florence

Best of Tuscany Bus Tour (Review)

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Approaching the inn where we had lunch

My husband and I are normally independent travelers who do not like group tours. But the Best of Tuscany tour was so well managed that we thoroughly enjoyed it.

Our tour guide for the day was Becky, a young English woman who married an Italian. She was perfectly fluent in both English and Italian (at least to our ears) and gave us many interesting insights about life in Italy. Becky was also very hard-working and professional: being a tour guide for 40+ people is a demanding task, but she never wavered in her warmth and courtesy for the entire day.

Other highlights of the day included a tour by an excellent local guide in Siena, a bountiful lunch and wine tasting at an organic farm inn, and seeing the leaning tower of Pisa in the moonlight (we were there in November, hence the shorter daylight).

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Charming dining room where we had lunch

This tour is excellent and very good value. My only caution would be that it is a long day (about 12 hours starting at 8:30 a.m.), so depending on your age and stamina you might be quite tired towards the end. Although there is opportunity to snooze on the bus between stops, it is a long day with a fair amount of walking. There was one family with small children on our tour and although the kids were real little troopers, they found it too much.

We thoroughly enjoyed the tour and would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a fun, informative and high quality tour. It is a great choice particularly if you have limited days in Tuscany and wish to see Siena, San Gimignano and Pisa in one day.

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Our Tuscany Itinerary: Florence, Lucca, Pisa, and Others

Guest post by Judy Toth

Room at Cassafrassi Hotel in Tuscany

Room at Cassafrassi Hotel in Tuscany (photo: tripadvisor-tinatot76)

Tuscany…oh, where to start?  We absolutely adored Tuscany.  We stayed at a rural agriturisomo called CasaFrassi Hotel near the town of Castellina in Chianti. Our accommodation was gorgeous, with a view of vineyards and olive trees and lots of relaxing amenities such as tennis, swimming, and gardens to sit in.

We did our grocery shopping in the town of Castellina in Chianti, which was about 10 minutes north of where we were staying. The beautiful medieval town of Siena was only 20 minutes away. Siena is much like Lucca (walled town) but bigger.  It was a place you could wander around forever looking at churches, stores, restaurants etc.  We also went to Monterrigioni (very small version of the walled town) and San Gimignano (very old, very beautiful walled town).

Lucca

Lucca was very nice.  Like many of the old towns it is encircled by a huge stone wall.  It is best to park at one of the many parking areas outside the wall and walk in.  Great shops, plazas, and churches (of course).  Lucca was one of our favorite Tuscan towns.

Florence

While we loved Florence, we didn’t get to see much.  The primary aim here was to go to the Accademia to see the statue of David and to go to the Uffizi Gallery.  Unfortunately, we got there on a Saturday that happened to be a holiday (May 1 is May Day) and the galleries were closed.  The next day was Sunday.  On Sunday we learned two new words in Italian:  chiuso (closed) and sciopero (strike).  The gallery workers went on a one day strike.  Our last day in Florence was Monday and galleries are always closed on Monday.  (We hoped that since there was strike the day before that they would consider opening on Monday.  Funny, funny Americans!)

We did see the Duomo in Florence (church, baptistery, and campanile) which was gorgeous (do pace yourself, however.  I looked at only a few of the churches and by the end of the trip I wasn’t sure which was which!).  We also saw the Medici Chapel (small but interesting), Piazza della Signoria (great plaza with fantastic fountains and statues, just a cool place to hang out), and, of course, Ponte Vecchio (the old bridge).  Ponte Vecchio crosses the Arno river at its narrowest point.  The bridge is lined with leather shops, jewelers, and goldsmiths. We also enjoyed walking around the Boboli
Gardens—very pretty and relaxing.

Pisa

Pisa is a pretty small, cramped (as opposed to cozy) city.  We were told that once you have seen the leaning tower and the church etc, there is not much else to see or do.  That’s accurate. In our opinion, you could easily see and experience enough of Pisa in one day.  We stayed there for 3 nights because we used Pisa as a jumping off point for other visits.  We spent one day seeing all we wanted to see and explore in Pisa, one day to go west and visit some coastal towns, and one day to go north to see Lucca.

Coastal towns in Tuscany

The coastal towns that we saw (on the Tyrrenian Sea) were Livorno (the northern part of Livorno was pretty ugly—just a shipping port, we didn’t venture deeper into Livorno), Tirrenia (just a small beach town for locals, the most interesting part to us was exploring a golf course),  Marina di Pisa (would probably be a nice place to visit and walk along the ocean in better weather: it was gray, cold, and stormy the day we were there) and Viareggio (looked like it had even nicer beaches and cottages to stay in).

Hidden gem in Tuscany

Our serendipitous find was a town called Colle di Valle d’Este. It is a tiny town, not yet on the tourist maps (although it looks like they are doing work to get prepared to attract tourists).  We were there on a Saturday.  We wandered around the town (not much to see at this point) and enjoyed seeing a typical Italian town enjoy their Saturday.  The best part was sitting and watching the men playing bocce.  They really took the game seriously (and are not used to having a ‘gallery’ so they were really hamming it up).  Their wives were sitting off to the side in a circle talking.  It was wonderful.

Other itineraries

We talked to many people before we left as well as  people that we met on the trip.  It seems unanimous that Venice and Lake Como are “must sees”.  The only variation I heard on that is that some people said that Venice is the most unique place they’ve ever been and could have spent forever there.  Other people said that it was the most unique place they’ve ever seen but once they saw it, a couple of days was more than enough.

We hope to hit northern Italy on a trip that we combine with either Switzerland or the south of France. Hope this helped give you some ideas of what might work for you!

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Italy: Transportation Between Rome, Florence and Tuscany

Guest post by Judy Toth

My husband and I love to walk, both for the exercise and because we see so much more).  So in each city or town we visited in Italy, we walked everywhere.  In Rome we did check out the subway just in case we had inclement weather or got very tired but we never used it.

To get from Rome to Florence and back to Rome, we took the train.  Great trip!  We went first class so that we had a reserved train as well as a reserved seat.  The direct train is fast (1 ½ hours) and pretty economical (even in first class).

After we finished our visit in Florence, we rented a car to drive to Pisa, around Tuscany, and back to Florence to pick up the train back to Rome.  In general, it was not difficult to find our way around driving. The most difficult part was making sure that we were on the right road to get in and out of Florence.  Street signs are not always readily visible, directional signs are somewhat unclear, and intersections are complex. However, once you are on the highway or in the small towns it is much easier.

If you do decide to rent a car:  check the hours of the car rental location (they probably close from 1 to 3 in the afternoon), the hours they tell you are only guidelines not gospel (they may decide to close at 12:30 or not reopen until 4), and you may have to wait a while for a car.

We were very lucky when we picked up our car, but not so lucky when we dropped it off. At that time there was a long line of people waiting for cars because they had “run out” of cars and were waiting for returns.  In fact, one man, who had apparently been waiting quite some time, saw that we were returning a car and came up to us and tried to cut a deal to just take our car.  We were not going to let THAT happen!

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Uffizi Gallery – iPhone App

iPhone app for Uffizi Gallery

With my next trip to Italy only five weeks away,  maybe it’s time for me to buy an iPod Touch. I’ve been resisting the purchase because I don’t like having too many electronic gadgets to fiddle with on holiday. But the more I think about it the more I realize that having an iPod Touch would certainly enhance my travel experience. Not only would the maps and translation functions be helpful, it would also be nice to have all that practical information about the museums right at my fingertips.

For example, the ArtFirstGuide “Uffizi” is an  iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad application for touring the Uffizi Gallery, and the only one authorized by the Uffizi Gallery.

According to the Polo Museale Fiorentino :: Official Website, you can use the Uffizi app to discover the great masterpieces of Italian and European art, find your way around the rooms of the gallery and plan your trip to Florence. OK, I’m persuaded.  Off to the store to get one now.

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Luxury Florence at Budget Price – Review of B&B Il Cielo

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One of three rooms at B&B Il Cielo in Florence

We stayed four nights in mid-April and could not fault the experience. Giancarlo gave us heaps of advice about local restaurants, internet services, sightseeing, laundry – you name it. The place was spotless and beautifully decorated.

However, the highlight of our stay and indeed our three weeks in Europe were the breakfasts provided by Giancarlo. It was a joy to wake up in the morning and the thought of breakfast. Giancarlo also provided a packed breakfast for the day when we made an early start for San Gimignano and Siena.

Il Cielo is just a short walk from the train station, and we were able to walk to everything we wanted to see in Firenze. A great place to stay. Highly recommended.

via  TripAdvisor.

Note added Sept.21, 2010: I’m going to Florence for a week in November.  I’ve booked this guest house and this exact room for my stay! I’ll write a detailed review upon my return.

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Italy and Tuscany: 2 Week Itinerary

 

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Italy - so much to see!

Guest post by Judy Toth

Recently my husband and I spent two weeks in Italy.  We had never been to Italy before and I had quite a dilemma when I was planning the trip. So much to see, so little time!

I knew a little bit about a lot of places and so I started out trying to ensure we saw all the “high points” (museums in Florence, canals in Venice, historical monuments in Rome, the hilltowns of Tuscany, Pompeii, southern Italy where my mother was born).

As I began to try to fit this all in, I realized that I needed to pare the list down.  I know that our preferences for travel are to see and truly learn a small area rather than hit the highlights of a vast area and to have approximately 50% of our time planned and about 50% open for ‘serendipity’.

I also didn’t feel the pressure to make sure we “see it all now because we may never be back”.  Typically, when we find an area we like, we will go back to explore more on future visits.

Given those preferences I thought about what was really drawing us to Italy.  The first big draw was to see the area where my mother was born.  However, as I read about southern Italy, I learned that there is not much in the way of famous/historical sites and that area is less ‘user friendly’ for tourists.  Since this was our first trip to Italy, it didn’t seem like that was place to start.

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Tuscan countryside - it really does look like this!

Our second big draw was to see Tuscany.  That became the beginning of my plan—how much could we see in and around Tuscany in two weeks?  The plan we came up with was fly into Rome, train to Florence, drive to Pisa, drive through Tuscany, and train back to Rome.

We reasoned that we would start in the biggest city and, as we became more familiar with language, lifestyle etc, would work our way to smaller and smaller towns.

Our plan worked well and we feel that we learned a lot about a small portion of Italy.  In my next several posts I’ll share with you what we learned.

See Judy’s 2 Week Tuscany Itinerary here.

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Rick Steves Italy Audio Tours

rick-steves-italyMy friend Diane suggested that I go to Rick Steves’ site and download some free Italy audio tours of the major sights in Venice, Florence and Rome. These are recorded versions of the highlights from his guide books. They are designed to give you a private walking tour, and are so descriptive that it pays to listen in advance. As with his TV programs, Rick provides a nice blend of history, architecture and regular life.

I took Diane’s advice and was glad that I did. However, due to my personal preference of just walking around looking at things without necessarily “learning” as I go, I didn’t actually use the audio tours in the way they are intended. Instead of listening to the tours as I walked through neighbourhoods in Venice, Florence and Rome,  I listened to them before and after my actual wanderings.

I find that I can’t fully immerse myself in the experience if I’m trying to take in all the information while walking. So what I do is listen to the tour the night before in my hotel room, and then if I have time, listen to it again after the day’s outing. Hearing a review of what I’ve just seen helped me to understand and assimiliate the information.

So what’s included in these audio tours? Currently there are three major cities in Italy that Rick has recorded tours for: Venice, Florence and Rome.

Rick’s Venice Audio Tours  feature the Grand Canal Cruise, St. Mark’s Square, St. Mark’s Basilica, and Frari Church.

The Florence Audio Tours take you on a tour of the Renaissance Walk, Accademia and Michelangelo’s David, and Uffizi Gallery.

The Rome Audio Tours include the Colosseum, Roman Forum, St. Peter’s Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Trastevere Walk, Jewish Ghetto Walk, Ostia Antica, and Pompeii. I found the audio tour of the Sistine Chapel particularly valuable, as it explained how to get the most out of viewing Michelangelo’s famous ceiling.

Like so many things these days, there are myriad ways to access these audio tours. I downloaded them onto my iPod Touch directly from the RickSteves website. You can also get the Rick Steves Audio Europe app, or download them to any mp3 player.  The app is perhaps the easiest and best experience if you have an iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, or Android.

One thing I should mention: there are two disadvantages to listening to the audio tours on your mp3 player as opposed to a device like an iPhone. First, you won’t see the pictures. But frankly, you won’t be missing much because the audio tours actually don’t include many pictures; they just have the occasional still photo to illustrate the audio.

The second disadvantage is that the chapter breaks and subheadings may not show up. But that’s not a big deal; basically it will work just fine. After all, you’re going to be looking at the real thing as you walk around, so why would you want to have your head down looking at pictures on an electronic device? :)

Get the Rick Steves Italy audio tours here

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