Tuscany

Tuscany: What’s Worth Your Time and What You Can Skip

Tuscany is Italy’s most visited region, which means some of it is genuinely wonderful and some of it has been polished past the point of interest. The key decisions are about which towns to base yourself in, how much time to spend in Florence, and whether to rent a car or work with trains.

Florence

Florence requires three days minimum for anyone serious about the art. The Uffizi alone justifies a full day: the Botticelli rooms (Birth of Venus, Primavera), the Leonardo and Raphael rooms, the Caravaggios in the later galleries. Book tickets months ahead for July and August. The Accademia (Michelangelo’s David) needs perhaps two hours. The Duomo complex — cathedral, baptistery, Giotto’s campanile, the dome interior — is spread across adjacent buildings and benefits from a combined pass.

The Oltrarno neighbourhood, on the south bank of the Arno, is considerably less crowded than the historical centre and has better restaurants. Piazza di Santo Spirito on a weekday evening, with its food stalls and local crowd, gives you something closer to actual Florentine life than anything on the tourist drag near the Duomo.

Siena

Siena is Florence’s great rival historically and architecturally. The Piazza del Campo is the most beautiful public square in Italy by most assessments — a sloping fan-shaped space of dark brick, ringed by medieval palaces. The Torre del Mangia (climb it for the view) and the Palazzo Pubblico (with Lorenzetti’s remarkable “Allegory of Good and Bad Government” frescoes inside) are on the square. The Duomo di Siena is covered separately in this guide.

Stay overnight in Siena rather than day-tripping from Florence. The town after the day-tripper coaches leave in the evening is a different place.

The Countryside

The Val d’Orcia, the rolling farmland south of Siena, is where most of the postcard Tuscany photographs come from — cypress trees on hilltop roads, grain fields and clay soil in pale winter colours, stone farmhouses in medieval hilltop villages. The Strada del Vino running through the Chianti Classico zone (Greve, Panzano, Castellina, Radda) is good cycling country. A rental car is essential for the countryside.

San Gimignano has 14 medieval towers and very heavy tourist traffic in season. Its Vernaccia di San Gimignano white wine is underrated. Go late afternoon when the coaches have left.

Montepulciano produces Vino Nobile, one of Tuscany’s better reds (Sangiovese-based, aged longer than Chianti). The hill town itself is attractive and quieter than the more famous places.

Cortona is worth half a day for the Etruscan museum and the view back across the Val di Chiana toward Lake Trasimeno.

Food and Wine

Bistecca alla Fiorentina is a T-bone or porterhouse steak cut at least 4cm thick, grilled over wood charcoal, served rare (al sangue) — ordering it any other way is technically possible and widely considered a waste of the beef. Budget around €40–50 for a portion at a reputable place. Buca Mario and Sostanza in Florence have been doing it for a century.

Pici is Siena’s pasta — thick, hand-rolled, chewy — and appears throughout southern Tuscany. Best with a simple Aglione tomato sauce or wild boar ragù.

The wine is the point of any serious Tuscany trip. April through October, most cantinas in Chianti Classico are open for tasting with advance booking. Badia a Coltibuono, Fontodi, and Riecine are among the more accessible smaller producers.

Timing

September and October are the best months: warm, harvest season in the vineyards, fewer crowds than July and August. April and May are also good. August is hot and overwhelmed with tourists.