We will be spending a total of three nights in the more rural area of Tuscany after leaving Florence on Saturday, September 28. Of course, Florence itself is considered part of the Tuscany region, but we have separated it for the purpose of planning the remainder of our time in the more rural areas of Tuscany.
We have reservations at the Agriturismo Montaperti for those three nights, which is located just outside of Siena. We will be spending at least one day in Siena, probably the remainder of our travel day after we leave Florence on that Saturday. It is only about a ninety minute drive from Florence to the agriturismo. This should allow us to drop off our bags at the agriturismo and then take the short twenty minute drive into Siena. We do not want to leave our luggage in the car in a parking lot and have them subjected to the heat and/or possible theft.
We will most likely have to park in a lot on the outskirts of Siena, most of these cities are now pedestrian only in the historic areas, or at least controlled for car access via a system called Zona Traffico Limitato or ZTL, which translated into English is Limited Traffic Zones. The ZTL’s are usually monitored by automated cameras, and you will not really know if you are ticketed for driving in them until many weeks later, when you receive a fine (Euro 65 minimum), plus a handling charge from the rental car company.
Unfortunately, while there are many websites showing these zones, seeing and understanding the signage while driving is quite difficult, and these zones are not identified by any GPS or mapping system that would notify you that you may be close to entering one.
For the other two days we are here, we will be putting together a plan to travel to some of the more picturesque towns in Tuscany.
Right now, we plan on visiting the following cities during those days. We have made each city name an active link to a “Discover Tuscany” website that describes each city in detail. Each of these city links will open in a separate browser tab.
Since Volterra and San Gimignano are both in the same general direction from our hotel, we will plan on visiting them on the same day. If we have time that same day, we may stop off at Monteriggioni on the way back to the agriturismo, but if not, will plan on going there either first thing the next morning, or after we visit Montepulciano that next day. We had originally intended to stay four nights in the Tuscany area, but we opted to spend one night in Assisi before we head to Positano, shortening our stay to the three nights we now have planned..
Day 1 Travel Map
Assisi is somewhat “on the way” as we head to Rome to turn in the rental car we will have for our time in Tuscany. After dropping off the rental car in Rome at the Termini Train Station, the main station in Rome, we will take a high speed train from there to Naples. From Naples, we will work our way to Positano, most likely using a shuttle service that will drop us off as close as possible to our accommodations in that very hilly town where you typically have to climb a lot of steps to get from place to place. Steps and luggage do not go together.