Where to stay outside of Florence, accessible by train?

June 1, 2024 2:14 PM

Please help us fine a lovely small town outside of Florence, accessible by train, to spend a few days with two small children.

We're visiting Florence in August and want to spend about four nights in a smaller town outside of the city somewhere. We're travelling with a baby and a three-year-old.

The dream location is:
- accessible by train within a couple of hours, a bit of walking is no problem
- small enough to feel like we're in the countryside
- large enough to have some kind of small supermarket and a restaurant or two

Ideally we'd take the train there, and spend the days wandering around the town and a bit of the countryside, eat at a few local restaurants, and generally be fairly relaxed. Proximity to vineyards is a bonus but not required. We don't want to have to hire a car.

Any tips on where we should look? Thanks!

posted by twirlypen to Travel & Transportation around Florence, Italy (6 answers total)

About 15 years ago I stayed in a rental house in Celle sul Rigo, one of the hilltop towns in Tuscany. It was really nice - maybe a bit small (at least at the time) but was beautiful and a good base for exploring other towns in the area such as Montepulciano etc. You might look around there. There was an unbelievably great small, neighbourhood restaurant that was only open at random times. Who knows if it's still there.
posted by transient at 3:00 PM on June 1, 2024

I'd probably be looking to go north through Bologna (37 mins on the train) and into Emilia-Romagna. Some possibilities from there.
posted by biffa at 3:53 PM on June 1, 2024

Assisi is not terribly far by train (about 3 hours) and is strikingly pretty. Small hill town, surrounded by hills. It was where St. Francis lived and started the Franciscan order. Another interesting fact about the town is that during WWII the Catholic church in Assisi started what was called the Assisi Network in an effort to hide Jewish Italians from the nazis and Assisi’s entire Jewish population survived the war.

The region that Assisi is in, Umbria, was home to the oldest civilization residing in what is now Italy. Resultantly the area has a long and distinct history. There are a number of hill towns around the larger city of Perugia.
posted by donut_princess at 7:58 PM on June 1, 2024

My first thought was Siena. Beautiful town, beautiful countryside, great food. I like Siena better than Florence. Then I thought it might be a bit bigger than what you imagine, and thought of Pienza. Pienza is perhaps exactly what you need, but it is not easily accessible by train, you'll have to take a bus at least some of the time. You don't need a car for either option.
posted by mumimor at 2:59 AM on June 2, 2024

20-odd years ago we stayed in Figline Valdarno to visit Florence by train. We were "camping" at the holiday park just outside the town (Norceni Girasole) but spent a bit of happy time just wandering round the small town square and surrounding streets.
posted by mapinact at 6:01 PM on June 2, 2024

Same question but closer? That is, a train ride of 30 minutes or less to Florence.
posted by billsaysthis at 10:17 PM on June 3, 2024