Getting from Lucca, Italy to hill towns without a car
 

Staying in Lucca a few nights in May and would like to go to Montalcino, Montepulciano, Volterra, (or places in that area) and Chianti area from there. We won't have a car. Is there any way to see these places? How do you get there from Lucca? Would stay a few nights. Don't know how to plan this.

I am not sure these places are reasonable day trips from Lucca. Voltera is a 2 hour drive, montepulciano is 2.5 hours each way. And that's not using public transport which may stop frequently. If you want to focus on these places I would choose accommodation closer to them.

Hi Blondie,

Not sure what else you may be interested in, i.e. wineries, etc. but with some of the smaller hill towns, it's not especially easy or efficient (time wise) to do public transportation.

We did a private "tour" last May to cover more ground and didn't have to worry about getting lost etc. The company we used was Hills and Roads. They were great, and I would definitely use them again.

http://www.hillsandroads.com/

We were able to see 3 or 4 hill towns, and two wineries in a day. Not something we probably could have done on public transpo, or even if we were driving ourselves considering we would have probably made a wrong turn here or there. Mind you, it was an almost 12 hour day, but we had a fantastic time.

For that list of hill towns, you need to select somewhere better to stay than Lucca which doesn't have easy transport to any of the towns you listed.

All of those towns are served by buses, but it would not be easy to reach all of them using public transport from one base. If I had to pick the best base to reach them, I would pick Siena (Montepulciano would still be difficult for a day trip and Volterra wouldn't exactly be easy).

Exactly!
Why stay in Lucca when you want to see other areas.
You can train to Siena from Lucca, but that is about 2 hours each way.

Why no car?

Why Lucca if everything you want to see is elsewhere?

New_adventure - how did you book the tour with Hills and Roads? Their website doesn't seem to be working but they got great reviews on tripadvisor! So glad you mentioned it. It sounds perfect for my trip!