I will be taking a Med cruise this fall. One of the ports will be Livorno. I have already been to Florence, San Gimignano, and Siena.

I am thinking about going back to Siena, since I did not see all that I wanted to see during my last visit, but I am unsure about what else I might be able to do for the day.

I thought that it might be nice to split the day between Siena and some of the small towns in Chianti. Does this seem plausible? I am not really interested in doing alot of wine tasting, but I was thinking that the grape harvest might be going on at that time of year and that it might be interesting to see.

However, I am open to any and all suggestions. I would love to experience the best of Tuscany -or the best that I can within my time constraints and distance parameters. I would like to add that we will have a private driver for the day so the transportation will not be too much of a problem. We will be in port from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm.

Thanks to anyone who can help!

Trying again, thanks.

Although I've not been there, but plan to make it a stop on my trip to Tuscany, Lucca appears to be a nice place to visit for the day. There was a recent thread on this board. On the way to Lucca, you could stop off at Pisa to take a few photos, if you haven't been there.

Siena must be some 100 km away. You could have a stop in Volterra on the way.
Lucca is well worth seeing. And there is always that leaning thing in Pisa

Thank you for the suggestions. I have already been to Pisa, and it seemed like one visit would be enough for that town. I will look into Lucca, though.

I would appreciate more info on the towns in the Chianti region. Is it worth the time to travel 2 hours to get to the area, especially if we do not want to focus on wine tasting?

Also, is it necessary to have a licensed guide for Siena, or would taking in the sights by ourselves be fine?

Looking forward to your replies. Thanks again.

We are going to be taking a Med. cruise in May and will have a stop in Livorno. We have never been there before. In looking at the excursions available I'm thinking of the one that goes to Pisa then Florence. What would you recommend? I don't know if this will be the only trip there or the first one for me. I am travelling with older people (69,75,81) and it will probably be their only trip. What do you suggest? Even given their ages they are in pretty good physical shape and do not have difficulty walking. Thanks. Carol

Hi,

If you go to www.trenitalia.com/en you will get train schedules from Livorno Centrale to Lucca (1 hr via Pisa), Siena (2 - 2 1/2 hr via Empoli), and Florence (1 1/2 hr).

All three would be an OK daytrip.