of seafood. yummmmmm

Though there are lots of places to stay in CT I actually stayed to the north (the first town before CT) in Levanto. The train from Milan goes right into town...and though there is a bit of a walk with the luggage (you can find a taxi) it is all very walkable. The prices are a bit more reasonable and the town has a real beach area, trains go directly into CT (a matter of minutes to get to CT on the train and it runs rather frequently) - or a water taxi will take you along the coast (definitely worth it). We rented a small apartment and hit the fish market one day at Levanto - we made an awesome pasta with fresh clams.

Buon Viaggio
 
15 Day Visiting CT and Tuscany in August. Need Advice.

Donna,

Thank you for the insight on using the train from Milan to CT.

Have you any other information/suggestions related to the other questions I had?

Grazie!

Ian
 
6 Nights in Tuscany (but not Florence)

Lourdes,

Have you any thoughts of a central place to stay for 6 nights in Tuscany? We would have already spent 3 nights in Florence, so we would like to spend the 6 nights exploring the other areas/towns. We would like to spend the 6 nights in 1 location and take day trips. We plan to rent a car for this portion of our trip.

As mentioned in my initial post, we would like to relax, but also see the sights, go to wineries and eat wonderful foods. We don't necessarily wish to be touristy but would rather experience real life in the region. We do enjoy nighttime, so staying someplace that may have restaurants/bars at night may be nice, but we also do not wish to stay in a bustling, noisy area. We would like to visit so many towns: Siena, Montalcino, Montepulciano, San Gimignano, Arezzo, Val D'Orcia. So we would like to stay somewhere that's not too far from any, but travel is not much of a concern (just not wanting to drive far after visiting wineries nor too far in the dark, etc.). Any recommendations what town might be most suitable?

Grazie!
 
Top