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Please help me plan Tuscany (pretty please!)
This is the last piece of our trip, and I'm at a loss!
DH wants to do "wine tours in wine country" - which is pretty broad! Not sure where to start.
We'll take the train to Florence from Venice and stay at least one night there (any recommendations?) Can we do "wine tours" from there? If so, we'd probably stay another night in Florence.
In the post below, several of you recommended Siena - is that a better base? One night in Florence, then one or two in Siena?
Should we rent a car in Florence and tool around the countryside? We do like driving....
Any help you can give is GREATLY appreciated! Specific tours, other places to stay, alternate iterinary, etc.
THANKS!!
Anything you can achieve through hard work, you could also just buy.
Re: Please help me plan Tuscany (pretty please!)
I'm probably no help, but we are staying 4 nights in Montepulciano at Villa Cicolina in June and couldn't be more excited. They've been easy to communicate with, the place looks gorgeous, they offer wine tasting (no tours though), cooking classes.
I got some recs in my post below, so maybe peruse down there!
We are renting car so we can explore.
After three nights in Rome, we renting a car and heading to Southern Tuscany. We are spending three nights at the Banfi Estate/Vineyard in Montelcino. We are then doing 3 nights in Florence, two in Venice. We're driving the car to Florence but dropping it off as soon as we get there. We're going to Cirque Terre on a day trip with a tour group, so we won't need the car once we get to Florence.
My understanding is that in Italy, it is not as easy to go from Vineyard to Vineyard like you can in Napa, or other areas of the US, as many require reservations? From Banfi, we plan on taking one day to drive to two or three vineyards, the hotel concierge is mapping that out for us and making the reservations, but we will drive ourselves.
You could easily do the same from Florence, but Florence is a tough city to drive in and expensive to park in (again, not speaking from experience, just what I've read). so you may want to either A) Stay at a small Vineyard/B&B somewhere in Tuscany to enjoy the countryside for a night or two or
Stay in Florence and just rent a car for one day or take a winery tour. There's a company (WalkaboutFlorence.com) that has been recommended to me several times that does a "Best of Tuscany Tour." It gets GREAT ratings on Trip Adviser. This is the company we are doing the Cirque Terre tour with.
I may be wrong about "vineyard hopping," though, so someone may want to chime in that has been to Italy!
I don't have an answer to your question, but a few thoughts.
If your H wants to do "wine tours in the country," Tuscany is probably your place. Florence and Siena are both in Tuscany, but I didn't see as much emphasis on wines in Florence. Obviously in restaurants, but Florence is so full of other wonderful things that you didn't see wine tours, etc. advertised nearly as much. We spent 2 nights in Florence, and needed all that time to feel like we "did" Florence. We could've spent much more time there. From there we took the train to Venice and spent one night, and did a madcap tour of Venice. After that, train to Siena (via Florence again - train change at SMN).
In Siena, wine emerged as a much more central attraction. There were wine tours via bus, etc. to hill towns like Montalcino, Montepulciano, San Gimignano, etc. We didn't really want to rent a car because we both wanted to be able to drink freely. We took a bus to Montalcino and just spent a day there wandering. A bus tour would've gotten us to wineries outside of town, but we enjoyed what we did. The plus of a car would be that I could've stopped and taken pictures more often, but again, the drinking/driving angle made that less appealing.
For those who are renting cars- is it wise to not rent a car in Rome since it is incredibly hectic but ok to rent it for other cities (Florence, Venice, Cinque Terre?)
Did you need to get a special license here before you can rent a car in Italy?
I wouldn't want a car in Cinque Terre. At all. The train is really the best way to get from town to town, unless you're going to hike. I wouldn't want one in Venice, Florence, or Rome either. The only place we went that I might've liked one would be Tuscany, and you could rent it in Florence on your way out of the city. That last part would be key for me.
There's a whole post on renting a car in Italy on the board today re: licenses, etc.
What kind of wines do you like? Obviously, chianti's a good bet in Tuscany
. But if you like whites, some great options in Veneto (outside of Venice).
Staying in Florence v. Siena is a taste thing... personally, I like staying in Florence and having more to do. That said, the drive from one to the other is a simple day trip.
My personal favorite areas for wine in Tuscany are Radda-in-Chianti (chianti, of course) and Montepulciano (Vino Nobile di Montepulciano). The better vineyards, largely, are not open on Sundays, so you may want to factor that in. If I had to pick favorite vineyards I'd say Felsina in Chianti and Boscarelli right outside of Montepulciano.
WRT driving-- the countryside is no big deal (although GPS is a must, street signs aren't so popular). I've driven in Rome, Florence, and Venice and don't really recommend it. It's do-able, of course, but it's quite stressful and parking is very expensive (particularly in Florence). Also, there are lots of limited travel zones (w/ cameras and hefty fines) in both Rome and Florence.
Enjoy!
have been a few times and here's my $.02.
if you're going to go wine tasting (as in BOTH of you) dont rent a car and drive. that whole drinking and driving thing.
re: the post above about the only other option being to do a tour. that's absolutely incorrect. you can hire a driver for the day to take you anywhere you want to go. we did this for a week adn it was a great option as we all did many wine tastings and he took us where ever and for however long we wanted.
Thanks for all the info, ladies! Great call on the drinking and driving. That didn't occur to me (big, fat DUH!)
So, it sounds like I can stay three nights in Florence, and have our hotel arrange for tours and possibly a driver. Any idea how much to budget for a driver?
Thanks for the recs. I've been planning this whole thing by myself since I'm at home while DH works, and it's been overwhelming!
Anything you can achieve through hard work, you could also just buy.
of course but 3 nights there isn't much time. you can contact your hotel directly and ask about a driver. you can also go to tripadvisor and thre are many many listings.