Tuscany, Italy
David in the pool at Follinoco B&B in Montefollonico, Italy.
Tuscany is just as you might picture it: green rolling hills, quaint villages, beautiful views, vivid technicolor sunsets, and gorgeous weather to enjoy much of the year.
Tuscany also covers a vast area — which we quickly discovered during our research. So it is important to decide on a hotel/B&B and a base location first, in order to logistically plan which towns you intend to visit and in what order. Otherwise you could spend an hour or two driving in each direction to visit a town which you’ll spend only an hour or so visiting. A car is mandatory here.
We chose to stay just outside the tiny village of Montefollonico, at the Follonico B&B (see my full detailed review below). We were happy to have a relaxing place to return to at the end of a day driving and walking around for hours, and if you are staying in the countryside make sure you have a place with a pool (preferably with a view!), a good breakfast, a fridge in the room, and AIR CONDITIONING (it gets hot, especially in the summer). Anyway, it turned out to be fairly central — and on those days we set aside for relaxation, the pool was key.
*This was part of a 15-night trip to Italy. To see our complete Italy trip itinerary click here.
The Gimlet Traveler Rundown:
All ratings are based on our experience and are on a 5-star rating system (see Site Info for more details). For mapped locations and links to the places listed here (and more) visit Google Map at bottom of page.
Gimlets: *
You don’t come to Tuscany for the martinis. Lots of wine, and the occasional vodka-soda. We found one cool cocktail bar with outdoor (and indoor for later at night) seating and beautiful sunset views called Idyllium in the village of Pienza, but even there I stuck with a standard vodka-soda. Cocktail culture is not big here, which is just fine.Restaurants: *****
We ate tons of great food here, with restaurants scattered about in different small towns. The upscale Botte De Piena and more rustic 13 Gobbi both in tiny Montefollonico, the upscale and legendary Daria’s in Montechiello (where Daria herself might be your waitress), the trendier Townhouse Caffe at El Bandito in Pienza. All excellent meals. Reservations should be made in advance where possible as some of the places in smaller towns might have limited seatings.GT Tip: If you visit 13 Gobbi, be sure to order the pecorino pasta. Such a simple dish: pasta, cream, cheese, salt and pepper, but — and this makes the difference — it’s finished table-side in a giant wheel of pecorino. The waiter pours steaming pasta into the wheel, swirls it around collecting luscious chunks of pecorino and plops it onto you plate (see photo in the Drinks/Eats Gallery below). Heaven.
Sights: *****
Every hill town is a historic sight filled with historic buildings. Siena, the biggest of the towns we visited, has a gorgeous Duomo you should go inside to see, and an iconic and vast central Piazza.Shopping: **
There are some cute shops scattered about the various towns and cities (Siena is a bigger town and has some more shopping than the others, and we did bring home some fab ceramic bowls from Orvieto) — but shopping is probably not why you’re here, aside from perhaps a souvenir or two. A lot of the merchandise felt very touristic and not very authentic. If we’re comparing two similar destinations — Provence (see blog post) in the south of France had better, more interesting shopping and some terrific markets.
Review of Follonico Rating: ****
B&B in a gorgeous setting, with good breakfasts (including eggs if requested), spacious rooms, gorgeous grounds and a pool (in warm months) with stunning views. It is more rustic-luxe than outright luxury but our room (the Blue Notte suite) was very spacious, with vaulted ceilings, a double-vanity bathroom and a wood burning fireplace (that we didn't have cause to use). There are animals on the grounds — dogs, geese, chickens, a funny-looking bunny rabbit, a horse, a mule and sheep — and in our case a pigeon that decided to roost over our door (that was a small issue for us but at least they cleaned the poop outside our door daily!). One small issue we had is that the hot water would sometimes run out in the afternoons; so if we wanted to shower after time at the pool or back after a long day, it would be a cool shower. All in all a lovely stay.
Date of stay: September 2019
Room tip: The Blue Notte Suite was very spacious, with vaulted ceilings, a double-vanity bathroom and a wood burning fireplace.
Other Hotel Choices:
• Not that far from Follonico is Lupaia. A little more expensive (and we decided to splurge on Venice instead), but has some amenities that are more hotel-like (an honor-bar, a pretty dining space outdoors that seems romantic). Also in the rustic-luxe vein, and has a nice pool with a direct view across the valley onto Montepulciano.
• We also liked the modern Poggio Piglia in Chiusi.
Below is a map of hotels, restaurants, bars, shopping and sights found during our research. We didn’t have time to visit all of them during our trip, but all were of interest. Click on the icon at top left of the map to view the legend. Or you can click on the full-screen icon at top right to expand, which will also bring up the legend.
