celiakalach

Any Advice on how to plan my 2 weeks in Tuscany. I want to plan a road trip.Which are the most beautiful places to visit. I want to find those hidden treasures, the perfect bed and breakfast, the amazing restaurants.

Jean

Advice? Start reading some guidebooks, either/both print or online. Find some Youtube video tours of Tuscan towns. Make a list of the things you most want to see/do and then locate everything on a map. You can't see all of Tuscany from one "perfect bed and breakfast," so you'll have to consider two or perhaps even three lodging accommodations from which to explore, based on your list and how much time you want to spend driving every day.

What time of year?

Are you interested in art, wine, photography, festivals, food, shopping... or other things... ???

socialworker

I agree with Jean that such an open ended question is tough. The 3 days that we spent in Tuscany may not suit you at all, but in a nutshell, we had a rental car that we picked up in Flornece. We stayed at Resort Villa Rosa di Boscorotondo, (http://www.resortvillarosa.it/en/index.php), and drove around some local towns--Greve, Castellano and Radda. Technically the B&B was in Panzano, but it was several miles out of town, w/a lot of hills and no sidewalk, so we drove when we went there. We took a day trip to Siena as well.

We had only one memorable meal in our 3 days at Ristorante Oltre il Giardino in Panzano.

tuscanlifeedit

Hidden treasures are hard to come by in one of the most visited regions of Italy.

Are you not wanting to see the most popular places? My #1 Tuscan treasure is the frescoed interiors of Duomo in San Gimignano, but that is hardly hidden.

There is just too much to write about. I'm afraid that your question is much too open ended. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of trip reports here from Tuscany and tons of questions asked and answered.

Surely you know why you want to go to Tuscany in the first place. What attracted you to the idea of going there? That would be a good way to start asking much more specific questions.

bobthenavigator

Start with deciding what you want to see---Tuscany is quite large.

Here are some gems of places to stay:


BOB’S FAVORITE DIGS IN TUSCANY
A. RURAL LOCATIONS: All have parking and good food options nearby

1. SANT’ ANTONIO APTS. http://www.santantonio.it/ Lovely apartments
in a rural setting near Montepulciano—very helpful owner

2. Cretaiole Agriturismo http://www.cretaiole.it/ Good value for families
Isabella also has 2 apts. in Castelmuzio for rent—wonderful—see her site.

3. Terre di Nano www.terredinano.com 100 to 155
Both rooms and apartments at rural Agriturismo near Monticchiello

4. Casanova di Pescille http://www.casanovadipescille.com/ 100E
Rural B&B 3 KM from famed San Gimignano—we loved the views of San Gim.

5. Fattoria Tregole www.fattoria-tregole.com 110E to 180E
Has both B&B and apartment accommodations. Near Castellina in Chianti

6. Fonte Bertusi www.fontebertusi.it Lovely rural B&B near Pienza with apartments and pool. Wonderful décor by artistic family—fair prices.

7. New historic B&B north of Pienza. http://www.camprena.it/index.htm
Site of filming for THE ENGLISH PATIENT About 90E for double

8. http://www.borgoargenina.it/index.html A special rural B&B in Chianti.
The lovely owner, Elena, will make you feel like family. 170E for double

B. IN-TOWN LOCATIONS: For walking convenience to shops & ristorantes.

1. Palazzo del Capitano www.palazzodelcapitano.com 170 to 210E
Very nice small hotel in center of San Quirico—perfect location to explore.

2. Vecchia Oliviera www.vecchiaoliviera.com/ 150 to 200E
Nice 4 star hotel at the gate into lovely Montalcino---has pool.

3. Palazzina Cesari www.montalcinoitaly.com 80 to 110E
Lovely small B&B in heart of Montalcino—great value—2 night stay minimum.

4. Locanda di San Francesco www.locandasanfrancesco.it 180 to 200E
Nice boutique B&B in a lovely location in Montepulciano—great reviews !

5. Politian apartments http://www.politian.com/ Good value apts. with
minimum stay of 3 nights in Montepulciano---helpful host---85E

6. Palazzo Ravizza www.palazzoravizza.it 170 to 250E
Very nice & popular hotel in Siena with parking.

sandralist

Hidden treasures are hard to come by in Tuscany if you only look at guidebooks and ask people who follow guidebooks where to go. In every area of Tuscany -- which is a large region -- there are more "hidden" treasures than then ones known constantly talked about by tourists. You need to be willing to stop following the crowd.

If you want to road trip through Tuscany, you need to decide your point of entry and where you need to be to drop of your car and go home. Then it is a good idea to think about how early you want to be on the road each morning, how far you want to drive before stopping for lunch (in Italy 12.30), and how long you want to drive before stopping again to sleep. Many people find it very rewarding to drive only short distances in Tuscany so that they have time to stop, walk around towns or castles, take pictures.

If you want to see Florence and Pisa as part of your visit to Tuscany, it is usually better to do that at the beginning of your road trip, before you rent a car, or at the end, after you drop off your car.

Otherwise, you can head off in just about any direction in Tuscany and find fascinating sights, beautiful scenery, nice food and be in towns and sights without other tourists. Most peope visiting Tuscany stick to seeing about .033 percent of it, and the parts they have never visited or talk about or know nothing about are actually very worthwhile.

celiakalach

Wow! Thank you, I have reserch to do! i can start by choosing the places I want to visit. Siena, Florence, Montepulciano,San Gimignano,Chianti,Montalcino,San Quirico,Panzano. How does this sound. Any Other recomendations.

sandralist

Every single town you listed is one the most popular tourist towns in Tuscany, with several million visitors per year. Sounds like you aren't looking for hidden treasures but to see the most famous and popular places. Nothing wrong with that, but understand that you'll be in the company of lots and lots of foreign tourists every day, most of the time.

You might want to start in Florence and then Siena without a car, and rent one in Siena -- or start with a car that you drop off in Siena, and then move to Florence by train to end your trip there.

If you take a map of Tuscany and mark on it the other towns you named, it will become clear to you that the only way to see them all is to make a loop. So for your road trip, you can decide whether you want to go clockwise or counter clockwise. Might depend on where you decide to pick up the car and drop off the car.

pariswat

Hidden gems should stay hidden and not be revealed at first request on a forum.

Lots of nice places to see without resorting to hidden jewels.

kybourbon

>>>I want to visit. Siena, Florence, Montepulciano,San Gimignano,Chianti,Montalcino,San Quirico,Panzano.<<<

From your list, Siena, Montepulciano, Montalcino and San Quirico can all be easily visited from one base (somewhere around Pienza would be fairly central). There are a lot of other little towns in that area to visit.

You can also pick one base and visit Panzano/San G and much of the rest of Chianti area plus Florence or Siena.

Do you want to stay in a town (walk to dinner) or out in the country?

sandralist

If you want to have a less touristy experience of the towns you've chosen, it's better to road trip and spend nights there, rather than pick a base and commute to the towns during the daytime, when they will be filled with daytrippers. Some of them are so close together it wouldn't make sense to spend a night in each one of them, but enough are far enough apart that if you don't mind road tripping, it would give your more time in each town, and you'd be seeing fresh scenery as you move along. Many people prefer spending a night in Siena or San Gimignano to daytrippng there.

Staying in the countryside in a farm or vinyard where someone cooks a meal for their guests is often a nice experience as opposed to eating in restaurants all the time.

Jean

What time of year is your trip? I think that will make a lot of difference as to whether you encounter large numbers of tourists. When we visited some of your destination towns in late October, they were far from crowded.