2 day Tuscany visit

prianka

New member
hi,
we are a party 3 women traveling to florence in sept 09. our plan is to spend 2 days in florence & the remaining 2 days in some other part of tuscany.
we were hoping for advice on which other place besides florence we can visit. none of us have a driving license, so renting a car is not possible. we are also on a tight budget. since its only 3 of us, we would not want to travel to an extremely quiet place. we would like to be in a place where there are things to see & activity (maybe cycling tour etc). we heard of something called agriturismo - would you be able to advice on this too.
looking forward to hearing from you.
thanks
 
2 days in either Siena or Lucca

ciao prianka,

An agriturismo is generally a farm or home in the middle of the countryside which generally require a car to get to. Sometimes the home will be close enough to a town or to public transportation so it is possible to stay there without a car, and if so, their website will say so. But in general, if you're planning on depending on public transport I'd say to stick with a hotel or bed and breakfast or residence within a town.

In addition to Florence, I definitely recommend spending a day in Siena. You can easily get there either by train or bus (SITA company). You can spend your other two nights in Siena, and on one day see the city and the next day you and your friends can either go to San Gimignano (by bus from Siena) or look into a cycling tour or wine tasting tour that will take you into either Chianti (to the north of Siena) or to the Crete Senesi (to the south of Siena). Both are perfect for cycling or wine tours.

Otherwise for your two days you can head to Lucca. Spend a day in Lucca, rent bikes and cycle on the walls the circle the historical center. You can see Pisa and the Leaning Tower and the rest of Piazza dei Miracoli the next day. Both are easy to get to by train from Florence.
 
Some additional details...

You're welcome! Re-reading my post above I realized that it might not be really clear that an agriturismo is generally a farm or home that offers accommodation in various formats:

- sometimes as a b&b with rooms and breakfast included, common areas for guests such as sitting rooms and external areas. Bathrooms might or not be in every room.
- other times the farmhouse or property is large and has been divided into apartments that often are rented by the week in high season (generally summer months), and for periods of less than a week during the rest of the year.
- sometimes you can rent the entire farmhouse, depends on the size of the house itself and whether it is divided up or not.

In any case, they are generally in the countryside so a car is often required although some might be walking distance from the closest town.
 
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