Tuscany in March
Feb 23rd, 2016 | 05:58 AM
#2
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 6,047
Likes: 0
Places to visit:
- Firenze: the city where renaissance was born. Lots of buildings, museums, sights.
- Siena: a beautiful town with a historic central square and city hall.
- Pisa: the ensemble of the leaning towner, baptisterium and cathedral, all of white marble, is breathtaking.
- Volterra: an old Etruscan town with pre-Roman archeology.
- San Gimignano: a picture-postcard medieval town, with standing stone towers.
- Populonia: Etruscan tombs near the sea.
The fastest drive is via A1 which is quite scenic once you have left the surroundings of Rome. Most smaller roads through the Tuscan hills are scenic. Open viamichelin.com, enter start and destination and zoom in until some roads appear with green stripes. These green stripes indicate scenic roads.
- Firenze: the city where renaissance was born. Lots of buildings, museums, sights.
- Siena: a beautiful town with a historic central square and city hall.
- Pisa: the ensemble of the leaning towner, baptisterium and cathedral, all of white marble, is breathtaking.
- Volterra: an old Etruscan town with pre-Roman archeology.
- San Gimignano: a picture-postcard medieval town, with standing stone towers.
- Populonia: Etruscan tombs near the sea.
The fastest drive is via A1 which is quite scenic once you have left the surroundings of Rome. Most smaller roads through the Tuscan hills are scenic. Open viamichelin.com, enter start and destination and zoom in until some roads appear with green stripes. These green stripes indicate scenic roads.
Feb 23rd, 2016 | 06:14 AM
#3
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 16,518
Likes: 0
The Tuscany countryside in the Val d'Orcia near Pienza is stunning in March, when it is covered by what "looks like" a green velvet blanket - with a grove of cypress trees sticking up and a perched medieval village here & there.
Here is something I previously posted.
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...y-171368-2.cfm
And here is my wife's Shutterfly photobook from our early March trip in 2013, that included 2 weeks in the Val d'Orcia.
https://stududley.shutterfly.com/39
Click "Full screen"
Tuscany starts on page 26. All the countryside pictures are in the Val d'Orcia. Because of Shutterfly software problems, many titles & captions are missing or truncated.
Stu Dudley
Here is something I previously posted.
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...y-171368-2.cfm
And here is my wife's Shutterfly photobook from our early March trip in 2013, that included 2 weeks in the Val d'Orcia.
https://stududley.shutterfly.com/39
Click "Full screen"
Tuscany starts on page 26. All the countryside pictures are in the Val d'Orcia. Because of Shutterfly software problems, many titles & captions are missing or truncated.
Stu Dudley
Feb 23rd, 2016 | 06:50 AM
#4
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 26,493
Likes: 4
You don't say how long you have for this drive, but my main suggestion is to drive as many of the smaller roads as possible. The A1 is fast but not nearly as scenic as the secondary and tertiary roads that crisscross all of Tuscany.
For example, the Via Chiantigiana.
http://www.chianti-italy.com/chiantigiana.htm
If you have time, visit Abbazia di Monte Oliveto Maggiore near Asciano. (Note that the monastery closes for a few hours in the middle of the day.)
http://www.monte-oliveto.com/
http://www.monteolivetomaggiore.it/lang1/index.html
And/or drive the smaller roads of the Val d'Elsa between Monteriggioni and Volterra and the Val d'Orcia mentioned by StuDudley.
For example, the Via Chiantigiana.
http://www.chianti-italy.com/chiantigiana.htm
If you have time, visit Abbazia di Monte Oliveto Maggiore near Asciano. (Note that the monastery closes for a few hours in the middle of the day.)
http://www.monte-oliveto.com/
http://www.monteolivetomaggiore.it/lang1/index.html
And/or drive the smaller roads of the Val d'Elsa between Monteriggioni and Volterra and the Val d'Orcia mentioned by StuDudley.
