Tuscany rolls out across central Italy in a sequence of ochre hills, silver olive groves and the famous corduroy of vineyards that produce Chianti, Brunello and Vino Nobile.
Go in April to June and September to October.
- Fly into
- Florence (FLR), Pisa (PSA)
- Capital
- Florence
- Size
- 22,987 km² (8,875 sq mi), about the size of New Jersey
- People
- 3.7 million
This is where the Renaissance was born, in Florence, and where Etruscan tombs still hide beneath tufa cliffs at Sovana and Pitigliano. The land changes as you cross it, from the marble-veined Apuan Alps above Carrara to the clay-stripped crete senesi south of Siena and the long Tyrrhenian beaches of the Versilia.
The Tuscan character is unhurried and quietly proud. Meals run to pici and pappardelle, peppery Pecorino Toscano, finocchiona salami and a glass of Vin Santo at the end. Even the smallest borgo keeps its piazza, its Romanesque church, its evening passeggiata.
Come in late spring or early autumn, when the light turns the hills gold and the wine harvest, the vendemmia, draws villages into the vineyards.
What to see in Tuscany
Save the ones you want and we'll find which of our routes reaches the most in the fewest nights.
Historic Centre of San Gimignano
A UNESCO-listed Tuscan hill town with fourteen surviving medieval towers and a historic core shaped around two principal squares.
Uffizi Gallery
Florence’s great painting gallery, where Botticelli, Leonardo and Michelangelo reward a slower look.
Siena Cathedral
Siena’s Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, known for its 56-panel marble pavement and Nicola Pisano’s pulpit.
Piazza del Campo
Siena’s shell-shaped civic square, where Gothic Palazzo Pubblico, Fonte Gaia and the twice-yearly Palio meet.
Florence Cathedral
Santa Maria del Fiore brings together Florence’s medieval cathedral, Brunelleschi’s dome and a richly layered interior.
Pitti Palace
Florence A Medici court palace in Florence’s Oltrarno, now home to several museums and historically linked to Boboli Gardens.
Boboli Gardens
Florence A Medici hillside garden behind Palazzo Pitti, with the Amphitheatre, Viottolone, grottos and terraces.
Florence Baptistery
Florence’s octagonal Baptistery, consecrated in 1059, is known for medieval mosaics, marble inlay and bronze doors.
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How many nights in Tuscany?
Choose your nights and the route redraws: where to sleep, what to see, and the towns an easy day out from each base.
3 nights in Tuscany: Florence for 2 and Siena for 1.5 nights in Tuscany: Florence for 3 and Siena for 2.7 nights in Tuscany: Florence for 3, Siena for 2 and Pienza for 2.10 nights in Tuscany: Lucca for 2, Florence for 3, Siena for 3 and Pienza for 2.
Add your first day and each link opens on that stop's dates.
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Where to stay in Tuscany
Each stop with what to see and, where we have them, a day out and the hotel we'd book.
Lucca is the provincial capital in northern Tuscany's Piana di Lucca.
- Day out
- Pisa
A boutique hotel in a fifteenth-century townhouse on Via degli Angeli, inside Lucca's walls and a short walk from the cathedral.
Check dates: Albergo alla Corte degli AngeliMore in Lucca
Palazzo Dipinto
A small hotel on Piazza del Palazzo Dipinto in central Lucca, with an art gallery and bar, an easy walk from the walls.
Check dates: Palazzo DipintoA comfortable hotel in a historic building inside Lucca's walls, a quiet, central base for exploring the old town on foot.
Check dates: Hotel Ilaria
60 km from Lucca as the crow flies
The cradle of the Renaissance, where Brunelleschi's terracotta dome crowns the Duomo and the Uffizi holds Botticelli's Birth of Venus.
Two Renaissance buildings in four and a half hectares of private garden, with a pool and garden breakfasts far from the crowds.
Check dates: Four Seasons Hotel FirenzeMore in Florence
A Brunelleschi-attributed palazzo on Piazza Ognissanti with frescoed, chandeliered rooms and Arno views, for full-dress Florentine grandeur by the river.
Check dates: The St. Regis Florence
Often called Italy's oldest hotel, with restored frescoes, a stained-glass lobby ceiling and a suite in a thirteenth-century tower with views all round.
Check dates: Porta Rossa Hotel Firenze
50 km from Florence as the crow flies
A Gothic city built across three hills, gathered around the shell-shaped Piazza del Campo where the Palio horse race is run twice each summer.
- Day out
- San Gimignano · Monteriggioni · Volterra
A small country hotel in a former charterhouse on Siena's edge, with a pool, tennis and terrace views, a short drive from the Campo.
Check dates: Certosa di MaggianoMore in Siena
Hotel Palazzo di Valli
A small hotel in an eighteenth-century villa on Siena's outskirts, with olive-tree gardens, a panoramic terrace and free parking for drivers.
Check dates: Hotel Palazzo di ValliA grand frescoed palazzo on Via Banchi di Sopra, steps from the Campo and the cathedral, with full hotel service in the heart of Siena.
Check dates: Grand Hotel Continental Siena
40 km from Siena as the crow flies
The ideal Renaissance city, redesigned in the fifteenth century by Pope Pius II as a model of harmonious planning.
- Day out
- Montalcino
Its cathedral and palace face the Val d'Orcia, and its dairies produce a celebrated Pecorino di Pienza.
Other places to stay
Il Segreto di Pietrafitta
A farm stay in a fifteenth-century hillside house with beamed ceilings and a pool, looking across the countryside to San Gimignano's towers.
Check dates: Il Segreto di PietrafittaAlbergo alla Corte degli Angeli
A boutique hotel in a fifteenth-century townhouse on Via degli Angeli, inside Lucca's walls and a short walk from the cathedral.
Check dates: Albergo alla Corte degli AngeliFattoria San Donato
A family-run organic farm and winery at San Donato, near San Gimignano, with rustic rooms, a pool and meals built on its own produce.
Check dates: Fattoria San DonatoRinascimento Bed & Breakfast
A simple, central B&B on Piazza Donati, between the station and the Leaning Tower, with plain rooms and some kitchenettes for self-caterers.
Check dates in PisaPalazzo Dipinto
A small hotel on Piazza del Palazzo Dipinto in central Lucca, with an art gallery and bar, an easy walk from the walls.
Check dates: Palazzo Dipinto
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A traditional dinner from Tuscany
Every course is one the region actually serves. Change any of them and the wine, the timing and the shopping list follow.
Antipasto
Tuscan Chicken-Liver Crostini
Chicken-liver crostini with a vegetable base, capers, anchovy paste and butter, adapted from Juls’ Kitchen’s recipe on Visit Tuscany.
First course
Pici all’Aglione
Hand-rolled eggless noodles from the Val di Chiana in a tomato sauce built on aglione, the giant mellow garlic that perfumes without biting.
Main course
Bistecca alla fiorentina
A thick T-bone steak grilled over embers, rested and sliced, with salt, black pepper and a little olive oil.
Side
Fagioli all’uccelletto
Cannellini beans in a thick tomato sauce scented with sage and garlic. Cook the beans gently first, then fold them into the sauce so they stay tender and mostly whole.
Dessert
Cantucci alle mandorle
Twice-baked almond cookies with a crisp, dry bite and bright orange zest, made for coffee or a small glass of Vin Santo.
What to pour
Serve this tomato and aglione sauce with Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, from the same part of Tuscany.
Vino Nobile di Montepulciano
Start the Fagioli all’uccelletto first: 2 hr 50 min.
Taste it there
Lucca by bike, with tastings
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What Tuscany is known for
You will find these here and nowhere else.
Twice each summer ten of Siena's seventeen districts race bareback three times around the Campo, about 75 seconds, and a riderless horse can still win.
Above this gulf Populonia smelted Elba's iron until the slag buried its own Etruscan tombs, and twentieth-century crews reworking the heaps found them again.
The campanile fell and took San Galgano's roof with it, so the sky now fills the nave, and uphill a knight's sword stands in the rock.
Vineyards beyond the town walls
San Gimignano’s hillside vineyards give Tuscany a wine-country chapter beside its architectural visits. Vernaccia di San Gimignano belongs to a defined production zone within the municipality, rather than the whole region. Look beyond the town toward the cultivated hills, then choose a particular producer and place instead of treating Tuscan wine as one uniform landscape.
At Christmas
For a Tuscan Christmas table, choose the savoury centre before adding sweets: chicken-liver crostini can open the meal and arista offers a roast with its own cooking schedule. Ricciarelli make a smaller almond baking project for the finish. For a December journey, confirm museum entries and the market’s individual opening days before adding another town to the same day’s plan.
Where next
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Marche
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