Florence day trips??
 

Help! We will be spending 4 days/3 nights in Florence during our Italy trip in a few weeks.
I need your advice: We would like to do a "day trip" for one of the days - either a trip to Tuscan countryside, or visit/hike Cinque Terre.

Any suggestions would be most appreciated! If we should go the "Tuscan Countryside" route, would Siena, Lucca, or San Gimi be the best option? Would you suggest the bike tours?

We do not really like large group bus tours, so would either of these be easy to reach by bus or train? (Not sure if we really want to rent a car?)

Thank you!

We took a lovely day trip to Sienna, you can get there very easily by bus from Florence. It is an incredibly beautiful town, and we really enjoyed the enoteca (wine library) located in the Medici fortress there.

Lucca, or even closer Pistoia, can easily be reached by train.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mksfca/...th/5936373712/

I like to stay in an apartment in Lucca and make day trips to Florence, very easy to do by train. I much prefer the smaller town ambiance.

It sounds like you want to be on your own, but if you would like a tour, check out Accidental Tourist.

http://www.accidentaltourist.com/

We did a winery and olive oil tour/tasting and pasta making "class" for a full day and it was a highlight of our entire Italy trip.

I'm still stuck trying to figure out how you can have 4 days/3 nights in Florence.

You can't have arrived the night before or you would count that night as 'in Florence'. So you must be arriving early on the first morning. Maybe an overnight train?

You then have day 1 'in Florence' and night 1 'in Florence'. Then day2/night2; day3/night3; day 4 'in Florence' and then what, leave on another overnight train?

Well that's possible I guess but somehow I don't think it's what you meant. I'd guess, arrive day one sometime and not have a full day 'in Florence'. Day 2 and 3 in Florence and leave on day 4. Making it actually only 2 full days in Florence and a few hours on day 1 and 4 perhaps.

The reason I question this is because it would influence what I thought about taking a day trip from Florence given how little time you will then have in Florence itself. If you actually had 4 full days in Florence I could see taking a day trip to Sienna or Lucca or somewhere. But if you will only really have 2 full days in Florence I would not suggest taking any day trips.

"But if you will only really have 2 full days in Florence I would not suggest taking any day trips." I guess I agree. It depends on what you want to see/do in Florence and what days of the week you're there (because not everything is open all day every day of the week).

If you want an easy excursion to a small Tuscan town, you can take a bus or taxi to Fiesole up in the hills just outside Florence.

http://goitaly.about.com/od/fiesole/a/Fiesole.htm