Where to stay in June - without a car

J

jaguar

New member
Dear Lourdes,
Thank you for a fab and very informative website :)

I was wondering whether you - or any other members - could help us (a couple) find a place to stay in Tuscany for 2 weeks in June. We would like it to be a restful holiday, with a bit of sight-seeing (day-trips by train) and walking.

We'll be flying from London to Pisa and we won't have a car. We would like to stay somewhere that's accessible by train (or bus), ideally on the outskirts of a small town, fairly quiet, with nice views and within walking distance to shops, cafes etc.
We could either spend a night in Pisa and then venture further afield by train the next day (like Garfagnana), or travel straight from the airport to somewhere like Lucca.

Any advice and tips would be hugely appreciated.
 
Ciao jaguar,

Very glad you are finding the website informative and useful - we do what we can :)

If you're looking for a place for the entire 2 weeks to have a very relaxing time in Tuscany, the countryside would definitely be a very good choice. The hardest part is finding one that can be reached without a car - hard but not impossible. The thing is that many of them are not even that far from small towns, but might be further from the ones that have the shops and cafes.... and so the challenge is to find which ones are the closest to the towns that do have services.
I've looked and there are many that are close to towns but just not within walking distance - except for these two!
Villa Le Torri - Short walking distance from San Quirico from where you can catch a bus to Florence or Montespertoli and from there catch other buses to places where you might catch trains.
Fattoria Viticcio - This is a short walk outside of Greve in Chianti and from there you can catch a bus into Florence and from here catch trains to wherever you need in the area.

If you want to stay closer to Florence and have lots of privacy, you could also go for this apartment just outside of Grassina. Since it is closer to Florence, there are more buses into the city center and so times for moving around might be shortened.

Whether you go out directly or not depends on what time you arrive in Pisa - if pretty late, I'd consider sleeping there the first night, but if in early afternoon, you could still head to many of these as they have check-in hours in the afternoon.

If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask!
 
Ciao Lourdes,
Many thanks for your exhaustive reply.
The two villas you mentioned looked fabulous but a bit outside our budget. But the Agricola Poderino apartment was just what we wanted! Sadly it was not available for the dates we're going, but it inspired us to look for similar ones. We're now focused on Barga and we may have found one that suits us. Really looking forward to staying there.
Thanks again,
Jaguar
 
Sounds great! There is lots to see and walk in the area, very beautiful and peaceful :)

Just know that the train station for "Gallicano-Barga" is NOT in Barga itself, it is in MOLOGNO, about 4km from Barga so make sure you map out whatever you find so that you know that it is either in walking distance or along the bus path that goes from Barga to Mologno so you can catch the bus (bus 405 or 466) and then train for day trips out. They will have to be in the area, as Barga is a ways out from Chianti/Florence/Siena.

We stayed nearby at a very nice hotel a few years ago which said was in Barga but in fact it was a large estate several km away - just to get off the estate we needed the car. Would have been perfect to stay on the estate the whole time, but we were actually hiking above Gallicano (the Monte Forato trail) and visiting the Wind Caves so were interested in moving about :)
 
Thanks for these tips - you're a gem! :)

Yes, bus routes - and time tables around Tuscany are a bit impenetrable :(
We've just found a wonderful little farmhouse just outside Coreglia Antelminelli that sounds ideal, but we're not sure we can get there!
I've checked the bus timetables, but there seem to be several Coreglias and the various restriction keys (school hols, etc) confuse me...
Please help! :)

Huge thanks as always.
 
Can you see this link? http://goo.gl/maps/1K2hx

I've mapped how to get from Coreglia Antelminelli to Lucca.... it gives you routes with buses and trains. So the closest train stations are "Fornaci di Barga" and "Bagni di Lucca".

If you want to stay in the area, you have to look for places to stay that are closer to the train station so you don't need to take buses and trains.... see how they are tell you it takes from 2 to 3 hours to do while in car it would mean just 48 mins? that is why the Tuscan countryside is easier to explore with a car, it is just faster to move around. You can do it without a car, as long as stay in a town (and not outside of town limits).
 
Thanks!

this June i am going to spend my summer vacation in Italy too but not pretty sure about the accomadation at my friend's house. Lourdes's tips are so helpful to me at the moment. Hope you all guys here have a wonderful trip.
 
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