UNTOURING TUSCANY SOUTH – a planning guide

[Marlene Hench]

Untouring Tuscany South - a Planning Guide:

Winter is planning time for our Untour trips. Since people have been asking me questions about what there is to see and do while on a Tuscany South Untour, I decided to try and answer with this blog. Instead of writing a triplog, I am simply going to try to tell you about some interesting places that we found in this area.

(Apartment Building of Poggiarellino - Famiglia and Coppia Apts Are Up the Stairs)

I always start planning my trips far before the Untours booklets arrive. When I first started trying to plan this vacation, I was overwhelmed by the information I was finding in Rick Steves books (which I love for planning), other tour books, and the internet. I just couldn’t get a hold on the locations of all these places in relationship to our “home town”. So I decided to start by making an outline of the area and plugging in towns approximately where they were located. This is what it looked like. With this, I was able to get perspective and started planning our ideas in directions. Each color shared similar routes.

(Tuscany South Town Planning Outline)

Buonconvento:

Since we were staying at Ana and Ludivico Ginotti’s apartments at Poggiarellino, our “hometown” was either Buonconvento or Montalcino. Frankly, we found Buonconvento the easiest to reach for everyday needs of ATM, groceries, bakeries, train station, and a lot of really good restaurants. Now if you are not staying here, it doesn’t matter because most of the towns are still in your areas and probably listed on my outline above. In my descriptions below, I will use Buonconvento and Montalcino as base points for directions.

(Buonconvento Train Station)

I am not going to focus on the two well known towns north of here, Siena and Florence, because they require another blog by themselves. I will mention a couple of notes here though. Both cities can easily be reached by an inexpensive train ticket from Buonconvento. I believe that it only took about 30 mins to Siena and about 1 hr to Florence. Believe me….don’t drive into these towns. It is soooo confusing!! Florence is best seen on an overnight trip if you can do it.

Montalcino:

The town on top of the hill is a must. First stop is the Fortress as you enter town. You can walk along the wall if you wish. Inside is an Enoteca which is a good place for wine tasting. Some streets are peds only and there are some hills in the town. There are many shops and Enotecas throughout town as well as good restaurants. Montalcino is a great “hometown”.

(Our Friend Joe Wine Tasting At The Montalcino Fortress)

San Antimo Abbey:

Not far from Montalcino, this abbey is well worth a visit. Very picturesque.

(Abbey of San Antimo)

San Angelo d’Colle and Banfi Winery:

Continuing south of Montalcino you can visit one of the famous wineries of the area, Banfi. It has very pretty grounds and really fun wine tasting.

(Marlene Tasting Champagne at Banfi Winery)

Monte Oliveto Maggiore Abbey:

In the other direction and not far from Buonconvento is Abbey Monte Oliveto Maggiore. It is full of glorious frescoes of the life of St Benedict. In the museum, see the old Abbey Pharmacy. If you hit it right, you may be at the church in time for Gregorian chanting. This visit also teams well with the orientation when it is held at Pevi a Salti nearby.

(Fresco at Monte Oliveto Maggiore Abbey)

Murlo:

Along the back roads northwest of Buonconvento is the small town of Murlo. Although it is at its best in June when the town hosts a Medieval Festival, this is a town that seems to have perpetually remained in medieval times and is worth the visit.

(Murlo's Medieval Festival)

Monticiano and San Galgano:

Sometimes the Untours luncheon is held in Monticiano and this is the perfect time to visit the Abbey of San Galgano nearby. There are two parts to this Abbey. First are the extremely picturesque ruins of the old Abbey. Second is the chapel on the hill where you will see “the Sword in the Stone”.

(Ruins of San Galgano Abbey)

Pienza:

Going somewhat east of Montalcino is the walled town of Pienza. It is famous for its shops selling Pecorina cheese (sheep’s milk), meats, and also lovely ceramics. It’s easy to spend a day there or just a few hours.

(Pecorina Cheese Displayed in a Pienza Shop)

Montepulciano:

A visit to Montepulciano pairs well with your visit to Pienza since it is in a similar direction. This is another nice walled town to visit.

(Sweet Little Local Who Wanted Her Picture Taken)

Moving out further from your “hometowns” there are longer day trips that are worth the effort.

Assisi:

Going southeast and toward the coastal area, you can reach Assisi. This very famous town boasts of their patron saint, Saint Francis of Assisi. It is well worth the long drive through the Italian countryside just to visit the gorgeous Basilica of St Francis and sit and meditate in the chapel by his tomb. Although hilly, Assisi is an interesting city to stroll through and walk through the many shops along the way. Bet you have never seen so many carved statues of St Francis in your life.

(Basilica of St Francis in Assisi)

San Gimignano:

If you drive northwest of Buonconvento past Siena along the country roads, you will reach the walled town of San Gimignano. It is the town of towers with 13 towers surviving since the medieval times. This is definitely a town that you can spend a lot of time in and is a great shopping place. It has very unique stores here. While there I bought a beautiful tapestry runner for my buffet.

(Towers of San Gimignano)

Exploring farther northwest will take you to Pisa, Carrara, and the Cinque Terre, all seen much better with at least one overnight. Since we really wanted to “taste” this area, we made it in one overnight and two long days. If possible I would suggest a two night stay to really enjoy yourself.

Pisa:

Pisa could be a day’s destination in itself. There is much to see and enjoy here besides the famous Leaning Tower. Both the Duomo and the Baptistry call for touring. When we arrived in Pisa, we parked in the PAM (large grocery store) parking lot. It’s free to customers. We parked, went into the store and bought a small item we needed. We left and walked to the Campo dei Miracles, Field of Miracles, where these famous buildings are located. When we finished, we returned to the PAM store and purchased some snacks for the rest of our trip. Yes, free parking with our receipts plus snacks for the rest of the trip.

(Duomo, Baptistry, and Leaning Tower in Pisa)

Carrara:

After hearing that Michelangelo selected his marble from these quarries, we just had to stop here. It was on the way to La Spezia and the Cinque Terre. As we approached the town, we thought there was snow on the mountains (in June??), then we discovered we were viewing the marble quarries in the mountains. This is a interesting place to stop at some of the quarry shops and buy some beautiful carved pieces at reasonable prices. Don’t forget to drive up into the mountains for a closer look at the quarries and the marble slabs.

(Marble Mountains of Carrara)

Cinque Terre:

Following some advice we read online, we decided to stay in the town of La Spezia, location of the train station that would take us to the Cinque Terre towns. We booked a room thru expedia.com at a hotel across the street from the train station before leaving the States. Good choice.

Riomaggiore:

Starting out early again the next morning we hopped on the train and alighted at the first town on the Cinque Terre, Riomaggiore. Here there is a paved trail that follows the coast to the next town, Manarola. It is referred to as the “Trail of Love” or the “Kissing Trail”. The views are extraordinary and very romantic! Just makes a couple want to hold hands as they stroll along. It’s an easy trail so don’t be scared off. Highly recommended! Even I made it.

(Marlene on the Manarola Walk at Cinque Terre)

Manarola:

If you didn’t walk, the train also stops here. Manarola is a small fishing village that begs exploration..

(Fishing Village of Manarola at Cinque Terre)

Corniglia:

I really can’t tell you much about this town. It is reached by train and then a 15 min walk up to town. The day we were there the trail to it was closed, so we continued on the train to the next town of Vernazza.

Vernazza:

Vernazza is a really fun town and we were told that we must have “anchovies” here, not the salty little fish that we Americans find in Caesar Salads or on Pizza, but little fish of delicious taste. Of course, we happened to be there during the time that the restaurants were closed so only had a taste of fried anchovies in a take-out place. There are many shops here as well as a great beach. I just had to wade in the Mediterranean while I was there.

(Beach at Vernazza at Cinque Terre)

Monterosso al Mare:

We took the train to the last town, Monterosso. This town has a beautiful beach with bathhouses, umbrellas, and cabanas. It would be a great place to stay for a few days if we were on a different trip. There is actually a boat that we could have taken from Monterosso back to the first town of Riomaggiore; however, the information we had been given while planning our trip gave wrong times and we had just missed the last boat. Since we really wanted a boat ride, we were able to take another “commuter” boat back to Vernazza.

(Beach at Monterosso at Cinque Terre)

From Vernazza we took the train back to La Spezia where we retrieved our car and drove back to our “home”. Okay, if we hadn’t gotten lost on the autostrades (freeways), we would have arrived home at a decent time.

One thing for sure no matter which town you are visiting, you are sure to find a gelateria with many flavors of gelato and that’s all that counts. Our motto: “A Gelato a day is all we ask.”

(A Gelato a Day Is All We Ask!)

A word about the highways and freeways……the directions are given by town name. We found out how the saying “All roads lead to Rome” came about. No matter which direction you are driving in, you will see a sign directing you to Rome or Grosseto. Seems really silly to see when you are going north toward Florence or Cinque Terre. Don’t be fooled. Also, a recommendation, if you have a portable GPS, get a chip or download for Europe. It would have been very helpful especially trying to bypass the cities of Florence and Siena.

Another note: if you decide to do an overnight somewhere while on your Untour, it is a good idea to let the landlord know you will be gone. Otherwise, when they don’t see your car at the apartment, they will begin worrying about you.

Interested in seeing more of Tuscany and Rome photos? Then click here mhench's photos.

Happy Untouring in Tuscany South.

[Jane Reisinger]

Marlene, what a wonderful blog! It has really helped put some things in perspective. I love all the pictures you put in it too. Your section on the Cinque Terre is very helpful. I figured we'd need an overnight. I just don't know if we can do everything in 2 weeks! Thank you for sharing.

Jane

[Marlene Hench]

Jane,
There is even more to do in Tuscany than this. You would need months or years to see it all.
The blog above is what we ended up seeing and doing. I usually plug in a couple things into a schedule that are "musts" to us. For example: Florence and Pisa-Cinque Terre. Those two we had decided needed overnights, so I made reservations online before leaving the states. For Florence we took the advice of someone at Untours and stayed at the Hotel Pendini, the hotel in LaSpezia came from expedia.com.(I can give you the name if you like) So those were set. Orientation is usually the first day (Thurs) after you arrive. Ask Untours if they know when the Group Luncheon/dinner usually is scheduled.
With those things into your schedule, the rest is open for spontaneity. I take a list of places and information on the appealing places from my research and what's located in the same direction.
Because I hate that last minute question, "What do you want to do today?" "I don't know, what do you want to do?", I usually make a tentative schedule of places but am always ready to change it around or drop one place for aother if we hear of some fun thing to do once we get there.
We have used this approach on all 5 of our Untours and had good luck with it.
Remember the best things are sometimes the spontaneous ones.
Let me know if you have any more questions, Jane.
Your friend, Marlene

[Mary Lou Grier]

You did an outstanding job, Marlene, as always. Guess
between us we'll give Jane more than she ever wanted to
know! By the way, the Untour group event is the
Wednesday after we arrive, in Jane's case it would be May 28th, and it is now held at Monte Oliveto Maggiore, with lunch at Ristorante La Torre - much better than
making that drive to Monticiano! Another town I really
enjoy is Orvieto, south towards Rome, and easy to get
there and back in one day.
Jane, my two girlfriends and I will leave Anna's 2 days
early, on June 2nd, and head for Florence and the
Pendini Hotel for 2 nights before leaving for home.
And if you decide to go to Pisa, please don't miss
Lucca - we much preferred it.
lunch just up the hill at

[Powen Shiah]

Marlene, I'm definitely bookmarking this for the day (soon I hope!) that I get to go to Tuscany. Thanks for such a great guide.

[Doris M]

Fabulous guide to Tuscany, Marlene, and I love the way you blended in the pictures. We're pretty sure we're going to do the Prague-Budapest trip this June and I sure wish there was something like this on that area. Your planning tips are the best! We've been to Tuscany but I still learned new things from reading this - mostly I just ENJOYED reading it! Especially liked the "all roads lead to Rome" bit; that was so confoundingly confusing when we were there!!! Thanks for a great new blog...

[Marlene Hench]

I think we are talking about Austria, so I need a blog of things to see there. Probably Salzburg. Maybe someone wrote one already. I haven't checked yet. Hope so. If not....hint, hint!
Marlene

[Ed Jose]

Perfect! I have been to most of the towns you describe and you are on the ball, Since our travel days are over now, reading these comments make tears come to my eyes.
Thanks
Ed Jose
Lafayette CA

[A. Key]

Great, thank you. Having done North Tuscany last October, we're thinking about either Umbria or South Tuscany in 2009. If we go in fall, we'd hope to be there BEFORE they start burning the gravevines--any suggestions on that? Conversely, is early May a good time, hopefully before it gets hot? Thanks so much.

[Mary Lou Grier]

Don't know about Umbria, but the fall is a wonderful time in South Tuscany. I normally go
in October or May, but was there last September - from September 12th to 24th - and stayed at Poggiarellino, where Anna & Lodovico Ginotti raise and bottle Brunello de
Montalcino. That time frame was when they harvested the grapes and you could watch the whole operation from your apartment. It was a fascinating exercise, and I highly recommend it. I leave in two days for a different location in Buonconvento, and May is
also a wonderful time - all the fields are green and full of red poppies in bloom. Pick
either month, and you will have a most enjoyable time.
Mary Lou

[Dick Poffenberger]

Marlene,
Wonderful information. We will be in Tuscany South in Sept. for the first time. Your descriptions and info. will be priceless as we find and lose ourselves in the countryside.