Tuscany

Tuscany has a real summer coast, but you have to choose it. The island of Elba has the clearest water, with sandy bays such as Fetovaia, Cavoli and Biodola and pebble coves under green hills. In the south, the Maremma and Monte Argentario have pine-backed strands at Feniglia and Marina di Alberese and the small, sheltered bay of Cala Violina. The sea reaches about 24°C in August and you can swim from June to late September.

To the north, Versilia runs for miles of fine sand from Viareggio to Forte dei Marmi. Most of it is ordered rows of umbrellas at private beach clubs, with the marble mountains behind. If you stay in Florence or the hill towns, the coast is a long drive and becomes a side trip rather than the point of the stay.

Tuscan cooking is plain and built on its ingredients: unsalted bread, peppery new olive oil, beans, ribollita, pappardelle with wild boar, and the thick Florentine T-bone cooked rare over coals. In Florence, tripe and lampredotto sandwiches are sold from street carts, and the old market halls of San Lorenzo and Sant'Ambrogio are where the city shops. The trattorias in Oltrarno serve the classics well.

Wine shapes the whole region. You can taste Chianti Classico in the hills between Florence and Siena, Brunello in Montalcino, Vino Nobile in Montepulciano and Bolgheri reds near the coast, with cellars and estate lunches all along the way. Pienza is known for pecorino, San Miniato for white truffles in autumn, and the coast for cacciucco fish stew. If you want variety beyond Italian food, the choice is thin.

This is where the Renaissance began, and the evidence is everywhere. In Florence you find Brunelleschi's dome, the Uffizi, Michelangelo's David in the Accademia, the Bargello, the Pitti Palace and the frescoed churches of Santa Croce and Santa Maria Novella, all within a walkable centre. Siena keeps its medieval layout around the shell-shaped Piazza del Campo and its striped cathedral. Pisa has the white marble cathedral square with the leaning tower.

Beyond those, the list stays strong: the towers of San Gimignano, Lucca's intact Renaissance walls, Pienza laid out as an ideal town, Piero della Francesca's frescoes in Arezzo, and the Etruscan and medieval stone of Volterra and Cortona. Abbeys such as Sant'Antimo and San Galgano stand in open countryside. Summer crowds in Florence are heavy, so the quieter towns are worth the time.

Evenings in Tuscany are mostly about long dinners and a drink in the piazza afterwards. Florence is the liveliest place, with crowds of students and visitors on the steps of Santo Spirito, wine bars in Oltrarno and Sant'Ambrogio, and a few clubs that run late at weekends. In summer the action moves to the coast. Versilia, around Viareggio, Marina di Pietrasanta and Forte dei Marmi, has a long tradition of beach clubs and dance halls that stay busy until dawn from June to August. The hill towns and the countryside go quiet soon after dinner.

Tuscany's best-known landscape is shaped by farming: cypress-lined lanes, vineyards and wheat fields over the hills of Chianti, the clay Crete Senesi and the Val d'Orcia, which turns green in spring and gold in early summer. It is excellent country for slow cycling and walking from one hill town to the next, including stretches of the Via Francigena and the white gravel roads used by the Eroica ride.

The wilder side is in the north. The Apuan Alps rise to nearly 2,000m above the marble quarries of Carrara, with steep ridge hikes, and the Garfagnana and the beech forests of the Casentino national park are quieter walking country. On the coast, the Maremma park has wild cattle, pine woods and cliff paths. Elba and the islands of the Tuscan Archipelago are good for sailing, diving and coastal walks.

Wherever you stay, there are more outings than one trip can hold. From Florence or a farmhouse in Chianti you can reach Siena, Lucca, Pisa, Arezzo, San Gimignano and Volterra easily. Further south, Montepulciano, Montalcino and Pienza make a natural day's loop through wine country. On the coast, you can visit the marble town of Pietrasanta, the Etruscan site at Populonia, or take the ferry to Elba or Giglio.

Just past the border the list keeps going. Bologna is under an hour by fast train from Florence. Assisi, Perugia and Orvieto in Umbria are an easy drive from southern Tuscany, and the Cinque Terre villages are about an hour by train from Pisa. A car makes the smaller hill towns much easier.

A family vacation in Tuscany works best split between a farmhouse stay and the coast. Agriturismi in the countryside offer pools, space and animals, and evenings run at a pace that suits children. The Versilia and Maremma beaches are sandy and shallow, with lifeguarded lidos and playgrounds, and Elba's sheltered bays are easy for small swimmers. Italian culture is warm towards children, who are welcome at dinner however late it runs.

There are some attractions made for children: the Pinocchio park in Collodi, climbing the leaning tower in Pisa, cycling on Lucca's walls and adventure parks in the hills. The great galleries of Florence are hard work for young children, though, and July and August bring heat and long queues.

Florence is compact and best on foot. Regional trains connect it well with Pisa, Lucca, Arezzo, Prato and the coast at Viareggio, so a car-free trip along that line is easy. Siena and the hill towns are another story. Trains there are slow, buses to places like Pienza or Montalcino are sparse, and Chianti, the Val d'Orcia and the Maremma really need a car.

The roads are good but winding, and old town centres are closed to visitors' cars, so you park outside the walls and walk up. Elba and Giglio are reached by ferry from Piombino and Porto Santo Stefano, which takes planning on summer weekends.

Craft is the reason to shop in Tuscany, and most of it is in Florence. Leather workshops cluster around Santa Croce and the San Lorenzo market, goldsmiths line the Ponte Vecchio, and marbled paper and bookbinding shops are scattered through Oltrarno, where artisans still work in back rooms. Via de' Tornabuoni is the luxury street, home to houses that started in the city.

Around the region, each town has its own speciality: alabaster in Volterra, ceramics in Montelupo and Impruneta, marble in Pietrasanta, and textiles in Prato. Forte dei Marmi has a summer boutique scene, and the big designer outlets in the Arno valley draw coachloads. Away from the craft workshops, much of what is sold in Florence's centre is souvenirs.

Tuscany is not cheap in the season people visit it. Hotel rooms in central Florence from spring to autumn, villas and agriturismi in Chianti, and beach-club umbrellas on the Versilia coast all cost a lot, and Forte dei Marmi is among Italy's most expensive resorts. Car hire is a real extra cost for anyone heading into the countryside.

Food and wine soften the bill. Trattoria meals, market lunches and wine bought at the cellar door are reasonable. Lucca, Arezzo, Pistoia and the towns of the Maremma and Garfagnana cost noticeably less than Florence and Siena, and spring or autumn stays are cheaper than July and August.

Tuscany's musical identity is mostly opera and chamber music. Florence has the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, one of Italy's oldest festivals, with its own opera house and orchestra, plus the eighteenth-century Teatro della Pergola for drama. Lucca, Puccini's birthplace, holds recitals of his music year-round, and every summer his operas are staged outdoors by the lake at Torre del Lago, where he lived.

Siena's Accademia Chigiana runs summer concerts in palaces and churches, and Lucca's walled squares host a large summer series of pop and rock concerts. Outside these, live music in the smaller towns means occasional church concerts and village festivals. Jazz and theatre in English are limited.

Tuscany sits on hot springs, and taking the waters is part of its history. Montecatini Terme is a grand spa town with nineteenth-century pump rooms and parks. In the south, the sulphur water at Saturnia falls in warm terraced pools at the Cascate del Mulino, open to everyone in the countryside. Bagno Vignoni has a steaming medieval bath in place of a town square, and Bagni San Filippo has white limestone pools in the woods. Chianciano, Rapolano and Petriolo add more spas and outdoor springs.

The rest of the region helps too. A farmhouse stay in the Val d'Orcia or the Chianti hills, with a pool, long lunches and nothing pressing, is about as restful as a vacation gets. Florence in summer is the opposite, so restorative trips are best based in the countryside.