How can I do a cheap yet safe trip to Tuscany, Italy?

How can I plan my trip to Tuscany ?

• I am planing trip to Tuscany. Show how can I plan my trip. Were to stay and which are the places to visit. Whether I should use stay in hotel or some other accommodation like one ...show more

• Answer:

  Hi, for your trip i recommend you to visit Florence that is the main city of Tuscany and one of the most beatiful cities of Italy, you can visit it just in 3 days, is pretty big but not as much as other Italian cities, like Milan or Rome, and to visit the main sites you can move easily without public transports. Other cities that you could visit are Siena and Lucca, i've never been in Siena but i know a lot of tourists who were enthusiastic of it, instead i go a lot of times in Lucca, is a small city closed by big walls, you can visit it just in one day walking, i don't recommend very much Pisa, but if you like you can go there 1 or 2 hours just to see the tower and the square around it. If you like wine and the country landscapes you must go to Montalcino (near Siena) or in the Chianti valley (between Florence and Siena). If you like skiing, from november to the beginning of april are opened many many ski tracks, the most popular ski places are Abetone, Doganaccia, Zum Zeri, Val di Luce and Mt Amiata. If your trip is in the summer time and you like the sea, the most beatiful beaches are in the south Tuscany and in the Tuscan Archipelago, but maybe you know also the Cinque Terre (Five Lands), they are in Liguria, not in Tuscany, but are very close to the tuscan border. Don't go to Viareggio for any reasons, is a popular summer location, but there's nothing beautiful, there aren't historic sites, there are only many condos, also the beach is not this beauty, first of all you have to pay to get in, and the water is always dirty!!! If you like the nature, in the northern Tuscany there are a lot of nice sites, the most famous is the Orecchiella National Park, where you can see wolfs, bears, deers and a lot of other animals. Another famous site is the Apuan Alps regional park, where you can see a lot of small villages in the mountains, some glaciers, big woods of firs and chestnut trees, a ski track near Careggine, the Cavern of Corchia (the biggest cave in Europe), the Grotta del Vento "Windy Cave", and the lake of Vagli (famous for his submerged village). You can move trough Tuscany very well using the regional trains, you can search timetables on www.trenitalia.com, also if you like to visit other cities of Italy, there are a lot of long distance trains, there are the Intercity trains and many high speed trains (Frecciarossa, Frecciargento and Frecciabianca on www.trenitalia.com, or Italo on www.italotreno.it). Instead if you wanna go skiing or in the parks, you should rent a car and take a navigator. For places to stay i recommend you to see on www.trivago.com, in the cities there are a lot of cheap hotels, in the Chianti valley you can stay on a farm, they have a lot of that with bedrooms and meals, are called agriturismi (plural), agriturismo (singolar). In the Orecchiella National Park and in the ski places you can stay in a chalet, and if you wanna visit the Apuan Alps park you can search an hotel in one of the small towns inside it, like Pietrasanta and Castelnuovo Garfagnana that have both the train station.