6 Days of Beautiful Tuscany

CPatel

New member
Hello,

I have been reading these blogs and see great feedback and suggestions. This is my first time travelling to Italy and I am in absolute love with Tuscany from what I see and read.

Me and My husband absolutely love rolling hills, beautiful landscapes, beautiful scenery, springs of water surrounded by rocks. We love Italian food and would like to take a cooking class. We like outdoors too. We aren't much for art, historic sites, museums.

As we read, we had 2 options, taking a train from Rome (we will land there, spend 2 days to see a couple of sites) to Florence/Tuscany area (spending 5 to 6 days there) or rent a car from Rome and drive our way into Tuscany and different areas and at the end drive the car back to Rome for our flight.

It seems like we would love from different posts Chianti, Val D'Orcia, and Pisa is a must to see the leaning Tower. Not too sure about Florence or Siena, since I don't know too much about it. We would also like to see a beautiful place near the water since we will be around Pisa.

Accomodations wise, we would love to stay put in one place if we could and then drive around or take a train as needed to different areas. We are looking for a place which is on a hill overlooking the beautiful country side and landscapes. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance,,,
CPatel
 
Please Help, Need Advice Real Soon..

I will be leaving end of August, any help with some advice would be great.

Reading some of the other response, I think everyone is saying not to take a car.

Our trip wil be from Rome to Rome since our flight is from there. We are thinking we would spend

1.5 days in Rome
Rent a Car or take Train to Florence
Stay there for 2 days to see Pisa and Cinque Terre

We can rent a car at this point and travel to Chianti to either stay at Il Cellese - Chianti Farmhouse or Relais Poggio Borgoni or Villa il Poggiale.

Then drive out to Val d'Orcia and then drive back to Rome airport.

Thoughts?

We both love the landscapes and outdoors.
 
If you've driven abroad and are fine with renting a car, I say go for it! For the itinerary you have in mind, as you've already determined, you only really need a car once you head to Chianti and Val d'Orcia, you can return the car in Rome.
From Rome to Florence, you can definitely take the train - you can also easily reach Pisa and the Cinque Terre by train - actually the Cinque Terre are best reached by train as the roads to the towns are narrow and steep and parking is very limited.
Once you head to Chianti, a car is definitely required as it is the best way to see the area. You'll love the beautiful landscapes, both in Chianti and Val d'Orcia!
All of the possible accommodations you're looking at are beautiful and perfect for your stay in Chianti, you won't go wrong with any of them.
You'll love Italy! If you have any other questions, let us know and we'll try to help!
 
Thank you so much Lourdes for your advice and information.

So we have reserved our tickets and have 2 options:

1st Option
Spend 2 days in Rome (our arrival city)
See the TREVI Fountain and the Colloseum
Rent a Car from there at a near by Car Rental (can you recommend a economical car rental site for automatic, since I am not farmiliar with manual). I am not sure of what would be the closest car rental place from our Hotel (Boutique Hotel Trevi)

Then drive up to our hotel Relais Poggio Borgoni (in Chianti I guess) and make that our base for 6 days. (Our flight departs from Pisa)

We would like to see in Florence the Uffizi Gallery (can you recommend a guide since we aren't farmiliar with the art), where can we get tickets in advance from?

We would also like to see Pisa and a coastal city (which is beautiful and relaxing with beautiful water views) that isn't too much out of our way? Someone in the forum mentioned Castillgio, I am not spelling that correctly.

We would also like to go to Val d'Orcia as many folks mentioned it is beautiful. Any particular recommendations in terms of places there to go to specifically? We heard there are springs and rivers, would like a spot to see those.

Any suggestions for cooking classes and how we can book them close to our hotel Relais Poggio Borgoni. I absolutely love pasta and pizza and all italian cooking. Not very much a meat or seafood person.

If you have any recommendations for restaurants around these areas that would be great too.

Option 2
Is to take a train from Rome to Florence, stay in Florence (see the art gallery and go see Pisa), not sure of a good hotel, and then rent a car (not sure of a close place to rent a economical automatic car), and then head out to Relais Poggio Borgoni Hotel in Chianti.


Thanks so much for your advice, this is absolutely great information.

Thanks,
Cpatel
 
Car Question

Sorry again Lourdes
We have been looking at many different car rental websites and the most economical seems to be for automatics is the Mini Smart Car. It's just me and my husband and 2 big bags and 2 small. Will we fit in there comfortably? Considering that we will be traveling in the hills of the Chianti region and other Tuscany regions will it have the horse power necessary to get ot places?
 
Ciao CPatel,

The Smart car is really small, perfect as a city car. It is for two people and a small luggage compartment behind the two seats. I am thinking two large and 2 small bags are not going to fit in the luggage area. Not sure about the horsepower to climb hills, I'm thinking if it is just the two of you without luggage it should be fine but my concern is that it might be big enough for the luggage.
You'll need something a little bigger, and I know automatics are not cheap in general since they are not the most commonly used here in Italy. Have you tried searching on Auto Europe through here:
http://www.discovertuscany.com/tuscany-car-rental/car-hire-in-tuscany.html
It gives you many choices for all car rental companies without indicating which one you're renting from until after you reserve but I assure you all of the rentals are through the major international companies so you can trust rentals through here.
 
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