Hi, Going on a tour to Italy in two weeks. Two of the towns we are staying in are Chianciiano and Abano. Anyone know anything about them?Restaurants,train service,bus service? Thank you. Nancy

Well I've been to Lucca up in Tuscany and it was wonderful, it's a walled-city that had a competition with Siena back in the day. So if it's not far from Chian or Abano, I highly suggest a visit there and there's oh-so-many excellent restaurants within those walls, you couldn't go wrong. It's also very bike friendly for a days, get-around, and has excellent access by public tranport in all forms from anywhere in Italy.

To help those who can make recommendations . . .

Chianciano is on SP146 about half way between Chiusi and Montepulciano.

Abano Terme is just southwest of Padova.

Sorry, posted too quickly . . .

I didn't find an Abano in Tuscany, just Abano Terme near Padova.

Hi Nancytoon,

DH and I just returned from a two week stay in Italy, including 5 nights in Southern Tuscany. We stayed in a lovely hotel in Chiusi, named Villa Il Patriarca, which was very centrally located on the Umbrian border; not far from Perugia and Assisi in one direction, Montepulciano, Montalcino, Siena in another. While there we found ourselves travelling through Chianciano Terme several times on our way to visit varous hilltowns and wineries in the area. We were fascinated by the town, it's relatively new in comparison to the ancient Tuscan walled cities that area is famous for. It is quite built up for the area, offering a variety of large hotels, lots of lovely shops, in a very attractive and charming setting. It appears to be a popular stop for tour busses as there were quite a few tourists - many Americans. Never having heard of this town while researching our travels, my curiosity was piqued and I decided to check the internet for more info. That's how I found your letter. Not much else here! But I did find one reference to Chianciano being a Spa town with several popular hot springs. Our trip being over, I probably won't spend more time looking into Chianciano Terme, but just thought I'd relay what little info I have. We were impressed with what we saw of it, and I think you should enjoy your stay there.

PS: We had dinner there one evening at a little trattoria - excellent. I will see if we have the name somewhere and write again if we do.

We stopped at Chianciano Terme for several hours earlier this month. There were lots of shops and lots of Europeans -- I heard a lot of German as we walked the main street -- who were there apparently for the "cure." That is, they were there to "take the waters." We found some reasonable prices in some of the shops but did not see much else of interest.
My suggestion: go a bit farther down the road to Pienza. It was the most beautiful town we found in Tuscany.