Tuscany (1 Viewer)

HARESBY

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I'm a newbie well sort of. Ex continental truck driver.
Tuscany on our agenda.Getting there no problem as retired and plenty of time to get there,no rush.Perhaps some suggestions of camp sites in the area by well informed nice folk. will be co-pilot,granddaughter(5 year old) and dog.Thanks in advance.
 
Sep 10, 2013
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Not a great fan: Siena,Florence, Pisa,San Gimignano all a complete nightmare for the driver, parking a pain and usually crowded and all very expensive. The countryside is striking but one cypresses tree is much like the next, seen one you've seen a million. All a bit overrated.

Not sure if a 5 year old will really appreciate it, I would have thought a seaside or lake location would be a better destination.
 
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HARESBY

HARESBY

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Short stay for female co-pilot(must see).Got to please you know.Then off to Garda.

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Sep 16, 2010
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Bad roads and crazy drivers, good food and nice people.. Liked the area around Assisi and Sienna.. Didn't rate the coast very much in the Northern part of Italy, quite "scruffy" and sort of 'owned' by each Cafe/Bistro, so you have to walk through them to get to the sea.. Often a railway between you and the sea, with very low bridges under it .... Sorry to be so negative. I'm sure some folks will be along soon with a completely different opinion.. We mostly wild camp, so campsites could give you an entirely different experience....
Hope you enjoy yourselves..(y)
 
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Pisa parking when we went a couple of years ago in the old LDV van, we found this no problem
 

hilldweller

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Pisa, Camping Tore Pendente withing waling distance. Much more than a lovely white tower and full sized proper Italian city.

Florence is a must see, but the campsite within walking distance is now tents only so can't help. You need to do a bit of research on Florence, so much to see and free if over 60 and can prove it. All museums are free to olde fartes.

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Judge Mental

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Love touring around Tuscany big time......But with a 5 year old?
 

Judge Mental

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touring tuscany hard work.......Well worth it, we are thinking of going again this summer, but I personally would not do it with a 5 year old.

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JeanLuc

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I presume you are talking about going next year in the Spring/Summer? Italian campsites tend to close early for the Winter (often end Sept.)
Tuscany is great and Siena is one of our favourite cities. The sostas in the town are not good (noisy) and we have stayed outside in a small town called Sovicille (Camping Montagnola). Not cheap - but Italian campsites generally are not - however it is a member of Acsi so an off-peak discount would apply if you are members.
http://www.camping.it/english/toscana/lamontagnola/
A bus calls at the campsite and goes into Siena.

There are plenty of sostas around Tuscany and several are free (but not in the popular cities).
Also consider Umbria which is the same distance from the UK and, in our opinion, is a prettier region. Lots of hill towns and fantastic scenery and plenty of sostas.
As other have said, I would have thought Tuscany and Umbria are a bit short on attractions for a five year-old. No reason not to start cultural education early though!
 

magicsurfbus

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Pisa parking when we went a couple of years ago in the old LDV van, we found this no problem

I love the way the tower appears straight and the signpost is leaning - cracked me up.

We did Pisa in a morning, Florence in a day and a half including the Uffizi, Lucca maybe a day if you walk the walls, Siena about a day (but I thought it was overrated), and at San Gimignano it was pissing down with very low cloud so we couldn't see one tower let alone 14. Not a bad spot though.

There's a privately-run signposted aire down the hill from San Gimignano which has a few extras including a kiddie play area and a free shuttle service up to the town gate and back. A sort of gravelled campsite. For Florence we stopped on a site at Figline Valdarno with a free station shuttle and caught the train. They also did bus trips to Pisa. Lucca has a couple of aires on the edge of the town and a private one a bit up the road with tiny pitches but also a shower block and pool. For Siena we stayed in an aire that was little more than a car park - maybe not ideal with a kiddie.

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markh

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Done it in our SLK, but in a motorhome, no, crappy campsites, heat, heat and more heat! small roads and you have to be prepared to join the lunacy on the roads ( one way street, no problem just go down the wrong way, it's quicker!) most Italian motorhomes go north. Round Garda in a motorhome, never, it's hard enough on a motorbike, near in mind the costs of traversing Switzerland too, if you really want to go try Chiavari on the riveara, lots to see, better roads (many built by the Germans) but still crappy campsites, don't wild camp the locals will be well upset, even down to damaging your van
 
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HARESBY

HARESBY

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I'm a newbie well sort of. Ex continental truck driver.
Just an adage about our 5year old granddaughter.She lives in Portsmouth so she has the sea,well the channel really .This year we did Budapest,last year New York(USA)and the year previous, North Carolina and Washington DC.She is a bit ambidextrous on places. Got her travelling early age. Thanks to all who have responded and much appreciated.Some nice folk out there.
 

toledo

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Help need a overnight stopover by the shuttle for Monday night anyone can you please help

Thanks. Dave & polly

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hilldweller

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Right I did not want to say.. all the cruise guides around Pisa holding banners "Tuscany in a Day"

"Hey, gee, it's Tursday, this must be Italy".
"Guess you're right Hon, it that in Rome ?".

Do you like my Bronc accent ?

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magicsurfbus

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You must be American. Some of the greatest treasures in Europe in 2 days.

The Pitti Palace is worth a whole day on it's own, you missed that.

Goddam limey cheek. We looked at the Duomo, browsed the street market, went in the Uffizi and around the neighboring Piazza on day one, then went over the Ponte Vecchio to the Pitti Palace's Boboli Gardens for half a day on the second day.

We tried to find some redeeming features of central Pisa after looking at the tower for a bit and failed miserably. We walked down as far as the river. Even the tower was horribly commercial.

We don't hang around in street cafes to soak up the ambience pardner.
 

hilldweller

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We don't hang around in street cafes to soak up the ambiance pardner.

Obviously, the horses you were riding would not have been welcome, pardner.


OK. Confession, been at least twice but not done the Ufizi, queues too long and anyway most of the painting are so depressing. It's so easy in Italy to overdose on blood gore and cherubs. We did go up the Duomo tower but not the Duomo, yet.
 

magicsurfbus

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Obviously, the horses you were riding would not have been welcome, pardner.

It was a mule, and he thought they were laughing at him. I had to set them straight.

It's so easy in Italy to overdose on blood gore and cherubs.

Definitely. My Dad, after a day in Venice, was heard to mutter "I've had a bellyful of Botticelli", which is one of my very favourite Dadisms.

As a point of trivia, there's actually a recognised psychological condition called Stendahl Syndrome, where Victorian travellers had attacks of the vapours following an overload of Renaissance art. Seriously.

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hilldweller

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Definitely. My Dad, after a day in Venice, was heard to mutter "I've had a bellyful of Botticelli".

Love that.

I find the buildings the appealing thing about Italy. I can relate to those, they are functional yet always there is the style, colour. In Florence did yo identify the secret walkway all the way from the Petti Palce to the Ufizi, a corridor for The Boss, Medici, to get from home to work without the risk of contacting the plebs.

Same with the Colosseum 2000 years old and more complex than most football stadia today. Then there are the lead pipes in Herculaneum running along the street feeding water to the houses, whereas in Britain we had some wells.
 

magicsurfbus

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If I ever see another Adoration of the Infant Christ I think I'll convert to Satanism.

Yes, it's definitely the buildings for us too, and in some cases their ex-users, as at Herculaneum:

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They were sheltering in beach-front arches waiting for rescue from the sea when the pyroclastic flow from Vesuvius hit and killed them in seconds. Among their possessions was a child's wooden money box with a single coin inside.
 

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