Chianti without your own car

1) Stay put and explore your area on foot

For those who would like to spend their vacation within walking distance of shops and restaurants and yet be able to go for a ramble through vineyards and olive orchards, the ideal option is a self-catering vacation apartment in a small town or village that can be accessed by public transport. Here are some possibilities in and near Greve in Chianti, the market town of the Chianti Classico wine zone.

2) Public transport in Tuscany - trains, buses and taxis

• Train

For Tuscany train timetables, please consult the Trenitalia web site. The train routes most useful to tourists are between Pisa and Florence, between Florence and Siena, and between Florence and Lucca. There is a station very near Pisa Airport for travel to Florence.

However, the SITA express bus (see below) might be preferable to the Florence to Siena train because it's a fairly stiff hike from the train station to the centre of Siena, while the bus stop is only a short walk away from the main sites. Local buses do run from Siena railway station to the town centre.

Check your train arrival times or journey durations carefully. There are fast trains that depart after certain local trains but arrive sooner. 

There is a steam engine route, the Treno Natura, running Siena-Asciano-Monte Antico-Siena through the Val d'Orcia (which of course is in Tuscany but not Chianti), with three departures from Siena daily but possibly not all using the steam engine. (8:30, 11:15 and 15:45 - check the times, please). There is also a diesel rail car on this route. Reservations required. Highly recommended - costs quite a bit but children 10 and younger travel for free.

Click here for more information about the Treno Natura

• Bus

There are extensive networks of comfortable Pullman buses throughout Tuscany but they have their limitations. Their purpose is to serve local people going to and from work and school, and their timetables reflect this, with few if any routes running after 7 or 8 at night, and long hiatuses during parts of the day. The timetables differ markedly between working days (Monday to Saturday), working days excluding Saturday, and Sunday and holidays. Timetables may also change for long school holidays. It is therefore a very good idea to print out and study the relevant timetables before you leave. The bus web sites usually provide pdf files for this purpose.

In addition, these routes are province-based with numerous buses fanning out from provincial capitals such as Florence and Siena, but with far fewer passing from one province to another. So for example, Panzano is located in the Province of Florence on Highway 222, exactly half-way between Florence and Siena, and yet to travel by bus from Panzano to Siena one must take the bus to Florence and then the express bus from Florence to Siena via the motorway.

Nevertheless, these buses can be extremely useful. You can be staying in a country apartment with a swimming pool that has a bus stop within half a mile or much less, so that it is entirely practical to spend a day in your nearest provincial capital while enjoying country life. Some famous wine tasting locales (for example, Vicchiomaggio) are just a few yards from a SITA bus stop.

Tickets can be bought on board the bus but there is often a surcharge and the driver might not have the ticket denomination your require and/or change. Normal practice is to buy enough tickets to come and go at the bus station ticket office or at the bar nearest to your stop. When you first enter the bus, be sure to validate your ticket by clicking it in the machine just behind the driver. Large bags, bicycles etc can be stowed in the boot (trunk) under the passenger compartment of the bus.

City buses also penetrate far into the countryside. For example, Impruneta is served not only by SITA and CAP buses but also by Florence city ATAF buses.

Here are some but by no means all useful Tuscany bus web sites:

SITA covering the following zones (look for Orari - timetables. Linee Urbane are inside towns and nearby, Linee Extraurbane go far into the countryside)
- Zona Mugello e Valdisieve   MAP
- Zona Chianti e Valdarno   MAP
- Zona Montespertoli, Empoli, Certaldo, Castelfiorentino, Montaione
- Linea Firenze-Siena
- Linea Firenze-Bibbiena
- Zona Casentino, Valdarno Aretino e Valtiberina (including Arezzo)   MAP

CAP and other Lazzi services - Florence, Empoli, Prato, Pistoia, Lucca, Val d'Arno etc.

Click here for the "PIUBUS" route MAP.

CAP routes and timetables

Florentiabus routes and timetables

ATAF - Florence city routes and nearby

RAMA timetables - Grosseto, Maremma, the remote country southwest of Siena

TRA-IN (this is a bus service, not the railways) - buses around Siena, Poggibonsi, Colle Val d'Elsa, Certaldo etc.

CLAP - Lucca, Via Reggio


• TAXI

Use of a taxi to transport you to your agriturismo is a fairly expensive option, but not excessively so in most cases because it can be extremely convenient. For example, the fare from Florence to Greve in Chianti is about 60 to 65 Euros - the same route is a one hour bus ride. Note that this is double fare because you pay for the driver to return empty to his base. Most taxi meters can be clicked to double rate so that you pay what you see on the meter. It's important that you have a good idea (preferably a map) of where you want to go because drivers are not unnaturally reluctant to drive through country lanes searching for a vaguely defined objective. Many rural addresses are in the form "Case Sparse numero xx" or "Loc. xxxxxxx" and only the postman knows what that means.

An alternative to a normal taxi is a taxi with an NCC licence. This means that the driver is allowed to quote a fixed price beforehand and these drivers often have very extensive experience of country roads and agriturismi. Arrangements to be picked up can be made before you leave home. 

Don't disregard the NCC option - often the price for transport for your family and all of your gear directly from the airport or station to your country accommodations will be not much more than a combination of trains, buses and local taxi, but will be much quicker, more comfortable and with less risk of leaving bag somewhere.

We recommend Pasquale Pugliese's Chianti transfer service.

3) Bicycling in Tuscany

Tuscany is a bikers' paradise as witnessed by the brightly-costumed, very fit-looking, Italian men on racing bikes streaming at high speed through the countryside every sunny weekend, much like shoals of tropical fish with a shark on their tail. Some parts of Tuscany, notably Chianti, are hilly and might not be ideal for the athletically-challenged but many areas have long flat stretches and gentle slopes. Racing bikes are universally popular in Italy but there's no reason not to use an ordinary road bike, and mountain bikes are often available from your accommodation for modest or no cost. There are also bicycle shops here and there where you can rent your transport.

Some tourists join organised bicycle tours but this is by no means essential. Many excellent do-it-yourself bicycling guide books with maps and detailed route descriptions are available. Some of them are listed on the Greve in Chianti web site bicycling page. The Florence-Impruneta-Florence circuit is described here.

Here's a great place to stay while on a Chianti bike tour!

	The Ristoro di Lucarelli offers quiet, clean and comfortable rooms with their own bathrooms for one, two or three persons. As its name suggests, the Ristoro also has a restaurant and a bar. It is ideally located on the country road that joins Panzano with Radda and Gaiole, and the Chianti Castles routes. More about Ristoro di Lucarelli.
And while cycling in the Alta Maremma SW of Sienna . . .
	The densely forested area of the Alta Maremma provides endless wonderful bicycling circuits. Wild animals and the large carnivorous birds are much more readily observed here than in more populated parts of Tuscany, and the villages and towns are truly "authentic". If you want to see old style Tuscany, this is the area. And from here you can cycle down to the Maremma itself and visit the huge wild-life reserve there as well as go to the beach. Casa Reasco offers two commodious self-catering apartments in the village of Torniella. The ruined Abbey of San Galgano is within easy riding distance. The apartments and some additional rooms can also be rented together if you have a largish bicycling group. The prices can't be beat! More about Casa Reasco.

4) Car or minibus with driver/guide

Although this costs a bit of money, an ideal way to explore Tuscany is to hire a licensed driver who also provides the car or minibus. This is especially useful if you are a group of four or more, up to about eight. The vehicles are modern, comfortable, clean and air-conditioned. If they aren't, you're dealing with the wrong company.

Be sure to distinguish between a taxi driver, a licensed fixed-rate taxi driver and a driver who is also a licensed tour guide.

• A taxi driver is used for fairly short routes or at least for a journey to a single destination, and he will charge exactly what his meter shows (double fare for a long trip where he is obliged to return empty).

• A driver who is appropriately licensed (NCC) may offer a fixed rate for an entire tour lasting an agreed amount of time and not extending beyond an agreed territory.

• If you also wish to be guided around the sights, you should use a driver who has a tour guide license - that allows him to enter buildings with you. It's also possible to hire an NCC driver plus a licensed tour guide, but this is normally the option for a full-sized bus rather than a minibus.

All three of these categories are permitted to enter the traffic-limited inner city areas in Florence and elsewhere that are closed to outside traffic.

Our recommendations:

	Sunflower Minibus Tours Giovanni Sirabella is a licensed, English-speaking Tuscany tour guide and driver whose minibuses can carry up to 8 passengers. He specialises in shore-excursions for cruise ship passengers arriving at Livorno, and in wine and art tours throughout Tuscany. More about Giovanni and Sunflower Tours.
	Angela Saltafuori, tour guide Angie is a licensed, English-speaking Tuscany tour guide who provides transport for groups of up to 8 passengers in an air-conditioned minibus. She holds a sommelier certificate and has an excellent knowledge of the highways and byways of Chianti. More about Angela, your tour guide.
	Pasquale Pugliese, minibus taxi service Pasquale holds an NCC taxi license which means he can quote fixed prices for tours and transfers ahead of time. He specialises in transfers between airports and railway stations to agriturismi in Chianti and shopping excursions to the famous discount fashion outlets near Florence. More about Pasquale's fixed price taxi and tour service.
	Maurizio Manuelli, minibus taxi service Maurizio holds an NCC taxi license which means he can quote fixed prices for tours and transfers ahead of time. He specialises in transfers between airports and railway stations to agriturismi in Chianti and one day tours to Arezzo, Sansepolcro, Assisi and Cortona in Tuscany and to Urbino in The Marches. More about Maurizio's fixed price taxi and tour service