*All work including photos and writing on this page is my own, except the link to the tourism videos, freely available on Youtube.
TUSCANY, ITALY
Not many places in the world exude culture, beauty and history as Italy does. You can just immerse yourself in the whole Tuscan experience. This is my blog on Tuscany, Italy
Have a look at this video We stayed near Siena which worked out to be a good base to explore Tuscany. I would recommend anywhere between Florence and Siena, which is also the Chianti wine growing region of Italy.
Food
The food in Tuscany is delicious in my opinion as everything I tasted was so fresh and full of flavour. Try the fresh olives and you will notice that they taste so different to the ones we buy in the UK. The fresh local olive oil is just amazing. The local Chianti is certainly worth a try as well. The grapes for the Chianti wine are grown in vineyards all over this area. Truffles are also a local speciality here as is the local cheese Tuscan pecorino (ewe's milk cheese). Of course the Gelato is as good here as it is all over Italy. You will of course find many local independent restaurants and pizzerias all over this area. The menu maybe slightly limited and repetitive, as with most places in Italy, the food is very regional, but it all tasted good to me. I would recommend checking the tripadvisor reviews first, especially to avoid the ones that charge cover charges. We loved this café in Montepulciano and the view from the balcony at the back below Cafe Poliziano For shopping I would recommend Florence as the best place to shop, although it isn’t cheap, but does have lots of designer, high street shops and boutiques. For food there are Coop and Simply supermarkets everywhere which are good. There are still many independent shops in this area that sell good quality produce. The bakeries are just divine.
There are plenty of museums and art galleries in every town and city in this area, although the towns themselves are a work of art, just stunningly beautiful! I would say the best time to visit is in late spring or early Autumn. The summer can be very hot and very busy with tourists. We went for Christmas, which although cold, was very quiet and we were able to visit all the major tourist sites without any queues. It was actually a magical place to spend Christmas in front of an open fire in the apartment we rented in an old monastery. |
You will need a car to explore this area. I would recommend a small car, no bigger than a VW Golf. Places to see: These are the places I visited and would recommend: 1) Florence UNESCO world heritage site In my opinion the most beautiful city in Italy, the whole city is an art gallery that you can walk through. You will need to pay to go inside the museums though, but you can see a replica of the statue of David for free outside. You will need a full day here at least, there is so much to see and do. This website is interesting. Florence guide Florence is the capital city of Tuscany. It is known as the "cradle of the Renaissance" for its monuments, churches, and buildings. We all enjoyed it here. 2) Siena UNESCO world heritage site I would suggest a full day here as well. Siena has been declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site. This website features all the main attractions: Siena Guide 3) Montepulciano I loved this little hill top town. If you are a Twilight fan it is where Twilight New Moon was filmed. It is a typical Tuscan town, famous for its wine. You can go for a walk in the wine cellars of some of the wine stores. Here is a video I found on Youtube. I would combine visiting Montepulciano with Arezzo or Perugia as you will probably only spend a couple of hours there. There is a lovely café there for afternoon tea called Poliziano
4) Pisa/Volterra As we were staying near Siena, we stopped off at a pretty town called Volterra (well worth a visit) on our way to Pisa. I would combine your trip to Pisa with another town as there isn’t really much to see in Pisa apart from the world famous Leaning Tower of Pisa UNESCO world heritage site and the Cathedral next to it, which are amazing! 5) we also enjoyed visiting the city of Lucca. With so much to see in Tuscany Lucca often gets overlooked, but we really liked it. Photo below. The photo above and below are in Florence |