*POST UPDATED OCTOBER 2026
Friends, hi!
It’s been a hot second since I posted any travel content & I thought we could all do with a bit of armchair travelling right about now, wouldn’t you agree?
Last September, Boyfriend & I went gallivanting through Tuscany on a quest to eat all the food & drink all the wine. Over the course of 10 beautiful days, we took seven different buses, two high-speed trains, and hit up five different towns + cities: Florence, San Gimignano, Siena, Castellina in Chianti, and Bologna. It was wonderful.
This post is the first of a five-part segment about Italy & I’m so excited to finally share some of our trip with you!
Before embarking on our journey, we decided that we wanted to thoroughly enjoy everything Italy has on offer (wine!), and for us that meant taking the slightly unconventional route of public transport. We just didn’t want the hassle of rental cars or maps or potential fines for driving through the wrong zones etc. The public transport in Tuscany is somewhat less than perfect, but as long as you plan everything out in advance – and allow for delays – I swear it is totally do-able. I’ll be adding a ‘Getting There’ section to each of these travel segments in case you have any questions.
I’ve posted about my Florentine favourites before – you can read that post here – so this post is somewhat light on new recommendations, but some spots are so good they deserve a second mention. What follows is more like a handful of notes that I’d like to tack onto my previous post, including suggestions on where to eat & drink, & which museums to explore.
I hope you enjoy!
getting there
Here’s the thing about Florence: flying in from another country is kind of a pain, but getting there from another Italian city is a dream! These are the routes we’ve found to be the easiest over the years:
fly into Bologna, get the local bus into the city centre, & take the Frecciarossa – high speed train – to Florence. Our deep-seeded love of Bologna weighs heavily on this route, but it isn’t always feasible due to flight times.
fly into Milan Bergamo, get a bus into Milano Centrale station & take the Frecciarossa from there. We tend to avoid this option of late due to the sheer unpleasantness at Centrale station – pickpockets & general troublemakers etc – but sometimes needs must.
fly into Pisa, walk/take a bus to the main train station & take a Frecciarossa from there. Perhaps the fasted route of the lot!