Farm House in Tuscany (Pisa and Lucca)
 

My family and I want to experience the Italian country side and we thought that staying at a farmhouse somewhere in Tuscany would be the perfect way to do so. We are looking for a farm house to the west of Florence which allows easy access to towns such as Pisa, Lucca and Siena. Any ideas?

Brusa--do you mean rent an entire farmhouse, or stay at an agriturismo where rooms are rented out?

Brusa - when you say family, who do you mean?

my experience is that teenagers don't enjoy being stuck out in the countryside, and much prefer being in a town where there are shops and other sittings to look at in the evening.

Siena makes a very good base as you can easily drive out into the countryside but be in town to experience the many restaurants etc. in the evening.

"sittings"??? where did that come from?? sights, obviously.

The Italian word for farmhouse is podere. A podere can essentially the same thing as an agriturismo, except that it doesn't meet the official requirements to classify for the latter. I believe the farm must get a certain % of revenue from agriculture in order to classify as an agriturismo, otherwise it would need to call itself a podere.

Both agritusismo and podere can can consist of a single house or several different apartments (more common).

A few years ago we stayed at this property. www.lemanzinaie.it. It doesn't meet your criteria for location.

Do you want west or south of Florence? Siena is south and offers more options.

But it isn't clear whether the OP wants a self-catering rental or a B&B-type stay in the country.

Most of the self-catering units rent for a minimum of a week -- Saturday to Saturday.

If it's an agriturismo/podere that you want, look for one that also offers dinner. Unless you don't mind driving for dinner and having a non-drinking designated driver. Agriturismos with animals are great for younger children.

brusa,

Your ideas for a farmhouse stayin Italy with your family are spot on, and the countryside around Lucca and Pisa -- and San Gimignano and Volterra, which gives you access to Siena as well -- is great for families with children, far better than south of Siena. There are lots of farmhouse accommodations. It is a very popular way to travel in Italy (although Fodor's posters generally like to stay in towns and hotels.)

What can be ideal for families is to rent a large apartment with a kitchen at an agriturismo that also has a restaurant on site, for those nights when you don't want to cook. Most have swimming pools. Many offer other family-friendly activities, like biking, horseback riding, archery, etc.

This is a very good website with a very good search feature for finding agriturismi with the kinds of amenities your family might want. There are some client reviews posted on the website, and you can serach for others using Google if you spot something that looks ideal.

http://www.agriturismo.it/en/farmhouse/tuscany

PS: Many agriturismi rent apartments for less than a week in Tuscany.

Hi All,

Thank-you all so much for your responses. They really helped my family and I. We have decided on a farm stay around 15km south on Florence. It is called Fattoria la loggia. It looks like a very nice area and is close to some fantastic shopping outlets which I know my teenage daughter will absolutely adore! It also has a golf course close by and offers activities like fishing!

Here is a link to the website-http://www.fattorialaloggia.com/index_gb.htm

Once again, thank you all so very much.