10 Best Things to Do
Florence’s Renaissance galleries, Siena’s striped cathedral and the hill towns of the Val d’Orcia give Tuscany much of its familiar beauty. Beyond them lie Chianti vineyards, Lucca’s broad city walls and the quieter landscapes of the Maremma. The region also reaches the sea at Argentario and across to Elba, where Portoferraio preserves traces of Napoleon’s exile. Distances matter here: a countryside base near Montalcino serves a different trip from a stay on the coast.
Explore the Uffizi Gallery
Florence, Italy
The Uffizi gives Florence’s artistic history extraordinary depth, with a collection that extends well beyond its most familiar Renaissance masterpieces. Moving through the galleries reveals changing approaches to colour, perspective and the human figure, while the building itself connects the visit with Medici power. Choose a few works or periods to explore closely rather than treating every room as an obligation. The reward comes from looking carefully, with time left to absorb what you have seen.
Renaissance art in its Florentine context
Discover Siena Cathedral and its complex
Siena, Italy
Siena Cathedral brings architecture, sculpture and painting together with unusual intensity. Its contrasting marble, carved pulpit and Piccolomini Library reward slow attention, while the wider complex offers further ways to understand the city’s artistic ambition. The celebrated inlaid floor is uncovered only during designated periods, so the experience changes with the calendar. Choose the ticket and route for your interests, allowing the cathedral itself to remain the centre of the visit rather than rushing between every additional space.
A remarkable concentration of Sienese art
Explore Pienza and Palazzo Piccolomini
Pienza, Italy
Pienza makes the Renaissance idea of an ordered city unusually tangible. Begin around Piazza Pio II, then enter Palazzo Piccolomini to see how domestic architecture, garden and landscape were brought into a single composition. The loggia’s view across Val d’Orcia gives the visit its most revealing moment: the countryside becomes part of the design. Continue through the surrounding lanes at an unhurried pace, allowing the small town to feel like more than a scenic stop.
Renaissance architecture opening onto Val d’Orcia
Explore Pisa’s Piazza dei Miracoli
Pisa, Italy
Pisa’s Piazza dei Miracoli is most rewarding when the tower becomes one part of a larger architectural encounter. The cathedral, baptistery and cemetery reveal the city’s former wealth and its connections across the Mediterranean, while the open lawns give the buildings room to be seen together. Spend time inside the cathedral with its sculpted pulpit and contrasting materials. A tower climb can add another perspective, but the ensemble has substance even without that familiar experience.
A monumental ensemble beyond the leaning tower
Visit San Gimignano’s Civic Museums and Torre Grossa
San Gimignano, Italy
San Gimignano’s Civic Museums turn the famous skyline into a more substantial encounter with the town. Frescoed rooms in the Palazzo Comunale and the picture gallery reveal civic ambition and artistic connections, while the climb up Torre Grossa places rooftops and surrounding countryside in perspective. Choose to spend time with the paintings before heading upwards. The combination helps explain the town as a historic community, rather than simply a collection of towers assembled for photographs.
Medieval art and a tower-top panorama
Walk Lucca’s city walls
Lucca, Italy
Lucca’s walls offer one of Tuscany’s most enjoyable ways to understand a city on foot. The broad, tree-lined route follows the historic fortifications around the centre, opening changing views towards churches, towers and gardens. What once served a defensive purpose now functions as an everyday public space, shared by walkers, runners and cyclists. Take the circuit slowly, leaving time to descend into the streets below rather than treating the walk as a distance to complete.
A historic fortification turned urban park
Tour Antinori nel Chianti Classico
Bargino, San Casciano Val di Pesa, Italy
Antinori nel Chianti Classico makes the winery itself part of the wine experience. At Bargino, the building folds into the hillside through earth-toned materials, planted surfaces and carefully framed views, while the interiors reveal the practical work of production and ageing. A guided visit connects that architecture with the family’s history and a tasting. Choose the tour level for your interest in wine rather than assuming that the most extensive format is automatically the best fit.
Contemporary architecture and winemaking
Visit the Abbey of San Galgano
Chiusdino countryside, Italy
San Galgano’s roofless abbey creates an unusually direct encounter between architecture and landscape. The surviving walls and columns preserve the scale of the Cistercian church, while grass and open sky transform the interior’s atmosphere. Walk slowly through the nave and around the remaining monastic spaces, noticing how light changes the stone. The nearby Montesiepi hermitage adds historical context, but the abbey itself rewards attention without needing to turn the visit into a search for legends.
Gothic architecture beneath an open sky
Visit Napoleon’s Palazzina dei Mulini
Portoferraio, Elba, Italy
Palazzina dei Mulini connects Elba’s seaside setting with an extraordinary episode in European history. Above Portoferraio, Napoleon’s former residence presents period furnishings and objects associated with his exile, while the gardens and outlook explain the strategic appeal of the location. The visit is best understood within time spent on the island, rather than as a hurried mainland excursion. Combine it with a walk through Portoferraio to see how the residence relates to the harbour and fortifications.
Elba’s place in European history
Experience the Cascate del Mulino
Saturnia, Manciano, Italy
The Cascate del Mulino offer a strikingly informal encounter with Tuscany’s thermal landscape. Warm water flows over pale travertine into a series of natural pools beside an old mill, with the surrounding Maremma countryside keeping the setting distinct from a conventional spa. Visit for the landscape and the experience of being outdoors, allowing for other bathers and changing conditions. The public pools are a separate proposition from the staffed thermal resorts elsewhere around Saturnia.
Natural thermal pools in the Maremma landscape