The most common way of travelling is to fly and hire a car.
flights...
car hire...
It is possible to take a train to Tuscany, which can be done in approx. 18 hours from London, currently
booking tickets can be awkward although this is set to improve with a new alliance of the high-speed
train operators, which doesn't yet cover Italy but should do soon.
Driving your own car, particularly for 4 or more can be cheaper than flying and car hire,
and is more environmentally friendly.
It allows more flexibility and gives the opportunity for sightseeing and visits on the way.
In theory this can be done in 17 hours of driving, so if you have 2 drivers in one hit, but practically an overnight
stay en route each way is more practical and makes for a more comfortable journey.
The distance is around 1000 miles, but when calculating costs don't forget the ferry and allow for road tolls of up to £50, unless
you intend taking every non motorway scenic route (in which case allow another day each way).
If you do not have a car there are train connections from Sienna, Pisa, Pisa Airport and Florence to many medium sized and large towns and Tuscany has an extensive bus network to the villages however some of the remoter villas are fairly inaccessible without your own transport. Please contact us if you would like to know which can be reached by public transport.
We would be grateful to receive any tips and experiences from people who have used public transport.
To really escape from the rat-race and relax, bicycle hire is fairly common in Tuscany and some of the villas even provide bicycles for guests.
By train from London can be done in around 18 hours and is a good, green way to go, sleeping overnight
in a couchette. The easiest route is probably to transfer in Paris for a direct overnight sleeper to Florence,
then a local train from there.
Prices can be from around £150 per person, we travelled this way for Christmas and New Year 2009, and, apart from
getting caught up in the Eurostart fiasco, would recommend it.
Although possible to book through tickets for the whole journey, it is cheaper to book legs separately, this also allows you to decide how long you get in
Paris, giving enough time for lunch, or to view the sights, or go straight through. Bear in mind though that you will have to transfer stations
so allow at least a couple of hours.
We booked through www.raileurope.co.uk, around £ 200
per person. On the return we dined in Florence in the evening, coffee and croissant in Paris on arrival the following morning.
A walk around the sights, lunch in the centre, then back home in time for tea.
Interrail tickets offer various options
including 5 days travel over a period of 10 days (£180, £115 under 26), and 10 days out of 22(£259, £172 under 26), so you could travel to and from Italy
and spend a couple of days using the Italian trains for free. Longer passes and first class passes are also available. Interrail is not valid on
all trains, particularly high speed ones where a supplement may be payable, not in the country of residence, (the UK).
Eurostar and Cross channel ferries offer a 50% discount to Interrail holders.
Southern Tuscany does not have many train lines because of the hilly landscape, there are stations in Florence, Siena, Arezzo, Grosseto and Chiusi, and an extensive bus network, so many places are accessible.
| London and South | Midlands | North and Scotland | Eire and Northern Ireland |
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As recently exposed in the press be careful of what is included in carhire agreements, most include CDW (Collision damage waiver) but the excess can still be a few thousand pounds for any bumps and scratches unless you pay the SCDW (super collision damage waiver) of £10+ pounds per day, which they don't mention until arrival and can double the cost of the carhire. One option we have recently seen (but not yet tried) is to buy this additional insurance separately insurance4carhire.com offer annual cover from around £50 which reduces your excess to zero (and there are probably other companies offering similar).
The following are car-hire companies with offices at airports (click on the names to go to their Italian sites)
| Pisa Airport | Ciampino | Fiumicino | |
| Liberty Rent | X | X | |
| Sixt | X | X | X |
| Hertz | X | X | X |
| Maggiore | X | X | X |
| Avis | X | X | X |
| Europcar | X | X | X |
| Easy Car | X | X | X |
| Thrifty | X | X | X |
| Auto Europa | X | X | X |
| Targa Rent | X |