The glories of Tuscany are too well known to be repeated by me, but from my time in southern Tuscany this summer, I have a few personal highlights and recommendations. We were based near Arezzo and the Piero della Francesca trail. If you're heading for the cycle in San Francesco in Arezzo, you may need to pre-book for a timed visit as they limit the number of visitors to 25 at any one time. The wait is worth it! (the audio guide tour is very good - only 30 minutes). And his Madonna del Parto in Monterchi is also worth the side trip.
If you're interested in wine touring, there is a very helpful shop just off the central piazza in Montepulciano (Vinoteca - Terra Toscana) who knows all about the local producers and can provide a map to direct you to vineyards to visit. Also, if you're heading to Florence for the day from out in the country, I recommend taking the train if you have a station nearby - it's a less stressful way to get in and out of the city than by car.
As to maps and books: I took the F & B Tuscany regional touring map, which was the best scale for the whole area at 1:150,000 (double-sided). I also took the TCI Central Italy Road Atlas at 1:200,000 for the bigger picture. For books, I sampled most of the general guides, but ultimately found the Rough Guide to Tuscany and Umbria offered the most detailed and enlightened coverage.
Finally, although it may be a cliché, I heartily recommend Frances Mayes' Under the Tuscan Sun. Not only her rendition of the dream of acquiring the Tuscan property is irresistible - her poetic account is seductive without being sentimental - she is also a great guide to the local life. In particular, to the seasonal foods which she rightly raves about; take it with you and use her recipes on location!
Author: Douglas Schatz
Date: 1 August 2005
3 comments
Comments
23 September 2008 21:11 : Teresa Casabella
I strongly recommend the province of Siena. We rented a car 2 years ago in December and visited the hill towns in the Orcia valley, Volterra, San Gimignano... The Rough Guide for Tuscany and Umbria is very very good.A place not very much visited is Colle di Val di Elsa, which has a medieval and Renaissance part in the hill and the 19th century area on the plain. They are Colle alta and Colle Bassa. From there you can easily take a bus to Siena (around 30 minutes). Colle is also around 10 kms from San Gimignano. Good hotel, with good heating(absolutely necessary in winter), even if it had a bland decoration: La Vecchia Cartiera.
15 August 2008 14:26 : William Russell
Well if you start in Arezzo you could do worse than head east towards San Sepolcro and the Tiber Valley - it is the home of Piero della Francesca, that rarity, an Italian town with no hills, and is a splendid centre to tour from provided you have a car. Perugia, Assisi, the list is endless and there is no point in suggesting places. The valley has lots of glorious villages as you drive down into Umbria. And you can also go up towards Caprese Michelangelo and the Franciscan monasteries in the hills north of Arezzo. I reckon the Rough Guide is probably the best one available. The region that is badly served for guides is the Marche.
15 August 2008 13:03 : Nick
I'm planning a similar trip and will be based at Passignano sul Trasimeno in Umbria, and then travel to places like Florence, Perugia, Assisi, Spoleto and Orvieto. Italy is such a wonderful country and we so much enjoy visiting wonderful places like these. We may end up hiring a car as it does give flexibility, but we prefer using regional trains where possible. But it's difficult to find out from Italian rail websites the towns and villages that can be reached in this way. I haven't found any suitably detailed rail route maps to aid exploration so far. At one time I had a very helpful Italian railways timetable but binned it when we moved house.
Does anyone know where I can get an up to date copy in the UK or recommend any similar publications? We're travelling on the 5th Sept so we'd need a timetable that covers September.
Stanfords' reply:
Despite the fact that we don't stock an Italian timetable (we can't seem to find one on a market accessible to us), both the September European Rail Timetable and the European Rail Summer Timetable 2008 actually cover all the places you want to visit.
There's a line between Firenze and Roma which goes through Perugia, Assisi, Castiglion del Lago (on the Lago Trasimeno) and Orvieto. To go to Spoleto you're best bet is to change in either Perugia or Assisi and take the train coming from Ancona that goes towards Roma.
The September timetable will actually come out middle of September, but the August one is definitely fine for traveling in Italy as it's the Summer timetable - changes are seldom made to the Italian train timetable and during August everything is generally closed for holiday in Italy, so no changes will be made to the timetable just before the beginning of September, when every commuter comes back to work.