Thrifty Tuscany Forum

[lleweliyn]

I'll be spending some time in the Tuscan region, and I was wondering if anyone had any advice about places to go that won't appear in guide books - a quiet town with character, or a nice place to visit - something away from traditional "tourist" places. Thankyou, any advice is appreciated!

[daine]

There isn't a lot that isn't at least mentioned in a guide book. As someone said, Lucca is very nice. I usually take visitors to see the tower in Pisa in the early morning and then go on to Lucca to spend the rest of the day. It is, however, covered in the guidebooks. I know that Rick Steves covers it.

I like Volterra a lot. It's not far from San Gimignano and has an interesting history. As an added attraction, there's a very good restaurant inside the maximum security prison in the old fortress. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1552129/'They-made-me-a-pasta-I-couldn't-refuse'.html

The old town of San Miniato is also nice - the part along the ridge on the hilltop. In October - November, they have some interesting festivals including duck races and a good truffle festival.


The area around Radda in Chianti is also a good place to visit. There are several small hilltop towns, good food, and vinyards.

[luken]

Florence is Beautiful with so much to see.
It is a very small town, only a 30 minute walk from one end to the other.
Pisa is nice to and you could see the Leaning Tower Of Pisa.
HAVE FUN!!!!!

[circehyll43]

Yes Florence is beautiful, but you would be hard pressed to find any guide book on Italy that did not include Florence!

Take a look at Lucca. It does have it's share of tourists, but is not a big touristy place like Rome or Florence. It is a charming old town with the old Roman walls still fully intact circling the town.
http://www.welcometuscany.it/tuscany/lucca/lucca.htm

[osrick]

I think that Tuscan is wonderful everywhere, you can only go around and visit the place you found...(I'm not jocking!!) the countryside is better...a really cute place where you could go is Monteriggioni is a very little town(i think 200-300 inhabitants)it is really unusual...