Quieter bases
10 towns that make Florence a day trip, not a base
Comuni within an hour of Florence with at least one recognition: sleep in the small town, visit the city. 10 towns shown, ranked by recognitions, then smallest first.
Table no. 45 · Ranked by min · 10 towns
The standard itinerary sleeps in Florence and day-trips to the countryside. Inverting it costs nothing and buys you evenings: sleep in a small recognized town, visit the city when you choose, leave when the crowds arrive.
Every comune here is within an hour of Florence and holds at least one recognition. Ranked by recognitions, then by smallness.
- 1.Livorno38 minLivorno · TuscanyTuscany's working port and Medici-planned 'New City' — a 16th-century planned town built on reclaimed coast, with a Venice-like canal quarter, the Quattro Mori monument, and a 1.5-km seafront promenade that locals call the world's most beautiful balcony.
- 2.Montescudaio57 minPisa · TuscanyA fortified hill borgo at 242 meters, named for a mountain of shields, with DOC wine since 1977 and bread, oil and grape all stamped in its identity.
- 3.Peccioli58 minPisa · TuscanyBorgo dei Borghi 2024 in the Valdera hills, a medieval village that funded a public contemporary-art program with revenue from its landfill plant.
- 4.
Pisa25 minPisa · TuscanyMaritime republic on the Arno, twelve kilometers from the Ligurian Sea, with the leaning bell tower at the center of a single UNESCO-listed walled compound. - 5.
San Miniato56 minPisa · TuscanyThe hilltop town between Pisa and Florence that produces a quarter of Tuscany's white truffles and once held the imperial seat of Otto I. - 6.
San Giuliano Terme26 minPisa · TuscanyA thermal spa ten kilometers from Pisa, where the springs were bathed since the Romans called them Aquae Pisanae. - 7.
Viareggio44 minLucca · TuscanyThe Versilia capital, a Carnival city on the Tuscan coast that turned into a Belle Époque resort when the railway arrived. - 8.Montecarlo57 minLucca · TuscanyA walled hill village at 163 meters above the Lucca plain, founded by Emperor Charles IV in 1333 and named for him, surrounded by twenty wineries.
- 9.Vicopisano41 minPisa · TuscanyA medieval river port rebuilt by Brunelleschi in 1434 after Florence took the town from Pisa.
- 10.
Pietrasanta50 minLucca · TuscanyThe marble-processing town under the Apuan Alps, worked by Michelangelo, Henry Moore, Joan Miró and Fernando Botero.
TEN OF THE TOP TEN ARE IN TUSCANY
The slow-trip planner
Plan a slow trip across the towns travelers skip.
Answer five questions. We will shape a geographically coherent slow trip from the 1,000 Italian towns most travelers skip. Yours to save and share.
Every Sunday we send one letter. The week's town, what is worth eating there, and when to turn up. It is free, and you can leave whenever you like.