mrsdarwin

I love reading posts on this site...thank you in advance for your opinion! My husband and i (mid 30's) will be travelling to Tuscany April 18-25. We are staying at Merlino at Villa Petrischio (roughly 15 minutes from cortona). Anyone stayed here?
~~We arrive via Florence Airport Saturday morning. Is it feasible and at all possible to visit the Academie before driving to Cortona in the afternoon? We are picking up our car at the airport.

~~My day trip thoughts are
...San G and/or Siena
...Montalcino and Pienza
...Montepulciano

Any good restaurant suggestions in the Cortona area??? and other Tuscany towns mentioned above?

We travel often, but this is our first trip to Tuscany! Thanks for your time,
MOLLY

tuscanlifeedit

Molly, near to Cortona is Arezzo, which I love. No one ever seems to go there. There are Piero delle Francesca frescos that will make you swoon. Some Roman ruins, incredible shops and delicious food. I highly recommend a trip there from Cortona. One has to walk uphill to get to the older part of the city.

tuscanlifeedit

Oh, I didn't address your original question.

I suppose you could do this. It would be very important to do two things:

1. Reserve the Accademia
2. Plot a course to a nearby parking lot. I don't think the traffic restrictions are quite as strict on Saturday, but even if they are, by staying on roads north of the Accademia itself, you should be able to avoid the very strict restrictions on cars in the center of Florence.

There are online maps of parking lots and maybe other here can help with that, too. I think reserving a spot at a lot is important. They fill quickly, and you could get stuck.

There might be some on street parking near office buildings that won't be open, but I would still like to have a parking garage up my sleeve, just in case.

Choose a route that sticks to main, wide roads. As few turns as possible is quite good.

So yes, I think you can do it, but please don't just hop in the car and drive to the Accademia. It so won't work.

You will have to do some studying, especially of driving maps. But you can do it. Then clear out of town.

Another option is to get off the plane, taxi to the Accademia, see David, get a taxi to the car rental place at the airport. Doesn't make a ton of sense to leave the airport without the car, but at least you won't have to drive in Florence.

mrsdarwin

from what i can tell, the distance from the airport into the Academie is around 7 km? does this sound right? googling a map for that area is the best to come up with the driving route info?

thanks for your thought on Arezzo.

Dayle

Hi Molly,

Are you absolutely set on staying near Cortona? It's not very central for visiting the other towns you mention as day trips. you are going to be spending a lot of time and gas driving to and from.

I visited Cortona for a half day (Sunday) enroute from Montalcino to Gubbio, which worked very well. It's a lovely town, very steep! I think it, and Todi, are the steepest hilltowns I've visited.

I'd recommend staying somewhere further west and central in Tuscany.

mrsdarwin

we must stay in that area. it's paid for and was given to me! after having read other posts, i realize it is further away. BUT we are willing to do some exploring and pay the petrol prices.