Tour and Transport advice - help needed (question reposted)

TamaraV

New member
Reposting this question as unsure if this was one of the questions lost over the weekend due the the website hacking.....

Hi there, seeking some advice on getting from Florence to Castellina in Chianti. I am currently on a 3 month holiday across Europe finishing my trip with 3 weeks in Italy. I will be arriving in Florence on Monday 23 sept and spending 3 nights here before heading to Castellina. Originally I was hiring a car to travel through Tuscany but unfortunately I can no longer do this as an option as my drivers licence was stolen and I am unable to receive a replacement in time so we now need to look at alternative modes of transportation.

On our day from Florence to Tuscany I was hoping we may be able to join a day tour that takes us to a few key destinations and then be dropped off either at our hotel or in the Castellina area where we can make our own way to the hotel. We are staying at Locanda le Piazze.

I've looked at private tours but these sit outside the budget that I'm wanting to spend so any suggestions on tour companies that may suit our requirements would be greatly appreciated. If this is not an option what is the best public transport option we can take?

Secondly at the end of our stay in Tuscany we are travelling to Positano on the Amalfi coast. Looking at the train schedules, I believe our best option will be to travel from Florence to Salerno by train. It will be on a Sunday and there is a direct service that would be suitable however it departs around midday, what local transport alternative to get us back to Florence in time for this train or should we be looking a booking a car with driver.

Lastly we have two full days in Tuscany, is there a tour company that would pick us up from our hotel for day touring?

There are two of us travelling. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
 
Hello there, not sure if your message did get lost due to the hacking but I am a bit behind in finding all the unanswered threads so I might just have missed yours.... it seems you're already here in Florence so hope I am still in time to help!

First, I'm sorry to hear your license got stolen :( stuff like that can quite ruin our well made travel plans, but I'm glad it hasn't ruined yours.

Now, without a license the easiest solution (not the cheapest) is to rent a car with driver. You can contact http://enjoyflorence.com/ and ask for a quote for all of the trips you're considering, I think if you make it clear you want service for various days the price estimate will take that into consideration.

Your best bet would be to contact your Locanda and ask them for recommendations - they might have contacts with someone local to Castellina that will offer tours for the days you are there. Starting from Castellina or Poggibonsi will automatically make a private driver or tour cheaper since they don't need to drive out of Florence.

As far as public transportation, the only way to get to Castellina is through Siena (bus 125 -check schedules here:
http://www.trainspa.it/train04/extraurbano.pdf).
If you want to try that route, you might instead just ask your Locanda to go pick you both up in Castellina.... or in Poggibonsi, which is also not too far away.

I don't know of any tour companies in particular that will pick you up when you are in the countryside, ones in Florence certainly do so.... the only ones I'd think would do it would be local ones and by that, again I mean ones based in Poggibonsi, Castellina or even in Siena.... so again, my best suggestion is to contact your locanda and ask them for assistance, I am pretty sure they will try to do what they can!
Good luck!!!
 
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