po_dourado

Hey guys,
I'll spend 4 nights in Firenze late September and i don't plan to make more than one daytrip, since i'll spend 15 days travelling around Italy and i don't want to be tired on the very begining.
I won't rent a car and won't join a group tour (too expensive and a little too "touristy" for me, personal opinion here!)
I would like to see the outdoors and cute medieval towns with great markets, cafes and tiny alleys. Museums and churches are not a must. Not planning to spend more than 90 minutes inside a bus/train.

Well, I've done a LOT OF research and i came to those options:

-Certaldo Alta, easy by train. I could spend few hours wandering around (i found out their market day is wednesday and it matches my schedule). Then i could go to either Siena or San Gimignano or come back to Firenze, i don't know.
- Arezzo+Cortona, easy by train too, but i'm a little worried about the logistics here.
- Chianti area, via bus. I checked that there are buses in between Chianti villages or i could go by foot (?) around the villages.
- Lucca. Sounds lovely, but i'm not sure because i am more inclined to a hilltown city.

Well, that's what i came so far. Do you guys have any tips, ideas? As i said, i just want half a day away from Firenze, walking around a not-so-crowded place with views to the mountains.

Thank you =)

Dukey1

Not planning to spend more than 90 minutes inside a bus/train. Good luck and am sure someone will give you good ideas.

330east

You might want to take a look at Fiesole, in hills above Firenze. You can take a public bus up there. Wonderful views, village streets, restaurants etc.

po_dourado

Dukey, I think i didn't express myself correctly: the 90 minutes rule is for EACH ride, since many people advice places like Volterra or Montepulciano, for example.

330east, I've checked Fiesole and sounds like a nice place, but more like a suburban area (please, correct me) with views to Firenze...an easy city getaway, but i was thinking a little farther, maybe.

Huitres

I only travel in Italy with public transportation, I have never rented a car in the 17 years I've been going there! They have such great transportation so you might as well make use of it! I would recommend going to Lucca and Siena from Florence. They are easy 22–25 minute train rides and are both very accessible from Florence.

Lucca is one of my favorite Tuscan towns, you can walk the perimeter of the town on its city walls to get a great perspective. They have an open market, great piazzas (Piazza dell'Anfiteatro is my fav), the Duomo di San Martino, the clock tower, lots of cafés around. Sienna, is of course, famous for the Palio with the big Piazza del Campo open area to walk around with the cafés ringing the piazza, as well as their beautiful black and white marble cathedral. Both towns are very easy to navigate. San Gimignano is about 1 hour away, you might consider taking a bus there (I did). Piazza dell Cisterna (with its famous well since 1346) and the adjoining Piazza Duomo are worth seeing after you've checked out all the 14 surrounding towers! Buon viaggio!

mama_mia

Pistoia is an easy day trip from Florence--I think only half an hour by train. Market days are Wednesday and Saturday. Beautiful piazza in front of the duomo.

You could continue on the train line to Montecatini and enjoy the Liberty/Art Nouveau style of the lower town and then take the funicular up to Montecatini Alto. The upper town is the older, medieval section; it offers spectacular views.

michelhuebeli

Ravenna! The mosaics! Read up on them. The 8AM train gets you there by 09:51, the 18:09 train from Ravenna gets you back to Florence by 19:59.
Many others, too, of course.
Fiesole is nice but not really a day excursion, take bus nr. 7 for a late-afternoon aperitif with precious views, or even an al-fresco dinner, very nice!

po_dourado

wow, thanks for all the sugestions!

i've done more research and i'm still not sure if i will visit Certaldo+Siena or Lucca.

The thing is: i DO want to see the cliche-hilltop-tuscan town (first italian trip, give me a break...) and Certaldo looks like a reasonable choice: not crowded, lovely and well-connected by public transportation.
I also read about Gates of Heaven tour in Siena's Duomo and it looks amazing. But thing is: i avoid huge crowds os tourists as much as i can. Is Siena that crowded by late September? If i go with this itinerary, i'd prob reach the town at around 2/3pm.

Lucca sounds adorable, but i'm afraid i'll have this "i should have seen a hilltop village in Toscana instead".

Oh, italian dilemmas =)

Jean

I'm not a big fan of Lucca. We've visited twice, so I think I gave it our best shot. I can't imagine devoting an entire day to just Lucca, although you could combine it by train with Montecatini Terme.

Certaldo, as you've probably learned, is a newer, lower town and a historic, upper hill town, the two connected by a funicular. Certaldo is on the ancient pilgrimage route known as the Via Francigena. I thought it was an attractive town with nice views, and we enjoyed it for a long lunch and stroll stop. But there is no main piazza + church + well which for me are required elements for a small, "classic" Tuscan hill town.

One town not mentioned is Monteriggioni, about 25 minutes by bus from Siena. It's a medieval town on a low hill surrounded by massive, almost completely intact walls. If you combined Monteriggioni with Siena, it would be more efficient to travel entirely by bus... the fast bus Florence-Siena, local to Monteriggioni, local back to Siena, and fast bus back to Florence.

http://www.tiemmespa.it/index.php/Vi...na/Extraurbano

Lines 131 (Corse Rapide) and 130. Note that each timetable is multiple pages.

willit

Huitres is mistaken about train times - both Lucca and Siena are 75-90 minutes by train from Florence.

The bus is a better option than the train as far as Siena is concerned - it is often quicker, and is slightly cheaper than the train, but most importantly gets you far closer to the city centre than the train which leaves you at the bottom of the hill.

Siena has a huge market on a Wednesday morning - it strings out along the sides of the Fortezza.

kybourbon

I'm not a fan of Lucca either and it's closer to 90 minutes travel time from Florence, not 20-25 minutes.

>>>Chianti area, via bus. I checked that there are buses in between Chianti villages or i could go by foot (?) around the villages.<<<

Which Chianti villages do you think you can reach? Some aren't hill towns and even if there are buses, they aren't frequent which sometimes makes returns very difficult. There can be big gaps of time with no buses (especially in the afternoons). A few of the buses to select towns used to only run a couple of days a week in summer only.

If any of your day trips are on Sunday, buses are mostly non-existent (except to Siena). Even train schedules may be less.

>>>Certaldo Alta, easy by train. I could spend few hours wandering around (i found out their market day is wednesday and it matches my schedule). Then i could go to either Siena or San Gimignano or come back to Firenze<<<

You can't combine Certaldo with San G by public transport. While there is a bus, there is only an early morning run (7 or 7:30) and one late afternoon (5:30 or so). Many buses are geared more to commuter times, not tourists. It might be possible to get a taxi from Certaldo to San G though.

willit

"You can't combine Certaldo with San G by public transport"

Train to Poggibonsi, then bus to SG?

po_dourado

Well guys, i could to this daytrip on a Tuesday or Wednesday.

@kybourbon and @willit: Yep, i've already checked the bus schedule and it does not work in my case. I was considering this train to poggibonsi (since its just one/two stations from Certaldo, right) and then the bus to San G. Sounds doable, right?
Any idea how much this Certaldo/San G. taxi would cost?

@kybourbon, by public transportation i couldnt find another place in Chianti area than Greve in Chianti and the surrounds (Montefioralle is 2km from there, i could walk til there).

@jean, i liked the Monteriggioni detour. Maybe i could arrive early in Siena, spend some time in the market, then lunch in Monteriggioni and return to Siena? The bus stop in Siena is close to the market/duomo area? If so, sounds like a great idea. I could spend the morning/sunset in Siena and enjoy the day in a quieter place.


You are helping me a lot, people. Thank you all.

kybourbon

Greve is not a hill town though. I have taken the bus from Florence to Greve before (went to the Chianti festival a few years ago). I've also bused/trained etc. between Siena (barely made it out as a strike was starting 1/2 hour after my bus departure time) and San G./Florence, but I stayed overnight in San G (to miss all the day trippers).

>>>The bus stop in Siena is close to the market/duomo area?<<<

No. The bus stop is at Piazza Gramsci (which is really just a big parking lot/bus lot) which is just at the edge of the historic center. The Duomo is probably a 10 minute walk (if you know where you are going, if not, maybe a tad longer). The last return bus is somewhere around 8 or 9 (ditto for the train from Siena). The train for Certaldo won't run any later either.

>>>Any idea how much this Certaldo/San G. taxi would cost?<<<

No guarantee a taxi will even be around. You would have to look into it, but I've been in plenty of small stations in Italy without any taxis in sight (just like small towns in the US don't have them).

po_dourado

Thanks again, ky!
Sounds like i'll choose between

- Certaldo+Siena (train to Poggibonsi, then bus to Siena. later, bus to Firenze)

- Certaldo+San G (train to Poggibonsi, then bus to San G)

- Siena + bus to Montereggioni (bus)

Do you think San G and Siena will be VERY crowded on late september?
Montereggioni sounds lovely with nice views, but very little. Last year i went to a tiny village in Portugal called Obidos but i found myself bored after one hour or so - so touristy and tiny, i would have spend a better time anywhere else.

One last question: do you find it dangerous to come back to Firenze after the dawn?

tuscanlifeedit

After dawn? Like stay out all night and return after sunrise?

I don't understand.

po_dourado

oops, sorry. after sunset, i mean. =)

Jean

SanG and Siena (in the main tourist area) will both be very crowded in September, at least until late in the day. Because of its size, it is possible to get away from the tourists in Siena. On our last visit (October), we went on a quest to find the fountain in each contrada. We didn't get to all of them, but when we reached the Fontebranda (mentioned in Dante's "Inferno") we were entirely alone there.

Certaldo Alto and Monteriggioni are two small medieval towns, and I'd venture to say they are both smaller than Obidos. You'd likely see few, if any, tourists in Certaldo. Monteriggioni, because of its proximity to Siena and the autostradale between Siena and Florence, will have some tourists. People with cars and a small number of bus tours make brief stops there.

The market in Certaldo is set up in Certaldo Basso

Even with the clarification, I'm not sure what your concern is about returning to Florence after sunset. It's hard to find a restaurant open for dinner much before 8:00p!

po_dourado

Thanks, Jean.
My concern is about security, actually. I don´t know how safe those bus/train stations are at night, since i'll be by travelling solo.

I wasn't aware Certaldo were that small, but that's great since i can have lunch there while Siena/San G would be more crowded...

Tabernash2

I wonder if San G would be that crowded in late September. We were there in early May, and it was not crowded.

DD was studying in Florence, so she knew how to get around and she planned our trip to San G from Florence. We took a train and a bus, but that's all I remember about those details. It was easy.

In San G, we found a lovely cafe, to sit and look over the hills. It had very few clients at the time. So here's how to find it (maybe), walk on the main drag of San G, towards the arrival area. Look to your left, for a little walkway that goes left, along the side of a building, and follow that to the cafe. Or you'll find another one on the way, probably.