Driving in Tuscany
 

We are renting a villa near Forcoli, south of Pontedera. We are familiar with traveling in Italy in the major cities and all around Europe. We have never been to Tuscany. We are planning several day trips with our group (6 total) to Sienna, Pisa/Luca and Cinque Terra. Any experience with any of these routes and stops along the way would be helpful.

We just spent a month in Lucca - will be doing a trip report soon so will top this again. We drove from Lucca to Siena and from Lucca to Cinque Terre....all good driving.

We use the Michelin tour book for Italy. It shows you sights to see along your route.

Only three times in Tuscany and never had a problem driving in the areas you mentioned.

Sign posting is good.

If you are indeed planning to drive to/into these places, you need to research each city's ZTL (Limited Traffic Zone), know where you're going to park before you go, and how to reach the parking location without violating the ZTL. If you're going in high season/summer, you'll probably want to get an early start to avoid parking problems. There's parking at the Pontedera train station with frequent departures (and cheap fares) to Pisa and from Pisa to Lucca. You could also train from Pontedera to the CT, but it would take longer than driving.

The drive to Siena takes you past San Gimignano. I think SG is more interesting viewed from a distance with the towers rising above the town, but do stop if you have time/desire.

Good for you.
The trip to Siena will be a bit long---perhaps close to 2 hours each way. From Forcoli, do not miss Volterra.

Follow Jean's advise and be knowledgeable about ZTL's...your GPS doesn't recognize them as such and will send you into them :(

for more suggestions: What time of year are you going, how long are you staying, and what are your interests?

This is all great input. Things you can't read in the tour guidebooks. We will be in the Villa from May 25-June1. Then we are taking another side trip to Amalfi coast for four days. Taking train from Florence (returning rental cars there)taking the train to Naples and a private driver to coast. There are 3 couples sharing the villa and most of the guys are happy sitting and drinking beer at the local pubs. The gals are more interesting in seeing the towns and shopping.