Seven slow days across Chianti
A practical itinerary between Florence and Siena — with three cellars worth the detour.
Itineraries
From the notebook
Stories, itineraries, how-tos.
Long-form reading from editors on the ground. Filter by category or search — nothing is hidden.
Elba, by ferry and by bike
How to do the biggest Tuscan island without a car — hydrofoil, coastal buses and rented e-bikes.
How-to
Truffle season in San Miniato
November in a hill town that smells like the forest floor — where to eat, and what to buy.
Food & Wine
Photographing Val d'Orcia without clichés
Yes, the lone cypress. But also: backroads, late-afternoon mist, and why dawn beats sunset.
Inspiration
When to come: a month-by-month field guide
Weather, crowds, festivals and what's on the plate, broken down.
Planning
Bistecca alla Fiorentina, demystified
Chianina beef, a very hot grill, and salt. There is no secret — but there are rules.
Food & Wine
Hiking the Apuan Alps above Carrara
Marble mountains, chestnut woods, refuges serving polenta. A three-day traverse, and how to do it.
Itineraries
Day trips from Florence by train
Twelve destinations reachable without a car, sorted by travel time and what to do when you get there.
How-to
Soaking at Saturnia, free and paid
The cascade everyone posts about, plus three quieter alternatives within 20km — and the rules nobody tells you.
How-to
Pienza and the Val d'Orcia, a guide
The Renaissance-pope's experiment in town planning, and the photogenic countryside around it.
Itineraries
Where to stay in Tuscany — a planning guide
City base versus countryside agriturismo, which towns suit which traveller, and the three mistakes first-timers make.
Planning
San Gimignano — the towers, demystified
Medieval Manhattan, day-trip or overnight, where to eat without the tourist menus.
Itineraries
Cortona and Arezzo — east Tuscany in three days
Piero della Francesca's frescoes, hilltop Cortona, and the antiques fair you should plan around.
Itineraries
Florence vs Siena — which to base in
Two great Tuscan cities, two very different stays. The honest comparison: art, food, crowds, cost, day trips.
Planning
Chianti vs Val d'Orcia — which to base in
Both inside Siena province, both world-famous, very different trips. Wine, landscape, crowds, drive times, and which one suits you.
Planning
Lucca vs Florence — which to base in
Walled-city quiet versus Renaissance density. The honest comparison for visitors who want to skip the queues.
Planning
Florence's wine windows — the buchette del vino, demystified
Cellar-to-street wine hatches cut into palazzo walls in the 1500s. Plague-proof in 1630. Quietly re-opened in 2020. Where to find a working one today.
Food & Wine
Viareggio beaches — the train-accessible Tuscan riviera
Wide sand, Liberty-era beach clubs, and a station 800m from the sea. The most rail-friendly Tuscan beach town, decoded.
How-to
The Leaning Tower of Pisa, explained — and what else to see
Why the tower leans, how the engineers stopped it falling, and the four other monuments on the Piazza dei Miracoli most day-trippers never enter.
Itineraries