Introduction
We arrived in Tuscany from Venice (here you can find our Venice adventure), in our two weeks vacation in Italy (and here you can find The Ultimate 2020 Italy Travel Guide). We only spent two days in Tuscany and we tried to make them as full as possible since we had lots of things to see and places to go. So we went pretty hard on discovering the city of Florence in the first day and the Tuscany region and its small villages in the second day. you could definitely spend more days in this region, even a week, and you still find new places to explore. Below is a small guide with our experience and some things you can do while in Tuscany.
Florence
We stayed at Hotel Home Florence, which is a very affordable place, located at 10 minutes walking distance from the historic city centre. The first picture from below is taken from their terrace, where you can have breakfast in the morning or have a glass of wine in the evening, admiring the sunset across Florence. Parking is available across the hotel, it costs 3 euro per hour, but it’s free between 8pm and 8am, so it’s a good option.
The old historic city is a Renaissance treasure, from its architecture to a large number of monuments, museums, art galleries and so on. The commercial shops are present as anywhere but we recommend skipping those and truly admire the art symbols present here and the rich and magnificent charm.
San Gimignano
A small town located on a hill, surrounded by walls build in 13 century. You can reach San Gimignano by going southwest from Florence, an hour by car, through the Tuscany villages. The trip until there is already a great experience offering great sights across Tuscany wineries. There are several parking spot for tourists, but you can also leave the car on the small streets if you can find a parking spot. The tour through the village lasts around 1,5-2 hours, if you don’t plan to eat there or get lost between the souvenir shops.
Monteriggioni
Monteriggioni is another walled Tuscany village, which offers great views towards the Chianti region. It’s a very small village so you can spend here from an hour to a full day. You can even book a room on their 4 star hotel located right in the middle of the village. Since we were having a full day ahead, we only spent an hour here, which was enough to see all of the streets and make a break in the olive tree park located in the village.
Siena
Siena, a beautiful city in Tuscany, has its historic centre declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site. All of the buildings have a medieval brick architectural style. Among the things you need to see here, are the Piazza del Campo, Duomo di Siena and Pubblico Palace. As always, get lost on the streets and relax drinking a ristretto or having an authentic gelato on one of the beautiful streets.
We started our way back to Florence, once again, through Tuscany villages and we stopped in the middle of nowhere at a restaurant where we had an amazing Bistecca alla Fiorentina at dinner, while enjoying the sunset. It was the perfect ending to our Tuscany trip, we couldn’t wish for more in the two days we had.
