Good Base Town other than Florence or Sienna

[larsvail]

Four adults will be visiting Tuscany, flying in from London September 12 though September 17. We have all been to Florence and Sienna and prefer not to stay in those cities. We want to visit Lucca, San Gimignano, Pisa, Chianti, perhaps Arezzo and other smallish towns. Is there a better town than others to base out of for this itinerary? We want to do some wine tastings and a cooking class. We will not have a car. Thanks!

[DonnaDenise]

Buongiorno,

Admittedly there are many other great towns where you can base yourself while in Tuscany other than Florence or Siena. However, when you are traveling without a car and relying on publich transport and organized tours to get around then you need to be a bit selective, because Florene definitely gives you much more flexibility than almost any other town.

Having said that, I will note that the towns that you mentioned visiting are all pretty well connected with public transport - or even quality organized tours. Check out this list of my favorite daytrips from Lucca: https://www.discovertuscany.com/lucc...und-lucca.html

Personally if you wanted to stay outside of Florence, then I would lean towards Lucca or Pisa, both of which offer several organzied tour options (check out this article for some tours) and offer fairly frequent trains to Florence where you can then change for many other destinations.

Another interesting base could be Montecatini - which offers the possibility for several day trips with or without a car, read our article to learn about some of the top options:
https://www.discovertuscany.com/mont...ntecatini.html

Buon Viaggio,

Donna Denise