travel into Florence from Tuscany

[Anne]

I am staying with a group of 9 family members in a villa near Tavarnuzze for one week in September. We want to visit Florence 3 days and travel to hill towns on 3 days. We plan to hire a minivan or minibus for the trips to hill towns (wine tasting trip to Montalcino/Montepulciano; second trip through Chianti region to Siena; Pisa and Lucca for 3rd trip). How do you recommend getting into Florence and back to villa on days we do not travel? We do not plan to rent cars because we don't want to drive on our wine tasting trips. I have been told there is a bus stop near the villa. I have tried to check the ATAF website without luck (mostly in Italian). How much would taxis charge? Can you recommend minivan/minibus drivers?

Thank you,

Anne

 

[Lourdes]

Tavarnuzze is easier to reach than Tavernuzze

Ciao Anne,

The most important thing here is to understand where exactly your villa is....
this is pretty important because very close to Florence there is a TavArnuzze as well as a TavErnuzze and one is located southwest of the city, the other southeast. You do write the name of the first one so if that's the one, you shouldn't have problems getting there from Florence by bus. Take ATAF bus line 37 from Florence's main train station, SMN. Since it stops in the main square in Tavarnuzze, the important thing would be to find out how far the villa is from there or if you need to get off a stop before. Ask the villa owners, I am sure they are often asked the same question and can best answer the question as it pertains to getting to them The ATAF site does have an English version, but it does sometimes change back and forth. The link above should be the one you need!

Tavarnuzze is about 8 km from Florence, I am thinking taxis might be 20-30 euros but ask before you get on to get a better idea.... with 9 people you'll likely need two each time though, so bus is definitely more economical way to move around.