Most lists of day trips from Florence lead with the same three: Siena, Pisa, San Gimignano. They’re fine. They’re also what every tour bus in Tuscany hits on the same day, at the same time, with the same gift-shop stop.
This list is for the second-trip visitor, or the first-trip visitor who wants to skip the obvious three and discover what’s actually within reach of Florence by train or short drive. Every entry here is bookable, most are 1-3 hours from the city, and all of them are the kind of experience that makes the trip stick.
Browse all Florence experiences on Viator · Browse on GetYourGuide
Truffle hunting in San Miniato
San Miniato sits between Florence and Pisa, in the hills where Tuscany’s white truffles grow. The town is small, the hills are quiet, and the truffle-hunting tradition here goes back centuries.
A real truffle-hunting experience means a morning walk through oak and hazelnut groves with a local hunter and his trained dog. The dog finds the truffle, the hunter extracts it, you taste it within the hour shaved over fresh tagliatelle at the family farm.
What to book: Half-day tours typically run 4 hours including the hunt, the farm lunch, and wine pairing. They leave San Miniato (about 1 hour from Florence by car or train + short transfer). The truffle season is October through December. Outside that window, the experience shifts to summer truffle (less aromatic) or the experience isn’t offered.
What it costs: 80-150 EUR per person, lunch and wine included.
Book a San Miniato truffle hunt
Carrara marble quarries
The white marble that Michelangelo carved David from is still being cut from the same mountain above Carrara. The quarries are an hour and a half from Florence, accessible by train (to Massa Centro) plus a short local bus or taxi.
Most visitors to Carrara see the town and the beach. Few go up into the active quarries. The ones who do describe it as one of the more unexpected things they’ve done in Italy.
The quarries themselves are vast open pits carved into the mountainside over 2,000 years. White marble dust fills the air. The scale is hard to describe and impossible to photograph in a way that captures it.
What to book: Guided quarry tours (4-6 hours) include transport from Carrara town, an ATV or 4×4 ascent into the upper quarries, and a marble workshop visit. Some operators combine with a visit to a sculptor’s studio where you can try carving a small piece.
What it costs: 60-120 EUR per person for the tour; add 30-50 EUR for a sculpture workshop.
Saturnia thermal springs
Saturnia is three hours south of Florence by car, in the Maremma region of southern Tuscany. The thermal springs there have been flowing since Roman times and are free to access.
The main pool, called Cascate del Mulino, is a series of travertine terraces carved by the hot water over millennia. The water runs at 37.5°C / 99.5°F year-round. You can swim in the morning in October.
The springs are technically free, but most visitors stay in Saturnia for a night to make the drive worthwhile. There’s a small resort hotel adjacent to the springs (Terme di Saturnia), and a few agriturismo options within 30 minutes.
What to book: A guided day-trip from Florence including transport, lunch in a Maremma village, and 2-3 hours at the springs. Driving yourself is faster and more flexible but requires a car.
What it costs: 80-180 EUR per person for a guided day trip; 0 EUR for the springs themselves.
Civita di Bagnoregio
Civita is a hilltop village in Lazio, accessible from Florence in about two hours by car or train+bus. It’s connected to the rest of the world by a single footbridge.
The village has roughly 10 permanent residents. It sits on a volcanic tuff outcrop that is slowly eroding. In a few centuries, it will fall into the valley below. Visit it while you can.
What makes Civita worth the trip isn’t the village itself, which is small and quiet and photogenic in the way every Italian hill town is photogenic. It’s the approach: the long footbridge, the empty streets, the cats. Most visitors spend 2-3 hours here before continuing to Orvieto or returning to Florence.
What to book: There are no formal tours of Civita. The experience is the walk. Lunch at one of the small trattorias in the village, then the walk back across the bridge.
What it costs: 0 EUR for the walk across the bridge (5 EUR per person for the footbridge maintenance fee). 20-40 EUR for lunch.
Montepulciano and Pienza wine loop
Montepulciano and Pienza sit 90 minutes south of Florence, in the Val d’Orcia. Both are small hill towns; both produce wine (Montepulciano is famous for Vino Nobile; Pienza for Pecorino cheese and Rosso di Montalcino).
The wine loop means driving between 3-5 wineries in a single day, tasting, having lunch at one of them, and ending in either town for dinner. This is the Tuscany most people picture when they picture Tuscany.
What to book: A guided wine tour from Florence with a driver (don’t drive yourself if you want to actually taste the wine). Most operators include 3-4 winery visits, a vineyard lunch, and time in both towns. 8-10 hour day.
What it costs: 150-300 EUR per person for a small-group tour including tastings and lunch.
Book a Montepulciano wine tour
Cortona and the Etruscan tombs
Cortona sits on a hill above the Val di Chiana, about 90 minutes from Florence. The town has medieval walls, Renaissance churches, and views across the valley to Lake Trasimeno. It was an Etruscan settlement before it was a Roman one before it was a Tuscan one.
The Etruscan tombs in the hills below Cortona are the actual reason to go. The Tanella di Pitagora (Pitagora’s Tomb, named after an Etruscan figure misidentified as the Greek philosopher) and the Melone del Sodo are accessible via guided tour and worth seeing if you have any interest in pre-Roman Italy.
What to book: A combined Cortona walking tour + Etruscan tomb visit from Florence. Most operators do 9-10 hour days. Less rushed if you stay overnight.
What it costs: 100-180 EUR per person for a guided day trip.
The Cinque Terre (without the cruise ship crowds)
The Cinque Terre is the famous five-village string on the Ligurian coast. From Florence it’s two hours by train (direct from Firenze SMN to Riomaggiore, no changes).
The villages are overrun in summer. They are quiet in spring, fall, and on weekday mornings even in July. The standard visit is the Sentiero Azzurro (coastal trail) connecting the villages. Two sections of it are currently closed due to landslides (Vernazza-Monterosso and Riomaggiore-Manarola), so check current conditions before planning a hike.
The experience that isn’t the trail: take the train between villages, stop in each for an hour, swim off the rocks at Vernazza or Monterosso, eat focaccia in any of them. The Cinque Terre isn’t really about the hiking, it’s about being on the Ligurian coast eating anchovies and lemons.
What to book: Train tickets from Florence (40-60 EUR round trip). No tour operator needed unless you want a guide.
What it costs: Train tickets + food + a focaccia. 80-120 EUR per person for a full day.
Browse Cinque Terre experiences
Bologna (yes, by train, for the day)
Bologna is 35 minutes from Florence by high-speed train. It’s one of Italy’s great food cities and most Florence visitors skip it entirely.
The reason to go for a day is the food. Bologna has the best pasta in Italy (the actual namesake of tagliatelle al ragù, called “Bolognese” everywhere else). It has mortadella. It has tortellini in brodo. It has the oldest university in Europe and 40 km of porticoes you can walk under.
What to book: Train tickets (30-50 EUR round trip), a Bologna food tour if you want structure (4 hours, 80-150 EUR), or just walk and eat. The Quadrilatero market in the center is the right place to start.
What it costs: 50-80 EUR per person for a self-guided food day, 150-220 EUR with a guided food tour.
Volterra and the Etruscan coastline
Volterra is two hours from Florence, in the hills between Tuscany and the sea. It’s quieter than San Gimignano, more atmospheric, and has an Etruscan museum (Museo Etrusco Guarnacci) with artifacts from the area.
The view from Volterra across the rolling hills toward the coast is one of the better ones in Tuscany. The town has alabaster workshops, Roman ruins, and a fortress.
What to book: A guided day trip from Florence combining Volterra with a stop at the Etruscan necropolis outside town. Or drive yourself and wander.
What it costs: 100-180 EUR per person for a guided day trip. Self-guided with a rental car: about the same once you factor in gas and lunch.
Lucca (the bike version)
Lucca is 75 minutes from Florence by train. The town is fully enclosed by Renaissance-era city walls, which are wide enough at the top to bike around.
The standard visit is a walk around the walls (about 4 km / 1.5 hours). The better visit is to rent a bike and do the wall loop, then walk the town itself. The town has a Roman amphitheater still in use as a public square, dozens of churches, and very few tour buses compared to Pisa or Florence.
What to book: Train tickets from Florence (20-30 EUR round trip), a bike rental at the Lucca station (10-15 EUR for a day).
What it costs: A full day in Lucca for under 100 EUR per person, including lunch.
The Honest Take
Of these ten, the ones I’d actually prioritize if you have one day outside Florence:
– San Miniato truffle hunting (in season): the most uniquely Tuscan experience on this list
– Carrara marble quarries: genuinely unexpected
– Saturnia thermal springs: if you have a car and a flexible schedule
The Cinque Terre is the most photogenic and the easiest to do without a guide. Bologna is the best food day. Lucca is the best bike ride.
What I’d skip if pressed for time: Civita (worth it, but similar to every other Italian hill town), Montepulciano (over-touristed in summer), Cortona (better as an overnight than a day trip).
This article contains affiliate links to Viator and GetYourGuide. If you book through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Our editorial recommendations are independent of affiliate relationships. See our affiliate disclosure for details.
Last reviewed: July 2026. Prices, train schedules, and seasonal availability verified at time of writing. Confirm details on each operator’s site before booking.
