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Tuscany

Updated · BootsnAll

Ah, Tuscany. People sigh when they talk about this region, so much that you can almost hear it when you read the word. Cypress-lined roads, hill towns, Chianti in the glass and Botticelli on the walls. So what is it, exactly, that makes it so popular, and how do you see it without spending your whole trip in a queue?

If you think of Italy’s boot as thigh-high (like I do), Tuscany sits just above the knee. It’s a varied region: a long stretch of coast on the Tyrrhenian Sea, islands offshore, the Apuan Alps and the Apennines to the north and east, and in between the rolling hills everyone pictures. Coastal cities, mountains, hill towns and river plains, all in one region.

This page covers the basics, with links to more detailed articles elsewhere on the site.

Quick links to Tuscany travel resources:

Tuscany: Fast Facts

  • In Italian it’s Toscana (pronounced toss|KAH|nah). The capital is Florence.
  • Tuscany is the birthplace of the Renaissance, and of some of the biggest names in Italian (and world) history: Dante, Botticelli, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and Galileo. Modern standard Italian grew out of the Tuscan dialect.
  • Tuscany has eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites: the historic centers of Florence, Siena, San Gimignano and Pienza, Pisa’s cathedral square, the Val d’Orcia, the Medici villas and gardens (added in 2013), and the spa town of Montecatini Terme, part of the Great Spa Towns of Europe (2021).
  • Italian history here goes back well before the Romans. The Etruscans dominated the area around the 8th to 6th centuries B.C.E., and their tombs and walls still turn up all over the countryside, especially in the south.
  • People from Tuscany are toscani (masc. pl.). The other forms are toscano (masc. sing.), toscana (fem. sing.) and toscane (fem. pl.).


Where to Stay in Tuscany

Every town of any size has somewhere to sleep. The cities (Florence, Siena, Pisa, Lucca) have hotels and hostels. In the countryside, if you’ll trade the anonymity of a chain hotel for the personality of a B&B or an agriturismo (a farm stay on a working farm), you’ll have your pick of rooms in every corner of the region.

How you plan to get around should decide where you sleep. If you’re using trains and buses, don’t book an agriturismo that you can only reach by car. Base yourself in Florence, Siena or Lucca, which all have good connections. If your heart is set on a farmhouse in the hills, you’ll need to rent a car and do some driving. That’s my pick for Tuscany, by the way: a few nights in Florence without a car, then a car and a week in the countryside.

Two rules apply wherever you book. Almost every town in Tuscany charges a nightly city tax on top of the room, paid at the property; Florence’s is covered in our Florence hotel tax article. And every legal rental in Italy has to show a national ID code, the CIN, in its listing, so check for one before you book a villa or apartment.

>> Tuscany is hugely popular with families, so if that’s you, see WhyGo Italy’s list of 10 family-friendly places to stay in Tuscany.


What to Do & See in Tuscany

You’re more likely to struggle to cut your list down than to run out of things to do. Tuscany is where you go to stand in a room full of Botticellis, to look up at Michelangelo’s “David,” to drink Chianti where it’s made, and to eat in a trattoria that has been cooking the same five dishes for sixty years.

These are the highlights most first-time visitors want, and each one needs some planning in 2026:

Beyond those, the things I’d make time for:

  • Wine country. Chianti Classico between Florence and Siena, Brunello in Montalcino, and Vino Nobile in Montepulciano. Many estates offer tastings, but book ahead, and don’t plan to drive between too many of them.
  • The Val d’Orcia. The landscape on every Tuscany calendar, with Pienza (try the pecorino cheese) as the obvious base. Best in spring, when the hills are green, or at harvest time.
  • A small town for a night. Day-trippers fill San Gimignano and Pienza at midday and vanish by dinner. Sleep there and you get the place back.
  • The coast and the islands. The Tuscan coast is often forgotten. The Maremma in the south has nature parks and long beaches, and ferries from Piombino reach the island of Elba.


Where to Go in Tuscany

If this is your first trip, some of these are probably already on your list:

  • Florence: Tuscany’s capital, and the place to start; see our Florence travel guide
  • Siena: the great Gothic rival to Florence, built around the shell-shaped Campo; see our Siena travel guide
  • Pisa: more than the tower, and home to the region’s busiest airport; see our Pisa travel guide
  • Lucca: a flat, walkable city inside intact Renaissance walls you can walk or cycle around; here are some things to do in Lucca
  • San Gimignano: the walled hill town famous for its medieval towers
  • Arezzo: an old Etruscan city in the east, with Piero della Francesca’s frescoes and a big monthly antiques fair
  • Cortona: the hill town on the eastern edge made famous by Frances Mayes’ “Under the Tuscan Sun”
  • Montepulciano and Montalcino: hill towns in the south, each famous for its wine
  • Pienza: the Renaissance “ideal town” of Pope Pius II, a UNESCO site, overlooking the Val d’Orcia
  • Vinci: Leonardo’s hometown, with a museum of models built from his notebooks
  • Livorno: the port city and cruise stop, with 17th-century canals in its Venezia quarter
  • Carrara: marble country since Roman times, with quarries you can visit
  • The Maremma: the wilder coast and countryside of the southwest; see our Maremma travel guide
  • Elba: the biggest island off the Tuscan coast, where Napoleon spent his first exile

You won’t be the first to “discover” any corner of Tuscany. It has been one of the world’s top destinations for so long that nowhere is truly undiscovered. But pick a town that isn’t in the big guidebooks, stay the night, and you’ll have it mostly to yourself.

Getting Around Tuscany

  • Trains are the easy way between the cities: Florence to Pisa and Lucca, and Florence to Arezzo, on regional lines, plus high-speed trains to Rome, Milan and Venice. See Florence to Pisa.
  • Buses are often better for the hill towns. Tuscany’s regional buses are run by Autolinee Toscane, and for Siena the fast 131R bus from Florence beats the train. See Florence to Siena.
  • A car is the only practical way to see the Chianti, the Val d’Orcia and the countryside properly. Just don’t drive into any historic center: nearly every town has a camera-enforced limited traffic zone (ZTL), and each entry can bring a fine of €83 to €332. Park outside the walls and walk in.

photos, top to bottom, by rayced, Otourly, dibaer, trixnbooze, Maarten Van Hoof