Region · Italy
Tuscany
A Renaissance city, a rival that never forgave it, and the hills in between.
Best seasonApr – Jun, Sep – Oct
Ideal length4 – 7 nights
Main baseFlorence, or the countryside with a car
Getting aboutTrains between cities; a car for the hills
EntrySchengen visa for Indian passport holders
SuitsArt · food and wine · honeymoons
Overview
Why Tuscany
The region that most people picture when they picture Italy, and one that splits cleanly in two. There are the cities — Florence, Siena, Pisa, Lucca, each a compact walk with more art in it than most countries hold — and there is the countryside, which is the part that needs a car and rewards it more than anywhere else in the country.
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Explore the Tuscany region on the map
City locations, drawn from our published destination data. Attractions, hotels and restaurants are not mapped yet.
Cities & Places
Where to go in Tuscany
Florence is the base most first trips use, and the rest of the region opens out south of it.
Highlights
What Tuscany is for
The Renaissance in one city, the Middle Ages in another, and a landscape that is itself the attraction.
FlorenceBrunelleschi’s dome, the Uffizi, Michelangelo’s David and a centre small enough to cross on foot. The reason most people come, and the subject of its own page.
SienaA medieval city that lost to Florence and stopped, so the Gothic centre survives whole. The Campo — the shell-shaped square the Palio is run around — is the finest public space in Italy.
The Val d’OrciaThe UNESCO-listed landscape of cypress avenues, farmhouses and clay hills south of Siena. It is genuinely a sight rather than merely scenery on the way to one.
Pisa and LuccaThe leaning tower and its cathedral square, and an hour away a walled town whose ramparts are now a park you can cycle round. Easily paired in a day from Florence.
The wine countryChianti between Florence and Siena, Brunello around Montalcino, Vino Nobile at Montepulciano. Tasting here is a reason to have hired the car.
When to go
When to visit Tuscany
A region with two very good windows, one difficult one, and a quiet winter.
Apr – JunGreen hills, wildflowers, long light and comfortable walking weather in the cities. The best all-round window, and the one the countryside looks best in.
Jul – AugHot, busy and expensive, with the cities hardest hit. The countryside copes better than Florence does, but this is the season to avoid if the dates are movable.
Sep – OctThe harvest window: vendemmia in the vineyards, the light turning, the hills gold rather than green, and the crowds easing. Many people’s favourite time here.
Nov – MarCool and quiet with short days and some rural closures, but the galleries are at their calmest and the cities at their cheapest. Truffle season falls in the autumn end of it.
Getting around
One pass, the whole region
Trains between the cities, a car for the hills — and the split matters more here than in any other Italian region.
Arriving
- Most trips arrive by high-speed train from Rome, Milan or Venice into Florence Santa Maria Novella, which sits inside the historic centre. It is the reason Florence works so well as a first Tuscan base.
- Pisa (PSA) and Florence (FLR) are the regional airports; long-haul arrivals from India usually route through Rome or Milan and take the train on.
- Indian passport holders need a Schengen visa, arranged as part of the booking and started early.
Cities by train, countryside by car
- Florence, Pisa, Lucca and Siena are all reachable by train, and for a city-only trip that is all you need. Siena’s station sits below the old town, which is a climb or a short bus ride.
- The Val d’Orcia and the wine country are not a train proposition. The villages are scattered, the views are the point, and the roads between them are the experience. This is where a car or a driver earns its cost.
- Historic centres across the region are restricted traffic zones. A car is parked outside the walls and left there, which is normal and worth planning for when a hotel is chosen.
What is not in this region
- Cinque Terre is in LIGURIA, not Tuscany. It appears on a great many "Tuscany" itineraries, it is reachable as a long day from Florence, and it belongs to the next region along the coast.
- Bologna is Emilia-Romagna and Assisi is Umbria. Both are easy from Florence and neither is Tuscan.
Suggested itinerary
How the region fits together
Nights 1–3
Florence
The city first, on foot, with the two big galleries booked before arrival. Three nights is the minimum that does not feel like a queue with a hotel attached.
Day 4
Siena, or Pisa and Lucca
South to Siena and the Campo for the medieval half of the region, or west for the tower and the walled town. Both are comfortable day trips by train.
Nights 5–6
The countryside
Pick up a car and move south into the Val d’Orcia or Chianti for two nights. This is the part of a Tuscan trip people describe afterwards.
Onward
Rome or Venice
Back to Florence for the high-speed line: Rome is a short run south, Venice and Milan north.
FAQ
Common questions
Four to seven. Four covers Florence properly with one day trip to Siena or Pisa. Six or seven is where the region opens up: three nights in Florence, then a car and two or three nights in the Val d’Orcia or Chianti, which is the half of Tuscany that photographs cannot really prepare you for. A two-night Tuscany inside a multi-country tour buys Florence’s queues and none of the landscape.
Both, if the trip has the nights. Florence first, because the galleries, the Duomo and the Oltrarno need unhurried days and the city is walkable from a central hotel. Then move: a farmhouse or small hotel in the Val d’Orcia or Chianti changes the trip entirely, and the drive between the villages is the attraction rather than the commute. A countryside-only trip works for a return visit; a Florence-only trip misses the region.
For the cities, no — Florence, Pisa, Lucca and Siena are all connected by train and all are walkable once you arrive. For the countryside, effectively yes: the Val d’Orcia and the wine country are scattered villages joined by the roads that are themselves the point, and public transport between them is slow and sparse. The usual shape is trains for the city half of the trip and a car or a driver for the rural half. Historic centres are restricted traffic zones, so the car is parked outside the walls.
No — Cinque Terre is in Liguria, the region along the coast to the north-west, and it appears on a remarkable number of itineraries labelled Tuscany. It is reachable from Florence as a long day by train, and it is worth doing if the coast matters to you, but it is not Tuscan and should not be planned as though it were next door. The same applies to Bologna, which is Emilia-Romagna, and Assisi, which is Umbria.
April to June and September to October. Spring gives green hills, wildflowers and comfortable city walking; September and October give the harvest, the golden light the region is photographed in, and thinning crowds. July and August are hot, busy and expensive, and Florence suffers more than the countryside does. Winter is quiet and cheap with some rural closures, and the galleries are at their calmest — which suits a trip built around art rather than landscape.
It is one of the two best, alongside Rome, and the pairing of the two is the classic first Italian itinerary for good reason: Rome for the ancient world, Florence and Tuscany for the Renaissance and the landscape, an hour and a half apart on the high-speed line. If the trip has a week, three nights in Rome and four in Tuscany is a better shape than splitting it evenly, because Tuscany needs the extra night the moment you add the countryside.
Plan
Plan your Tuscany journey
Tell us how many nights you have and we will split them between the city and the hills.
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