What is there not to love about Tuscany…incredible wine, delicious food, purely indulgent and romantic, and beautiful all year round whatever the weather! I cannot recommend it enough and am obsessed with Tuscany, to the point that I am even getting married there as me and my partner love it so much!

One thing to know about Tuscany is that it is made up of a lot of different hillside towns and spans a large area, from Pisa down to Siena. You can spend as little or as long as you want here, from visiting just one town or several. You also definitely need a car to get around and cannot rely on the local train services, although if you stay in one of the bigger towns such as Pisa, Florence or Siena you won’t need a car.

I’ve now visited several towns in Tuscany, and most recently I stayed in between Florence and Siena for my mini-moon at a gorgeous castello named Como Castello del Nero, which is also home to a Michelin star restaurant. If you are looking for a honeymoon hotel, this is one for the books; It was hopelessly romantic, with Italian renaissance décor and subtly grand in every way possible. From here, it was very easy to visit several vineyards for wine tasting and to also drive to tiny villages for delicious local food (be warned that you will often find there is no English food menu and the staff speak very little English, but it is all part of the experience!).

In contrast, you can opt for the bigger cities such as Florence, where you can visit the infamous duomos and marvel the Renaissance art, and Pisa which is known for the leaning tower of Pisa (obviously!) and can be coupled with a trip to Lucca for a few days. Having these bigger cities as your base also means you can do day trips to vineyards or other smaller hillside towns such as San Gimignano (which is home to the gelato world champion- Gelateria Dondoli srl- I’ve been here 4 times now and the gelato is out of this world!). There are many tour operators to cater for this if you don’t want to rent a car.

If it is wine you are searching for, I would head to either Chianti, Montalcino, Bolgheri (super Tuscan wine region) or Montepulciano regions. There are numerous vineyards in these regions and to be honest you can’t go wrong with any vineyard you visit as you will always taste great wine! Planning a trip around these vineyard regions can be a bit daunting, especially trying to choose where to stay and which vineyards to visit. It requires patience and lots of research but it is definitely worth it. One tip is to make sure you book wine tasting in advance in the peak summer months as they get booked up pretty quickly.

Overall Tuscany has a lot to offer and cannot be covered properly in one trip! You will always find something to do here and it is a safe and reliable option when you are struggling to find somewhere for a weekend or week long break. Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions or want to plan a trip to Tuscany (or other parts of Italy).