Driving around Tuscany, How Does it work ?

[Megane]

Hi !

I'm planning to visit Tuscany in December. I'm planning to spend 5 days in the region and wish to see both Florence and the countryside. I have not decided if I should use Florence as base, or spend 2 nights in Florence and then somewhere in the country for 3 nights.

I plan to use the car in the country. I've read so much about ZTL zones and difficulty in parking, it sort of scares me. I plan to visit San Gimignano, Siena and some towns in Val D'Orcia. How should I go about parking in these places ? Do i drive up the hill town and find parking there ? Or do I have to park at the base of the hills and take a short walk/bus/taxi up ?

If I stay in Siena as a base to the tuscan country, is there (free/cheap) parking readily available at the hotels ?

Megane

[DonnaDenise]

Buongiorno,

Parking in San Gimignano is pretty straight forward, there are several parking lots (with a small hourly fee) and they are very well marked with a blue sign that has a white letter "P" on it. There are I believe 4 parking lots and they have both an elevator and an easy to climb staircase to get to the city center.

As per Siena, have a read on this article which talks about parking there: http://www.discovertuscany.com/siena...-in-siena.html

As for the smaller towns, there usually isn't as much a problem with the ZTL zones because they normally don't have them. However, if in doubt look for the blue P signs.

Buon Viaggio

Donna

[Lourdes]

You can find more on San Gigimnano parking here: http://www.discovertuscany.com/san-g...gimignano.html