Robyn_B

My husband I are thinking of spending a few days in Florence followed by a stay in a well located village. We would like to pick a village where one can have a village lifestyle for a time, with good bus service to other villages if we don't want to rent a car.

Any recommendations for a charming village that has good bus service? Is it a bad idea to not rent car?


THANKS!

sandralist

Almost all villages in Tuscany are charming, but ones with good bus service pretty much doesn't exist in Tuscany. Bus service is geared to ferrying kids to school. Not renting a car will really limit what you can do and see and where you can stay.

If you are willing to spend for taxis, you can sometimes combine taxi rides with train trips (or taxi between towns), but it is pricey and it helps if you speak italian.

However, if you are sincere in wanting to experience Italian small town life as your primary value, rather than "hit" 4 tourist hilltowns a day or go on wine tours, then you can have a lovely and delicious time taking the train to Pistoia and staying there. Or Chiusi (although because of its Etruscan museum, Chiusi gets more tourists).

From Pistoia, you also have the option of taking the train to visit other interesting places like Lucca, Montecantini Alto, Pisa and San Miniato or Pescia. Or Pietrasanta. Pistoia, last I checked, had 3 Slow Food restaurants and has a wonderful food market, plus beautiful architecture.

From Chiusi, you can visit Cortona, Orvieto and with some taxi help, Montepulciano and Pienza -- and then go back to back to Chiusi at night and marvel at how incredibly different in feels to be in a Tuscan town not overrun by foreign tourists.

But if you want to be immersed in scenic rural farm country, and get off the beaten track to see how Italians live there and not be jostling for photo-shoot space with loads of other foreigners, you need a car.

bvlenci

I think you'd need some taxi help to visit Cortona as well. The train station is some distance from the town. Maybe there's a bus into town.

Another small Tuscan city, which I like very much, that is easily reached from Chiusi, is Arezzo.

bobthenavigator

If you really want to see and experience Tuscany, then you will need a car---it I so much more then the villages.
The alternative is to stay in Siena as your hub and bus to San Gimignano and Montalcino from there--among others.

Mimar

I remember a magical bus ride from Chiusi to Siena. This was connected with the train, left from the Chiusi train station, and arrived at the Siena train station. The ride was a beautiful introduction to Tuscany, stopped at several small towns, and we fell in love with the scenery.

Note the Siena bus station is separate and more centrally located in Siena.

sandralist

Minor (or not so minor) correction:

If you really want to see and experience Tuscany, you need to realize that "Tuscany" is one of the largest regions of Italy and embraces much much more than the "under the Tuscan sun photo op" cypress tree lined vinyards. It has an important seacoast, for one thing, and it has cities of outstanding historic and artistic importance, it has quite a commercial profile apart from selling scenery and wine to tourists.

Up to you to decide if you want to experience the side of Tuscany that has been a magnet for tourists for its farm scenery and wine (less so its villages), or whether you want to experience small town Italian life as lived by Italians without much tourist impact. There are a few left, they are very different in feeling, some of them do have very memorable scenery (and most have memorable architecture) and there are even a few reachable by public transportation from Florence.

You can have a car in Tuscany and entirely miss this Italian life of Tuscany.