Town near Florence airport?
 

We are taking our son and daughter in law to Italy. With young children at home, the most they can do is 8 nights on the ground. They start with 2 nights in Positano and then meet us in Florence. They would really like to enjoy the Tuscan countryside so with 6 nights remaining I thought we could stay 2 nights in Florence, 2-3 nights in Pienza and then the remaining 1-2 nights somewhere else close enough to the Florence airport for them to take their 10 am flight back. We'll have a rental car and plan to drop them off before we head on for another week. I'm not looking for an "airport hotel" - just another small town not too far away-maybe Greve in Chianti? Any suggestions/opinions?

I would not move around so much...you will waste approx. half a day each time you move...checking out, packing, unpacking, getting to train station, travelling, repeating on the other side etc. remember 2 nights is 1 full day with travel time on each side. In order to spend your precious time seeing the good bits (rather than in transit) I would pick two locations only.

Positano takes a lot of time to get to. You either want to spend more time there or drop it this time and pick somewhere with easier access to Tuscany in my opinion.

Maybe a better way to phrase this is they would like to see two areas- AC (because this was their original plan for their honeymoon 10 years ago) and Tuscany. I suggested 3 nights in Positano but they said they are fine with only 2. They will leave Positano midday and arrive in Florence about 4 pm. We are arriving from a different city. With 6 nights in Tuscany, arriving and departing Florence, where would you suggest we stay? None of us like Florence enough to stay there for 6 nights and we will have a car for travel outside Florence.

Why not start in Positano, travel to Pienza for 3-4 days and then go to Florence for the last 2 days. Florence is no more than 10 minutes to the airport by cab. This way you will not have to backtrack north to Florence, south to Pienza and back to Florence and will save travel time.

End in Florence---:15 taxi to the airport.

Yes, I realize it is backtracking but they will not be driving. To get anywhere else in Tuscany it looks like all transport is through Florence. Even a larger city like Siena is a connection. Initially I thought we would immediately leave Florence and do as Bob suggests, end our trip in Florence. But I'm concerned that coming from two different directions it might be difficult to meet up, especially since with that plan we would get our car immediately. It seems that it might be difficult driving to the Florence train station (ZTLs if you take the wrong turn) to pick them up.

Do you want to stay at Greve in Chianti or in a town close to the airport, like Sesto, Prato or Pistoia?
There is of course no need to cross Florence by going along the motorway A1 from Siena etc. to Campi Bisenzio and then by motorway A11 to Amerigo Vespucci airport.

Neckervd-no, we don't need to stay in Greve. I was just trying to find a town that would be worth staying in and Greve sounded nice. I'll look at the three places you mentioned. In my initial research, it seemed like all the "cute" towns were south of Florence. If they had one more day I think I'd know how to structure this, but so far the logistics have me a little stumped.

For a 10am flight I'd be comfortable staying anywhere within a 100km radius. That would include most of northern Tuscany, from Pisa to Lucca to Siena.

I definitely would not stay 100 km away from the airport. An accident or a traffic jam could cause them to miss their flight. Not so likely in the early morning but still a possibility.

Looking at the map, I'm having a hard time finding a town to suggest -- except Florence itself.

Not everybody likes to get up before 6am

A concern. Where are they flying into and what time: Rome, Naples? How are they getting to Positano? Fear they will be so jet lagged they will not have time to have any kind of enjoyable experience on the AC, especially with only one day. Have they no interest in Pompeii? I would urge them to take 3 nts for Positano and see a bit of the AC, and have 5 nts for Tuscany. Stay somewhere within driving distance of Siena and do day trips to Siena, Luca, Florence, etc.

We are staying here before our flight home from Pisa next month

http://www.leterrazzedelchianti.it

They will fly into Naples and I've got a driver who will take them to the hotel in Positano. Same driver will get them to the Naples train station when they are ready to head north. No, they don't want to visit Pompeii on this trip (I think they may have both already been). I don't think I'm comfortable staying 100k away either, but maybe I can broaden my scope to up to an hour away-there are probably many nice places that will fit that criteria.

Jamikins-please report back how you like Le Terrazza. This looks like the kind of place we all would all like and only 40k from the airport!

>>> I suggested 3 nights in Positano but they said they are fine with only 2. They will leave Positano midday and arrive in Florence about 4 pm.<<<

This isn't at all practical unless they only want to see Positano and nothing else. If they are coming from the states they will be on a flight connecting somewhere in Europe which means they won't arrive Naples airport until noon or later. By the time they get their luggage and get to Positano it will be late afternoon and they will be jet lagged from all the travel. They would only have the next day to spend there.

They would not get to Florence by 4 if they depart Positano midday. Positano is about 1 1/2 hours from Naples. They need to add a night to Positano if they want to see anything on the coast.

If you are picking up a car, you should consider picking them up at Orvieto or Chiusi (they would train from Naples to either of those). Both are at the tip of southern Tuscany and Pienza is a short drive from Chiusi.

Depart from Florence. You could drop your car either in Siena (if you stay there any) and bus to Florence for your last few days.

With such a short amount of time you really need to limit to 2-3 hotel locations total.

Will do...we head to Tuscany on Saturday and will be back on 5 Jan so will report back.

I highly recommend adding at least 1 more day to positano...otherwise I wouldn't bother and just spend all the time in Northern Italy. They will spend about as much time in transit as they do actually in positano as it stands. Not worth it in my opinion given the short time available!

I should have said they will depart late morning-there are trains from Naples to Florence that leave at 1, arriving just before 4. I'll see if the train to Chiusi works better. I think that will involve a change in Rome, so I'll look at those connection times. I would rather not backtrack but with what I looked at so far, it seemed like Florence was the best meeting ground. As far as the Amalfi Coast goes, I think they would just like a couple of romantic nights-walking around town, eating, drinking, sleeping in without kids. They'll save the sightseeing for when they are with us.

Thank you for all the suggestions. This will be our third time to Tuscany and there are still lots of places we haven't seen as well as all the places we'd like to see again. My husband and I will have another week after we drop the kids so I'm happy that we will have the extra time!

I agree with everything above. A taxi ride from Positano up to Napoli Centrale railway station (city center) takes about 2 hrs.
If you want to reach Florence by train at 4pm, you have to leave Naples at 1pm and Positano around 10.30 (with some reserve for traffic jams etc.). That means that you will get up around 8.30, pack your luggage, have breakfast and check out. There will be no time for a visit of Positano this morning.
.. and the afternoon before you will be too tired for that after a overnight flight.
So: why do you go to Positano (in your case even by taxi) just for sleeping?

A train ride from Naples to Florence lasts 3 hrs.
A train ride from Naples to Chiusi, close to Pienza, lasts 3 hrs too, a bit more by direct IC train, for example Naples dp 14.31 - Chiusi ar 18.08 for 38 EUR/pax.
The standard fare for a Naples - Florence train ride is 68 EUR.
So: why do you want to make the huge detour via Florence?

Thanks so much for the suggestion of Chiusi! Even with the change of trains in Rome, it looks like a better meeting place. We will be flying from Germany so it's easy enough to get to Florence and then drive down to pick them up. I'll suggest again that they add a night to Positano. That way we could stay 4 nights in Southern Tuscany and use Florence just for the one night before their flight or skip Florence all together and stay one night further north. I like this plan much better.

Say you are driving from Lucca or Pistoia or Montecatini to Florence on the A11 motorway. The last 2 or 3 kms. before the airport usually get blocked with traffic around 8am on working days. Also the FI-PI-LI motorway direction Florence is likely to get blocked at peak times so take the advice of staying within 100 kms. with a pince of salt. If you do, be sure to leave early enough.