Women-only Tuscany and Umbria: Chianti, the Val d'Orcia and Assisi

1. Jour 1 : Florence to Chianti, an easy first evening

   Florence Airport or Santa Maria Novella station to Greve in Chianti, then Castellina in Chianti

   • Environ 1.5 h de route
   • Light welcome supper
   • Nuit : Castellina in Chianti
   Détail du jour 1

   Your driver meets you at Florence Airport (FLR) or at Santa Maria Novella station, the easier arrival if you come by train from Rome or Pisa, and your See Sight Tours guide, who is a woman, rides with the group from the first pick-up. We confirm the latest arrival time and the pick-up times with your final itinerary. We leave the city on the Chiantigiana, the old SR222 road, which climbs south through olive groves and vineyards into the Chianti Classico hills. There is one stop, about 45 minutes out, in Greve in Chianti: a coffee under the arcades of the triangular Piazza Matteotti and, for those who want it, a look at the old barrels in the small wine museum. Another half hour brings us to Castellina in Chianti, where we stay three nights. Nothing else is planned: check in or walk Via delle Volte, the arched passage along the town walls. At about 6:30 pm your guide runs a short briefing on the week, what to wear in churches, how rooms are shared and how the days are paced, over a light supper close to the hotel, and we finish early.

   Compris

   • Pick-up at Florence Airport (FLR) or Santa Maria Novella station
   • A coffee stop in Greve in Chianti and Piazza Matteotti
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Light welcome supper in Castellina in Chianti

   Temps libre : Free from check-in until the 6:30 pm briefing

   Activité : Arrive by about 1 pm to join the group transfer; later arrivals are met and join the supper.

   

2. Jour 2 : San Gimignano before the coaches, then Monteriggioni

   Castellina in Chianti to San Gimignano, then Monteriggioni and back

   • Environ 2 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner
   • Nuit : Castellina in Chianti
   Détail du jour 2

   We leave at 8 am so we walk into San Gimignano at about 8:45, well before the day-trip coaches that fill its two main streets from mid-morning. The town grew rich on the Via Francigena pilgrim road and the saffron trade, and of the dozens of towers its merchant families built, 14 still stand; its centre was listed by UNESCO in 1990. With a local guide, a woman where one is available, we climb from Porta San Giovanni to Piazza della Cisterna and its 13th-century well, then step into the Collegiata, whose walls are covered in 14th-century frescoes of the Old and New Testaments. From about 11 am the time is yours: climb the Torre Grossa, taste Vernaccia, the town's white wine, or find a quiet stretch of wall. Lunch is your choice in town. In the early afternoon we drive half an hour to Monteriggioni, a tiny walled village that Siena fortified between 1213 and 1219, and walk the walkway along its walls, past the towers Dante compared to giants. We are back in Castellina by about 4 pm, and the evening is free.

   Compris

   • San Gimignano with a local guide (a woman where available): Porta San Giovanni, Piazza della Cisterna and Piazza del Duomo
   • The Collegiata and its frescoes
   • Monteriggioni and the walkway on its walls

   Activités en option

   • Climb the Torre Grossa, San Gimignano's tallest tower (paid locally)

   Option plus facile : Skip the Monteriggioni wall walkway, which is reached by steep steps, and wait in the village square with a coffee.

   Option plus active : Walk into Monteriggioni on the Via Francigena from Abbadia a Isola, about 4 km on farm tracks with the walls in view, while the van meets you at the gate.

   Temps libre : Free from about 11 am, and for lunch, in San Gimignano; evening free in Castellina

   Activité : About 2 hours on foot in San Gimignano on paving and short, steep slopes.

   

3. Jour 3 : Volpaia, Radda and a long wine lunch

   Castellina in Chianti to Volpaia and Radda in Chianti, then a Chianti Classico estate

   • Environ 1.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Castellina in Chianti
   Détail du jour 3

   A slow day in the heart of Chianti Classico, the hills between Florence and Siena whose wine carries the black rooster seal. We drive about 20 minutes up a winding road to Volpaia, a fortified hamlet of stone houses at about 600 m, still gathered around its castle keep, with views over the vines and woods towards Radda. Few coaches come up here. From Volpaia we go down to Radda in Chianti, once the seat of the medieval Chianti League, and walk its main street past the Palazzo del Podestà, its front studded with the stone coats of arms of former governors, while the shops open. Late morning we reach a family wine estate, chosen where we can among the Chianti estates run by women winemakers and confirmed with your dates, for a walk through the vines and the cellar with the people who make the wine, then a long lunch at their table: Chianti Classico poured with local salumi, pecorino, pasta and olive oil from their own trees. The afternoon is free: a swim if your hotel has a pool, a nap, or an evening walk around Castellina.

   Compris

   • The hamlet of Volpaia
   • Radda in Chianti with your guide
   • Vineyard and cellar visit at a family Chianti Classico estate (woman-run where we can confirm one), with a tasting
   • Long lunch at the estate

   Option plus facile : Ride the van from Volpaia down to Radda and have a coffee in the piazza while the walkers come down.

   Option plus active : Walk from Volpaia down to Radda on country tracks and lanes, about 6 km and mostly downhill, with your guide.

   Temps libre : Afternoon and evening free in Castellina

   Activité : An easy day: about 1 hour on foot in Volpaia and Radda, or about 2.5 hours with the walk between them.

   

4. Jour 4 : Siena, then south through the Crete Senesi

   Castellina in Chianti to Siena, then through the Crete Senesi to Pienza

   • Environ 2 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner
   • Nuit : Pienza
   Détail du jour 4

   We pack up and drive half an hour south to Siena, park outside the walls and walk in at about 9 am. With a local guide, a woman where one is available, you see the city the Sienese know: the 17 contrade, the districts that race each other in the Palio twice each summer, each with its own church, fountain and animal emblem; then the shell-shaped Piazza del Campo, sloping down to the Palazzo Pubblico and the Torre del Mangia. We go into the striped marble Duomo, with its inlaid marble floor (fully uncovered only at set times of year), and the Piccolomini Library, painted by Pinturicchio. Siena's historic centre was listed by UNESCO in 1995. After the tour, lunch and an hour or two in the city are yours. In the mid-afternoon we drive south on back roads through the Crete Senesi, bare clay hills of grey and gold with lone farmhouses and rows of cypress, stopping where the light is good. We reach Pienza, our base for two nights, in the late afternoon, in time to walk the lane along its walls as the sun lowers over the Val d'Orcia.

   Compris

   • Siena with a local guide: a contrada, Piazza del Campo and the Palazzo Pubblico
   • Siena Duomo and the Piccolomini Library
   • The Crete Senesi back roads, with photo stops
   • Sunset walk along Pienza's walls

   Activités en option

   • Climb the Torre del Mangia over the Campo (timed tickets, paid locally)

   Option plus facile : Sit out the middle of the walking tour at a cafe on the Campo and rejoin the group at the Duomo, a short walk uphill; the van meets everyone outside the walls.

   Temps libre : Lunch and early afternoon free in Siena; evening free in Pienza

   Activité : About 2.5 hours on foot in Siena, on sloping streets and stone paving.

5. Jour 5 : Val d'Orcia: Pienza, Montalcino and Bagno Vignoni

   Pienza to Montalcino and Bagno Vignoni, then Monticchiello for dinner

   • Environ 2 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Pienza
   Détail du jour 5

   The Val d'Orcia, listed by UNESCO in 2004, is the landscape of cypress avenues, wheat fields and farmhouses on low hills that Renaissance painters made famous. We set off on foot at 8:30 am from Pienza, the village Pope Pius II had rebuilt from 1459 as an ideal Renaissance town, and walk down through the fields to the Romanesque Pieve di Corsignano and back up, about 5 km in the cool of the morning. Late morning we drive 35 minutes west to Montalcino, on its hill above the vineyards of Brunello, for lunch together in town and then a visit and tasting at a Brunello estate. On the way back we stop at Bagno Vignoni, where the village square is a Renaissance pool of steaming thermal water (for looking, not bathing). Back in Pienza in the late afternoon, we taste pecorino di Pienza, the sheep's cheese the town is known for, with a cheesemaking family (a woman-run dairy where we can confirm one), and the rest of the afternoon is yours. In the evening the van takes us ten minutes to Monticchiello, a walled hamlet most visitors drive past, for dinner together.

   Compris

   • Morning walk from Pienza to the Pieve di Corsignano
   • Montalcino and lunch in town
   • Brunello di Montalcino estate visit and tasting
   • Bagno Vignoni and its thermal-water square
   • Pecorino tasting in Pienza
   • Dinner in Monticchiello

   Option plus facile : Skip the walk down to the Pieve and stroll Pienza's lanes and cathedral square instead; the van leaves for Montalcino from the town gate.

   Option plus active : Walk about 9 km on white gravel roads from Pienza past the Cappella di Vitaleta to San Quirico d'Orcia, where the van collects you on the way to Montalcino.

   Temps libre : Late afternoon free in Pienza before dinner

   Activité : About 5 km on gravel farm tracks, with a steady climb back up to Pienza; Montalcino's lanes are steep too.

6. Jour 6 : Montepulciano's cellars and Cortona, into Umbria

   Pienza to Montepulciano and Cortona, then Spello in Umbria

   • Environ 2.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Spello
   Détail du jour 6

   A 20-minute drive east brings us to Montepulciano at about 9 am, before the day visitors. The town runs along a ridge at about 600 m, and its Renaissance palaces sit on cellars cut deep into the rock, where Vino Nobile di Montepulciano ages in big oak casks. We walk up the Corso to Piazza Grande, with its unfinished cathedral facade, then go underground with a cellar host for a visit and tasting. Late morning we cross the Val di Chiana to Cortona, about 45 minutes away, a hill town of Etruscan origin with views down to Lake Trasimeno. Lunch is together in town, followed by a walk to Piazza della Repubblica and the cathedral and some free time in the lanes. In the afternoon about an hour and a quarter, past Lake Trasimeno and Perugia, brings us into Umbria and to Spello, a small walled town of pink and white stone on the slope of Monte Subasio, our base for two nights. Spello is a quarter of an hour from Assisi but has none of its crowds, and the evening is yours to find a table in a quiet piazza.

   Compris

   • Montepulciano with your guide: the Corso and Piazza Grande
   • Cellar visit and Vino Nobile tasting in Montepulciano
   • Cortona with your guide: Piazza della Repubblica and the cathedral
   • Lunch in Cortona

   Option plus facile : The van drops you at the top of Montepulciano by Piazza Grande, so you skip the climb up the Corso.

   Temps libre : Some free time in Cortona; evening free in Spello

   Activité : Montepulciano's Corso climbs steadily for about a kilometre; Cortona is steep from the gate to the cathedral.

   

7. Jour 7 : Assisi early, cooking with women in Spello

   Spello to Assisi and back

   • Environ 30 min de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Spello
   Détail du jour 7

   We are in Assisi by about 8:30 am, an hour or more before the tour coaches arrive, when the upper town is quiet and the light is soft on the pink stone. With a local guide, a woman where one is available, we visit the Basilica of San Francesco, begun in 1228, two years after the saint's death: the lower church, with his tomb, and the upper church, lined with the frescoed cycle of his life traditionally attributed to Giotto. Assisi and its Franciscan sites were listed by UNESCO in 2000. Then we walk the length of the town to the Roman Temple of Minerva and on to the Basilica of Santa Chiara, built for Saint Clare, who founded the order of Franciscan nuns. Lunch and the early afternoon are yours. Back in Spello, a local guide walks you through the Roman gates and into Santa Maria Maggiore for Pinturicchio's frescoes in the Baglioni Chapel. In the evening we cook with local women hosts, confirmed with your dates: you roll strangozzi, the hand-cut Umbrian pasta, taste their olive oil and sit down together to eat what you made.

   Compris

   • Assisi with a local guide (a woman where available): the Basilica of San Francesco, upper and lower churches
   • The Temple of Minerva and the Basilica of Santa Chiara
   • Spello with a local guide: the Roman gates and the Baglioni Chapel in Santa Maria Maggiore
   • Home-cooking evening in Spello with local women hosts, confirmed with your dates, with an olive oil tasting and dinner

   Activités en option

   • A Sagrantino tasting in Montefalco, about 25 minutes from Spello, in the early afternoon instead of the guided Spello walk (arranged on request, paid locally)

   Option plus facile : Take the van back to Spello after lunch and rest before the cooking evening; at the cooking evening you can watch and eat rather than cook.

   Option plus active : Walk back from Assisi to Spello on a stretch of the Via di Francesco, about 13 km on tracks and lanes along the lower slopes of Monte Subasio, in time for the cooking evening.

   Temps libre : Lunch and early afternoon free

   Activité : Assisi is steep from end to end: about 3 hours on foot on sloping paving. The basilicas ask for covered shoulders and knees and silence inside.

   

8. Jour 8 : Orvieto, then Florence

   Spello to Orvieto, then north on the A1 to Florence

   • Environ 4 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Florence
   Détail du jour 8

   The longest day in the van: about 300 km and three and three-quarter hours of driving, just under our 4-hour cap and split by a half day in Orvieto. We leave Spello at 8 am, pass below Todi and reach Orvieto, built on a cliff-edged plateau of volcanic tufa, when the Duomo opens in the morning. Its facade is covered in gold-ground mosaics and carved marble reliefs of the Bible stories, and inside, the Chapel of San Brizio holds Luca Signorelli's Last Judgement frescoes, painted around 1500. With your guide you walk the medieval lanes to Piazza del Popolo, and there is time to look down the Pozzo di San Patrizio, a 16th-century well with two spiral staircases that never meet. After lunch together we drive about two and a quarter hours north on the A1 motorway to Florence, arriving in the mid to late afternoon at a central hotel, with time to rest. In the early evening your guide walks you past the Duomo and Brunelleschi's dome, through Piazza della Signoria and onto the Ponte Vecchio as the lights come on along the Arno, and we end the trip with a farewell dinner.

   Compris

   • Orvieto with your guide: the Duomo and the Chapel of San Brizio
   • Lunch in Orvieto
   • Evening walk in Florence: the Duomo, Piazza della Signoria and the Ponte Vecchio
   • Farewell dinner in Florence

   Activités en option

   • The Pozzo di San Patrizio in Orvieto (paid locally)

   Option plus facile : After the Duomo, wait at a cafe in Piazza del Duomo instead of walking the lanes to Piazza del Popolo, and in Florence skip the evening walk and meet the group at dinner.

   Temps libre : A short rest at the hotel in Florence before the evening walk

   Activité : Florence's centre is closed to most traffic, so the van stops at the edge and your bags go on to the hotel; the last few minutes are on foot. The Florence evening walk ends at the restaurant, and the guide walks the group back to the hotel.

9. Jour 9 : David at opening, then home

   Florence: the Accademia, then Florence Airport or Santa Maria Novella station

   • Environ 15 min de route
   • Petit-déjeuner
   Détail du jour 9

   On the last morning we are at the Galleria dell'Accademia for its 8:15 am opening, with timed tickets booked, so you stand in front of Michelangelo's David, carved from a single block of marble between 1501 and 1504, before the queues build along Via Ricasoli. A local guide also shows you his unfinished Prisoners, figures half freed from the stone, which line the hall leading to the statue. By about 10 am we are back at the hotel, and transfers leave from late morning for Florence Airport (FLR), about 20 minutes away, or for Santa Maria Novella station, where fast trains reach Rome in about an hour and a half and Pisa in about an hour. The Accademia is closed on Mondays, so we set departures so that this morning never falls on one. If you want more time in Florence for the Uffizi, the dome climb or the Oltrarno, ask us and we add nights at the same hotel.

   Compris

   • Galleria dell'Accademia at opening with a local guide and timed tickets
   • Drop-off at Florence Airport (FLR) or Santa Maria Novella station

   Activité : Book a flight from Florence after about 1:30 pm, or from Rome Fiumicino after about 5 pm.

Faune et météo : April to June and September to October bring mild walking weather; the vines are green in spring and the grape harvest runs from about mid-September to mid-October. July and August are hot, often in the mid-30s C, and Siena's Palio fills the Campo on 2 July and 16 August. Winter is quiet and cool, with some estates closed.

• Castellina in Chianti3 nuits
• Pienza2 nuits
• Spello2 nuits
• Florence1 nuit