Tuscany two centre holiday visiting gardens in Chianti and near Lucca
This six-night holiday starts with a stay near Greve in Chianti, just over 30 kms south of Florence and just over 40 kms north of Siena, from where you can visit some of the most beautiful and historic gardens in the Chianti region. Our suggested visits are to Villa Poggio Torselli, renowned for its spectacular flowering plants including Indian giant hibiscus and a golden crown of 120 secular lemon trees, Villa Vignamaggio which boasts an ornate Italian garden with ornamental trees, roses and cypress and Villa Geggiano, frequently used as a film set, and resplendent with ancient cypress, sculpted boxwood as well as lemon trees. These three villas date from the Renaissance. The gardens at Badia a Colibuono, a former mediaeval abbey, take their spirit from the old monks’ hortus conclusus. Today there is still a domestic quality to the garden with its pots of lavender, potted olive trees, clumps of hydrangea, and a vine-covered pergola. There is a formality dating from the early 20th Century with its box parterre and magnolia grandiflora too. This is a garden for all seasons. From Chianti, head north-west towards the coast, visiting along the way the impressive gardens of Villa Garzoni, situated on a steep slope and famed for its Baroque balustraded terraces, staircases and water features and cascades. You reach the delightful, cultural town of Lucca, which offers the opportunity to visit some of the less well-known gems of this region, including the baroque gardens of Palazzo Pfanner with its box and laurel hedges, antique earthenware vases containing lemon trees, and palms and pines, inside the mediaeval town; Villa Grabau is renowed for its English-style parkland which abounds in rare trees, planted initially in the 16th century when the villa was built and added to over the years; Villa Oliva enjoys views over the countryside near Lucca from its position on a hillside and its gardens descend the hill with numerous waterfalls and fountains. Nearby is the Parco Marlia Villa Reale is an extensive garden and parkland with numerous linked water features, a Moorish garden, a lemon garden, a green theatre and a camellia walk. It is a late baroque garden designed for Napoleon's sister. Finally, the Villa Torrigiani houses a baroque garden with nymphaeum, grottoes, water games and flowers. We include a local guide for a full-day visit to Parco Marlia Villa Reale and Villa Torrigiani. At the end of your holiday, return your hire-car to Pisa for the flight back to the UK. We cannot prepay entrance fees for individuals but a full set of notes and information to the gardens will be provided. Entrances should be pre-paid in advance or paid for locally. We can also arrange for you to have local guides for additional days or half-days in both areas if required.
Highlights
• Full-day services of local guide to visit Villa Marlia and Villa Torrigiani • Suggested visits to Villa Poggio Torselli, Villa Vignamaggio, Villa Geggiano and Badia a Coltibuoni in Chianti • Suggested visits to Villa Garzoni • Suggested visits to Palazzo Pfanner, Villa Grabau and Villa Oliva in Lucca • Siena • Greve in Chianti • Lucca
I enjoyed every minute of the tour. Cindy-Marie was simply fantastic and her knowledge, kindness and humour was all that I could have asked for. This was a first class experience. Thank you for making it all happen.Customer on Tuscan wine tour, June 2022
Holiday price guide Sample prices are per person based on two people sharing a double or twin room for 6 nights.
From about
£2,060 Mid season
£2,310 High season
Holiday Code FHIT29
The prices displayed here are a guide only. Each holiday price will be tailor-made at the time of booking to reflect all actual costs including up-to-date special offers.
Call us on 01392 441245
Tuscany two centre holiday visiting gardens in Chianti and near Lucca
We recommend taking a morning flight from London to Pisa where you collect your hire-car for the drive of about 90 minutes to the hotel for the first three nights, the Villa le Barone at Panzano near Greve in Chianti. There is time to unpack and explore the hotel and its grounds as well as the country tracks nearby before dinner which is included at the hotel.
Today we suggest that you combine visits to Villa Poggio Torselli and Villa Villamaggio, both of which date from the 15th century. Villa Poggio Torselli is renowned for its spectacular flowering plants including Indian giant hibiscus and a golden crown of 120 lemon trees. There is also in existence an original hydraulic system. Villa Poggio Torselli also produces its own wine and olive oil. You can join a tour here of the villa, the garden and including a wine-tasting. Allow time for a lunch in between and then proceed to Villa Vignamaggio which was the home of the Gherardini family and Lisa Gherardini who is said to be the subject of Leonardo da Vinci’s Monna Lisa. The garden contains an avenue of topiary boxwood and four symmetrical grass and rose gardens. Mature cypresses provide a framework and shrubs have been planted in oil jars. Return to your hotel for your included dinner.
Today you head south in the direction of Siena, so it’s worth planning your day to include a visit to Siena. One of the two gardens we suggest you visit today is the Villa di Geggiano, which dates from the 14th century and is now a national monument, resplendent with ancient cypress, sculpted boxwood as well as lemon trees. At the front of the villa is the Piazzone, with large lawns at the sides, edged with low boxwood hedges and ending at the southern side with the grand theatre. The grand theatre (Teatro di Verzura) is lined with cypress trees and potted lemon trees. The proscenium has twin arches and niches that contain the statues of Tragedy and Comedy. On the way back visit Badia di Coltibuono, a former abbey, where the gardens follow the design of the monks’ hortus conclusus. Today there is still a domestic quality to the garden with its pots of lavender, potted olive trees, clumps of hydrangea, and a vine-covered pergola. There is also a formality dating from the early 20th Century with its box parterre and magnolia grandiflora. This is a garden for all seasons. Return to your hotel for dinner which is included.
Between your hotel and Lucca it is only a drive of about 90 minutes but we suggest an early start so that you have time to visit the strikingly beautiful gardens of Villa Garzoni, dating from 1652 and famous for the balustraded terraces, symmetrical staircases and water features and cascades, which make the most of the dramatic hillside location. This late Renaissance garden contains a 17th Century maze and a 17th Century ‘parterre de broderie’ in the French style. The stonework contains niches with statues and fountains, and a grotto of Neptune, lined in ‘spugne’ with a fountain and waterworks. There is a restaurant at Villa Garzoni which makes a suitable place for lunch before continuing your route to Lucca. The city of Lucca is renowned as being a delightfully well-preserved mediaeval city, with its ancient walls still intact. Within the walls are alley ways, palazzi, squares, Romanesque churches, and a botanical garden that dates from 1820. There is plenty to do and see within the old walls as you stroll on foot from your hotel.
In the centre of the old town of Lucca, and about 10 minutes’ walk from your hotel in Lucca, you’ll find the baroque gardens of Palazzo Pfanner. These gardens date from the beginning of the 18th Century and along the central axis you’ll find marble statues representing Greek gods. There are hedges of box and laurel, splashes of colour that change with the seasons – magnolia, camellias, b begonias, hydrangeas and roses. Perhaps after an early lunch, continue to the Villa Grabau and Villa Oliva (you’ll you’re your hire-car for the drive from Lucca to these two villas as they are about 20 minutes from the centre by car. Villa Grabau is renowed for its English-style parkland which abounds in rare trees, planted initially in the 16th century when the villa was built and added to over the years. Within the park there is the Limonaia built for the lemon trees in the 17th Century and the Teatro di Verzura. Villa Oliva enjoys views over the countryside near Lucca from its position on a hillside. Its gardens descend the hill and there are numerous waterfalls and fountains. A peculiarity is a hornbeam pergola that runs parallel to the south-north axis of the cypress avenue that leads to the house. Many of the plants you find in the garden today were mentioned in the first recorded description of the villa in 1593: limes, maples, holly, oak and hornbeam. Return to your hotel in Lucca for the evening.
Today you drive about 20 minutes north of Lucca again to meet your private guide at the first of the two gardens you visit. The Parco Villa Reale di Marlia is an extensive garden and parkland with numerous linked water features, a lake, a Spanish garden, a lemon garden with over 200 citrus plants, a green theatre, probably the oldest in Europe and dating from 1664 to 1670 and composed of yew hedges pruned to create high walls and arched windows, a camellia walk and the Italian garden, consisting of two terraced gardens, the raised or hanging garden and the lower garden which is a formal Italian garden of geometric design and protected by terrace walls on two sides. In the Italian lower garden, paving featuring orange and blue gravel represents the traditional use of colour in paving in Renaissance gardens. There will be time for an optional lunch nearby in between visits. Villa Torrigiani is very pretty and ornate and houses a baroque garden with nymphaeum, grottoes, water games and flowers. Return to Lucca and your hotel for the evening.
We recommend that you choose an evening flight from Pisa so that you have most of the day at leisure, to explore Lucca in more detail, perhaps visiting the Botanical gardens, or perhaps go to Pisa on the way back to the airport.
I enjoyed every minute of the tour. Cindy-Marie was simply fantastic and her knowledge, kindness and humour was all that I could have asked for. This was a first class experience. Thank you for making it all happen.Customer on Tuscan wine tour, June 2022
Holiday price guide Sample prices are per person based on two people sharing a double or twin room for 6 nights.
From about
£2,060 Mid season
£2,310 High season
Holiday Code FHIT29
The prices displayed here are a guide only. Each holiday price will be tailor-made at the time of booking to reflect all actual costs including up-to-date special offers.
Our prices include
● Scheduled flights with British Airways London to Pisa return, economy
● 3 nights’ dinner, bed and breakfast in a Classic double room at Villa le Barone, Panzano in Chianti
● 3 nights’ bed and breakfast in a Superior double room at the San Luca Palace Hotel, Lucca
● Hire of a Group B car for the duration of holiday
● Full-day services of local guide to visit Parco Marlia Villa Reale and Villa Torrigiani
● Concierge service and Expressions Holidays regional helpful hints
Call us on 01392 441245
I enjoyed every minute of the tour. Cindy-Marie was simply fantastic and her knowledge, kindness and humour was all that I could have asked for. This was a first class experience. Thank you for making it all happen.Customer on Tuscan wine tour, June 2022
Holiday price guide Sample prices are per person based on two people sharing a double or twin room for 6 nights.
From about
£2,060 Mid season
£2,310 High season
Holiday Code FHIT29
The prices displayed here are a guide only. Each holiday price will be tailor-made at the time of booking to reflect all actual costs including up-to-date special offers.
Our prices include
• Scheduled flights with British Airways London to Pisa return, economy
• 3 nights’ dinner, bed and breakfast in a Classic double room at Villa le Barone, Panzano in Chianti
• 3 nights’ bed and breakfast in a Superior double room at the San Luca Palace Hotel, Lucca
• Hire of a Group B car for the duration of holiday
• Full-day services of local guide to visit Parco Marlia Villa Reale and Villa Torrigiani
• Concierge service and Expressions Holidays regional helpful hints
The journey and how you get there There are scheduled flights with British Airways from London to Pisa usually twice a day. You collect a hire-car at Pisa airport and the drive to Panzano in Chianti is about 1 hour and 30 minutes. The drive in between Panzano and Lucca is about 1 hour and 30 minutes and the drive from Lucca to Pisa airport is about 30 minutes.
Call us on 01392 441245
Tuscany two centre holiday visiting gardens in Chianti and near Lucca
Villa le Barone is an enchanting 4-star hotel in a beautiful rural location in the Chianti countryside. Exquisite gardens, delicious cuisine and excellent wine, alongside authentic, comfortable accommodation, afford guests an intimate, relaxing taste of Tuscany.
Superior double or twin room
Hotel San Luca Palace is an exclusive 4-star deluxe hotel in an excellent central location. Comfortable, traditional accommodation and friendly service make it an ideal base to explore the mediaeval city of Lucca.
Superior double or twin room
Special offers
Call to make your booking and save an extra £50 per adult Call us instead of emailing us when you are thinking of booking a holiday and save an extra £50 per adult (in addition to any special offers that might be available). We want to talk to you to discuss your requirements and a phone call is usually the best way for you to define what you want enabling us to respond more accurately. We want to talk to you and you save an extra £50 per adult.
I enjoyed every minute of the tour. Cindy-Marie was simply fantastic and her knowledge, kindness and humour was all that I could have asked for. This was a first class experience. Thank you for making it all happen.Customer on Tuscan wine tour, June 2022
Holiday price guide Sample prices are per person based on two people sharing a double or twin room for 6 nights.
From about
£2,060 Mid season
£2,310 High season
Holiday Code FHIT29
The prices displayed here are a guide only. Each holiday price will be tailor-made at the time of booking to reflect all actual costs including up-to-date special offers.
Our prices include
• Scheduled flights with British Airways London to Pisa return, economy
• 3 nights’ dinner, bed and breakfast in a Classic double room at Villa le Barone, Panzano in Chianti
• 3 nights’ bed and breakfast in a Superior double room at the San Luca Palace Hotel, Lucca
• Hire of a Group B car for the duration of holiday
• Full-day services of local guide to visit Parco Marlia Villa Reale and Villa Torrigiani
• Concierge service and Expressions Holidays regional helpful hints
The journey and how you get there There are scheduled flights with British Airways from London to Pisa usually twice a day. You collect a hire-car at Pisa airport and the drive to Panzano in Chianti is about 1 hour and 30 minutes. The drive in between Panzano and Lucca is about 1 hour and 30 minutes and the drive from Lucca to Pisa airport is about 30 minutes.
Call us on 01392 441245
Tuscany two centre holiday visiting gardens in Chianti and near Lucca
About Tuscany
An Expressions tailor-made holiday in Tuscany allows you to appreciate its classical landscape of rolling hills and vineyards dotted with olive and cypress trees, its misty green-grey mountains that are never too far distant, and hill-top towns of rich brown and gold stone houses. This combines with the beauty of the works of art contained in the towns and villages throughout Tuscany to create an inspirational union of the spirit and the senses. There is an intrinsic comfort in the supposed contrast between the delicacy of a Botticelli and the heartiness of Ribollita soup, yet both are typical of this fascinating region. As birthplace of the Renaissance, the impact of Tuscan and particularly Florentine traditions and culture on European heritage is fundamental to our way of life. In addition to the obvious attractions of the scenery of Chianti and the art cities of Florence and Siena, there are the less well-known regions south of Siena with its moon-like landscape of hills, the patchwork vineyards of Montalcino, the coastal marshlands of the Maremma, the spas of Montecatini and Saturnia, the islands of Elba and Giglio, and the Casentino with the source of the Arno and abundant mushroom crops. Wherever you travel on holiday in Tuscany, you will be inspired by the beauty of your surroundings and the way of life, which is quintessentially that of Italy too.
Highlights of Tuscany
Famous vineyards producing wines of Chianti Classico, Brunello di Montalcino, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. Alabaster is produced in Volterra. Gold and silver are worked in Florence and the Ponte Vecchio is lined with jewellery shops. Marbled paper and stationery is a speciality of Florence. Ceramics and hand-painted majolica from raw terracotta from Impruneta to the glazed pottery of Siena are to be found throughout Tuscany. Lucca has traditionally produced silk and hand-woven fabrics. Leather goods including shoes, handbags and belts are to be found from market stalls to designer shops such as Gucci and Ferragamo. Interesting markets include the Mercato dell' Antiquariato which sells furniture from antiques to bric-a-brac in Arezzo on the first weekend of every month, in Pisa on the second weekend and in Lucca on the third weekend. The 'wild' Maremma is known for its long-horned white cattle and cowboys (butteri) and natural springs including Saturnia.
Cultural highlights of Tuscany
As birthplace of the Renaissance, Tuscany contains a wealth of treasures: Giotto`s Campanile and Brunelleschi`s Dome in Florence, the Tombs of Galileo and Michelangelo in Florence`s Santa Croce, Botticelli`s `Birth of Venus` and `Primavera` and the portraits of the Duke and Duchess of Urbino by Piero della Francesca in the Uffizi, Michelangelo`s `David` in the Accademia, the architecture of the Piazza della Signoria in Florence, `The Tuscan Maremma` painting by Giovanni Fattori in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence, the Piazza del Campo in Siena, `The Legend of the Cross` frescoes by Piero della Francesco in Arezzo, `The Creation` fresco by Bartolo di Fredi in the Collegiata in San Gimignano, Romanesque church of the Collegiata in San Quirico d`Orcia, 14th Century Fortezza of Montalcino, Renaissance masterpiece of the church of Madonna di San Biagio at Montepulciano, the abbey-church of Sant`Antimo, mediaeval Lucignano and the towers of San Gimignano, the Etruscan Museum in Cortona.
Festivals in Tuscany
Many of Tuscany`s festivals resound with the flamboyance of the Renaissance and keep Tuscans and visitors alike in touch with the region`s rich history. Others are linked to Tuscany`s hearty traditions of eating and drinking. The most famous is Siena`s Palio which takes place on 2 July and 16 August each year. Others include the Sagra del Tordo (Festival of the Thrush) in Montalcino on the last Sunday in October when there is an archery contest and charcoal-grilled thrush are a delicacy. In Florence, Calcio in Costume (a football match played in mediaeval costume) takes place in June. Pisa has the Giocco del Ponte (Game of the Bridge), a mock battle in Renaissance dress also held in June. Viareggio celebrates Carnival on Shrove Tuesday with a huge display of flamboyant floats. In May and August Massa Marittima holds the Falcon Contest.
Gastronomy in Tuscany
Simple country food is at the heart of Tuscan cooking. Regional dishes include Bruschetta (bread or ciabatta toasted and rubbed with garlic, olive oil and salt), Ribollita (bean, cabbage and bread soup), Pasta with hare or wild boar sauce, Porcini mushroom and truffle dishes, Bistecca all Fiorentina (thick cut of sirloin and fillet beef), Cantucci (almond and honey biscuits) served dipped in Vin Santo, Panforte (chocolate, nut and spice cake). Pecorino cheese made from sheep's milk. Local wines include the white Vernaccia di San Gimignano and the Bianco di Pitigliano. Famous reds include Chanti Classico, Brunello di Montalcino and the Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. Vin Santo made from semi-crushed grapes left for several months is an excellent dessert wine.