Rome and Tuscany without the coach
Three days in Rome, then hill towns north by train and one short stretch of car.
The two halves of this trip want to be travelled differently. Rome is a walking city and a car there is punishment. Tuscany between Siena and Florence is the opposite: the point is the road between the towns, and the bus timetable does not care about your golden hour. So the route runs on trains until Orvieto, picks up a car for four days of hill country, and drops it in Florence, where you will not want it either.
The route, day by day
- Day 1 The Colosseum
Book a timed slot. The Forum ticket is usually combined and the Forum is the better half.
- Day 1 Roman Forum and Palatine Hill
Straight on from the Colosseum, and much emptier in the last two hours of the day.
- Day 2 Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel
The single busiest room in Europe. First entry or late entry, never the middle.
- Day 2 The Pantheon
Free until recently, ticketed now, and still the most impressive room in the city.
- Day 3 Galleria Borghese
Two-hour slots, booked ahead, capped numbers - the calmest great gallery in Rome.
- Day 4 Orvieto
An hour north by train, on a plug of tufa, with a striped cathedral facade that stops people mid-sentence.
- Day 5-6 Siena
Two nights. The shell-shaped square is worth an evening on its own.
- Day 6 Val d'Orcia
The cypress-lined hills between Siena and Montepulciano. This is the leg that needs the car.
- Day 7 San Gimignano
Fourteen surviving towers. Sleep there or come after five, because the day is a scrum.
- Day 8-9 Florence Cathedral and Duomo
Finish in Florence. Climb the dome only if you booked it - the slots go weeks ahead.
- Day 9 The Uffizi Gallery
Timed entry, and honestly better in two short visits than one long one.
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Getting around
Trains from Rome to Orvieto and from Florence onward. A car for the four days between Siena and Florence, dropped at the station. Note the ZTL zones: every one of these historic centres fines you automatically for driving in, and the rental company will forward the fine months later.
When to go
April to early June and September to October. August is hot, and much of Italy shuts for its own holiday in the middle of it. Winter is a real option for Rome - short queues, cold light, most things open.
Honest expectations
Everything in Rome now needs booking, and the touts outside the Colosseum sell the same tickets at four times the price. Tuscany in summer has become expensive and heavily photographed - the famous cypress road has a queue of cars on the verge. Florence and San Gimignano both empty dramatically after six, which is when they are worth being in.
This is a suggested order, not a booking. Every stop links to its own page with access, season, entry and what is genuinely annoying about it. Check opening days and ferry timetables yourself before you commit - they change, and this page does not.