Tuscany Itinerary - Suggestions
 

Traveling solo. Arrive Pisa 11 am on 5/7 and overnight there.
Day 2 - rent car and drive to Siena (photo opps or stops on the way?) Stay 2 nights
Day 3 - Sienna
Day 4 - Drive to Montepulciano for 3 nights
Day 5 - Suggestions?????
Day 6 - Suggestions????
Day 7 - Drive to Volterra for 2 nights
Day 8 - San Gim and suggestions?
Day 9 - Drive back to Pisa, return car and overnight for flight next morning.

Any comments or suggestions for anything would be appreciated. Thanks!

Pienza is very nice, but practically next door. If you're not hitting it with a day trip from Montepulciano, it's a consideration. Montalcino is another nice hill town, slightly scruffier but with a lot of charm (and Brunello). Great hiking areas abound, too.

Where does Florence fit in? I'm not a huge fan, but if this is your first trip to the area, you should consider a couple/three days there. Very historic as you know.

Pienza -- http://www.brucegcollier.com/galleri...2_z_pienza.htm
Montalcino -- http://www.brucegcollier.com/galleri...montalcino.htm
Montepulciano -- http://www.brucegcollier.com/galleri...tepulciano.htm
Siena -- http://www.brucegcollier.com/galleri...l2_z_siena.htm

Regards, Bruce



Regards, Bruce

Do you plan to spend a night at San G? If not, I would visit on the way to Siena (note spelling- one n if you are searching the forum).

From Montepulciano, Perugia and Orvieto are reachable too.

Pisa & the Campo Miracoli are good for 1 hour tops.

Orvieto beautiful for lunch.

MUST do Florence & if possible stay in Fiesole. Bus stops outside hotel & costs 1 Euro into Santa Maria Novello station. Hotel Villa Fiesole (affordable luxury) & a view of Bruneleschi's Duomo.

With just 3 nights in Montepulciano, I would stay in the area and not wonder too far. No need to go to Orvieto or Perugia. There is plenty to keep you busy within 0-45 minutes of Montepulciano and LOTS of photo opps.

I have found the Tuscany Insight Guide to be a great source for visit suggestions-

http://www.insighttravelguides.com/catalog/index.php

Some of my suggestions-

Pienza
Monticchiello
San Quirico
Bagno Vignoni
Castiglione d'Orcia and next door Rocca d'Orcia
Montisi
Montefollonico
Petroio
Castelmuzio
Trequanda
Montalcino
San Antimo church
Abbazia d. Monte Oliveto Maggiore
Crete Sienese area (very beautiful countryside)
Le Foce (if you are there on a Wed and have an interest- http://www.lafoce.com/thegarden.html)

And don't forget to take the back roads and white roads and just wander. Be sure to get a good, detailed map showing these roads.

On your way to Volterra, stop and at the roofless Abbey San Galgano. I guarantee you will be very glad you stopped. Here are some photos and information-

http://www.sangalgano.org/ENG/picturesofsangalgano.htm

Enjoy your trip!

Thank you everyone for your replies. I've traveled solo before but this is my first time to Italy and I am a bit nervous. Mainly about driving and being the navigator while re-learning a stick shift all at the same time. Hopefully I won't get lost!
I just want to make sure I place myself in good locations for architecture and landscape photo opps.
No time for Florence this trip. Next time though. Otherwise I will end up not coming back for awhile.

"Pisa & the Campo Miracoli are good for 1 hour tops"

This is purely a matter of opinion. I think the Duomo is one of the great cathedrals of Italy, The museums are very good, and just wandering around the city centre is worth a couple of hours.

I'd also consider Lucca, and a short trip to Monteriggioni.

Get a GPS and if you're using a base to make spoke-shaped excursions, remember to load that base as a favorite and then to return to it, you can find the base easily again.

I drive solo in Tuscany quite frequently and have not found it difficult. Don't stress about it. One thing that helps to know is that it's usually easiest to follow the signs from point to point (city, town, village) rather than rely on road names/numbers. You will not find signs with names/numbers when driving through the countryside- just destination names.

Thanks. I was wondering if I should get a
GPS. Will I really end up using it?

Anyone know how the weather is around the first half of May? Trying to figure out what to pack. I figure I won't need to dress up for anything either so assume jeans will be fine for the entire trip as well.

We were in the area (Montepulciano) mid May, fine days of around 21C. Mostly wore 3/4 capri pants and t-shirts and sandals. A couple of days were cooler and needed to wear jeans, covered in shoes and light jacket. In the evenings it really cooled off so take something warmer. As for GPS we had it in built in our lease car and we wouldn't travel again without it. Is easy to get lost on the country roads, especially if like us you enjoy exploring. Also is great for navigating around the smaller towns.Worth every euro!

I have my own Garmin. Never rented one with a car.

The ones with Euro maps are more expensive than the ones with just US or North American maps.

There's an advantage in having it before you go over, so that you are familiar with the UI and the features.

I would set the location of the booked hotel and places like airports and train stations, as well as the attractions I planned to visit in the favorites, for easy access.

With Garmins, you can get a browser plugin so that you can search places like say cities or certain restaurants or attractions in Google Maps and then you could send those locations to your Garmin (while it is connected to your computer by USB cable).

Then when you turn on the Garmin, the locations you found and saved through Google Maps show up in your Favorites menu.

We aregoing to buy a GPS also and will visit Tuscany in June. Any particular Garmin that you recommend to us all? I was about to buy a TomTom 930 to use in Europe and someone showed me that the Garmin system and maps were more user friendly for topography and in town mapping, walking, hiking etc. They seem to have more map variety too, particularly for hiking and off the beaten track.

Our quick list:
Day 1: Siena
Day 2: San Quirico d’Orcia (market day – 2nd & 4th Tues.)
Montalcino
Abbazia di Monte Oliveto Maggiore
Abbazia di Sant’ Animo (Gregorian chanting 7PM-but check)
Day 3: Pitigliano
Orvieto (underground tour)
Perugia (at night)
Day 4: Cortona
Montepulciano
Day 5: Pienza
Drove Via Cassio towards Monte Amiata (hard to be more specific without map, but incredible scenery)
Monticchiello
Day 6: San Gimingnano

Quick list of restaurants
Cortona-Trattoria Toscana
Via Dardano, 12
Florence-LOBS Ristorante (fish)
Via Faenza 75/77
-Za-Za
Piazza del Mercato Centrale, 26r
San Quirico d’Orcia-La Locanda di Fonte alla Vena
Via Dante Alighieri, 137a
Pienza-Trattoria La Chiocciola
Via Mencattelli, 4
Venazza-Vulnetia
Piazza Marconi, 29

Actually, TomTom has the TeleAtlas maps which are considered to be stronger for Europe, especially for Points of Interest (POI) database.

Garmin has Navteq maps which are better for the US.

You can either get a model with just US maps and add Europe maps for $100-200 or get a model with both maps included.

You pay extra for features like spoken street names, MP3 playback, bluetooth (so you can use it as a hands-free device with your cell phone).

I paid $800 for my Nuvi a couple of years back from Amazon. But you should be able to find models now on Amazon for $200-300.

Make sure it includes things like a car power adapter and I would look at a bean bag mount. Typically they come with a windshield suction cup but you can't use that easily in rental cars. The bean bag mounts you usually have to pay extra for.

Auto Europe has a GPS option with the rental. Any opinions? I'd rather not have to take something else with me if I don't have to.

Main advantage of buying one here is that you can learn to use it and program it with the destinations you research before leaving for your trip.

Disadvantage is the initial cost and the weight of taking the GPS, the mounts and chargers overseas.

The few times I checked it seemed they tacked on like $50 a day for GPS rental? That's way too much if you rent for more than 3 days. Even 2 days, it's $100!

we made the mistake of renting the NeverLost GPS with our Hertz rental car. It was not updated (many streets/locations were not able to be programmed in) and it even took us a dead end street! and, if you have a problem, please note that you have to complain during your trip. there is no recourse afterwards. the rental was about $20./day.

Ok. NOT going to do the GPS rental. I think I'll be fine with plain old paper maps (I think I read that Michelin is good?) and my Google Maps on my blackberry for back up.

Anyone know what additional insurance I need to get upon picking up the car?