itinerary for 1 week and the base for exploring tuscany

[toskania]

Hello,
My name is Anna and I'm from Poland. My biggest dream since I have remembered was to explore Tuscany.
Now I have an opportunity because of the wedding and honeymoon in September.
Our vacation will last from 15 until 21 (maybe 22).09. With my fiancee we were thinking to choose as our base the city of San Gimignano or Castellina in Chianti.
We would like to reduce a little bit the budget for accomodation to have more for other expanses (dining, entertainment, visiting).
I will appreciate the answers for following questions:
1. We will leave Poland on 14.09 early morning and will arrive to Tuscany about the evening same day. Do we suppose to start our journey in Florence (stop for a night, visit next day), go to Lucca (stop for a night,visit next day) and then go down to our base for longer (San Gimignano,Castellina)? Maybe it's best we will go straith to Chianti region?
2. Which place will be better for stay and visit - San Gimignano or Castellina in Chianti?
(We found the camping in Saint Lucia which offers good prices and quality)
3. It would be a big pleasure for us to participate in any events around (wine tasting, cooking etc.). Can you help us to find something? I saw in Panzano the "Vino al Vino event - it's really great!
4. For sure we would like to see the picturesque places in Chianti + Volterra + Montepulciano and other pearls of the Tuscany region. Could you please reccomend any worth seeing?
We would like to spend 70% of our day time for visiting, rest for active relaxing (pool, bicycles, walking).

I will appreciate your help and really sorry for my english (I'm writing under the pressure - no time before the wedding ).
Have a nice day!

PS I really love your website and forum. I am sure If I spend more time here I would find the answer for my questions.

 

[Lourdes]

Ciao Anna and congrats on your upcoming wedding!! Hope I can be of help so here goes....

If you're arriving on the 14th, since it is a Saturday you could consider heading directly to Chianti if you'd like to stay in a farmhouse or villa in the countryside. Then visit Florence as a day trip during the week. Those types of rentals require a week's stay starting from Saturday, so it would work out for you really well! it is also cheaper to stay a whole week like that someplace than to stay at a hotel and pay the per night fee - for example, if hotel costs 100 euro per night, and apartment costs 500 euro for a week, you'll save on staying the whole week in the apartment. So that can be a very good way to allocate more budget to other things

Take a look at these - you contact them directly to ask for their best offer and availability for your dates:
Il Cellese
Rocca di Cispiano
Villa le Torri
Residence Santa Maria
Agriturismo Incrociata
Podere Casanova

Where is this Camping Santa Lucia based in? I wasn't able to find it, found one not in Tuscany but in Sardinia.

September is a great month for wine related events - many are not even "publicized" by the small villages. As you move around the region, you'll just see posters up saying there is something coming up and many just offer evening events on the weekend. The Vino al Vino is a recurring event so you can definitely plan on that one... we generally keep adding and updating our events calendar as we learn of things here: Events calendar

You could plan on structuring your week loosely to see all of the places mentioned here, or at least some Add others for sure - Volterra is definitely worth visiting.

I hope this helps in your planning, I know wedding planning can take lots of energy and time - I think with your accommodation set, everything else can be left to decide once you're here. You can have a rough idea of the places, but go day by day to decide in what direction to head to or whether to stay in and relax - that's what vacations and especially honeymoons are meant to be!!