Tuscany Travel Guide: The Best Towns, Food and Hidden Gems
Credit: Simple Slow Traveler Travel Guide
There are places you visit and places that stay with you. Tuscany is the second kind. It's not even about the landscape, though yes, the cypress-lined roads and the light at 6pm in Val d'Orcia are exactly as good as every photograph you've ever seen. It's that the whole region feels designed to slow you down. I mean that as the highest compliment.
Everyone does Siena and San Gimignano, and they should. Piazza del Campo is one of the most beautiful squares in Europe, and San Gimignano's medieval towers are the kind of skyline you don't forget. But the places that moved me most were the ones completely unbothered by tourism.
Volterra first thing in the morning, before the day-trippers arrive. Pitigliano, built directly on a tufa cliff that looks like it's about to fall into the valley below, approaching it from the south is one of the more dramatic things I've seen. And Pienza, which might be the most romantic small town I've ever been to, full stop. Narrow limestone alleys, potted plants climbing every façade, views of Val d'Orcia from the edge of the hill. Have lunch at Il Rossellino, get a gelato at Fredo across the street, buy linen at Corinne because you will want to.
One honest piece of advice for the road: stop constantly. The smallest towns, the ones with no reason to visit other than the piazza and a good bar, are where the best things happen. Coffee, gelato, aperitivo, a conversation you don't expect. That's the real itinerary.
Credit: Simple Slow Traveler Travel Guide
THE FOOD
In my opinion, Tuscany has the best food in Italy. Every restaurant, from the simplest trattoria to the most formal table, has been exceptional. The standard is just genuinely high. Antica Trattoria da Tito dal 1913 is the one I keep thinking about, the meat, the pasta, all of it. The kind of place that makes you understand why Italians take eating so seriously.
And the olive oil. I did a proper tour, tasted more than I can count. Buy as much as you can carry home.
WHERE TO STAY
Poderaccio Farm
I've stayed here twice now, which says everything. Poderaccio is a biodynamic organic farm run by Francesca and Francesco, who are in the fields all day, every day, making their own products, living the thing rather than performing it. The cooking class with Francesca is one of the better experiences I've had anywhere: you make pasta, you eat her food, you look out at hills that make it hard to believe the rest of the world exists. You can buy her products on the way out, the olive oil especially.
WORTH SPENDING ON
A vintage car through the hills
We rented through Slow Drive Tuscany and spent an afternoon on cypress roads with no particular destination. It sounds like a cliché because it is, and it was perfect anyway.
Tenuta Torciano
A cooking class and wine tasting near San Gimignano. Three hundred years old, family-owned, Brunello di Montalcino, pizza made by hand. Not a tourist trap, an actual evening.
Saporium at Borgo di Santo Pietro
Book for a special night. Stone arches, Tuscan hills going dark outside, local produce done simply and brilliantly. The kind of meal you talk about for months.
Cascate del Mulino
The Saturnia hot springs are free, open to the public, and completely stunning. Natural sulphurous thermal pools, white limestone formations. Everyone knows this, which means strategy is required: go before 9am, cross to the opposite bank, walk back upstream, find a quieter spot. Worth it.
Riding horses in the hills. Highly recommended. No particular operator to name, just find one, go early, and don't rush it.
Two visits and I still feel like I've only scratched the surface. Which, honestly, is the best thing I can say about a place.
