How many provinces does Tuscany have?

Ten: Arezzo, Florence, Grosseto, Livorno, Lucca, Massa-Carrara, Pisa, Pistoia, Prato and Siena. Since 2015 Florence has also been a metropolitan city. You will sometimes read that there are eleven provincial capitals, because Massa and Carrara are counted separately, but there is only one province, Massa-Carrara, and its seat is in Massa.

How far is Pisa from Florence?

About 69 km as the crow flies. The fast regional train from Firenze Santa Maria Novella to Pisa Centrale takes 51–60 minutes, with several departures an hour, and the ticket costs €9.80. The slower regional trains take 70 to 84 minutes. Some trains continue to Pisa San Rossore, the station closest to the Piazza dei Miracoli.

How do you get from Florence to Siena without a car?

By train, for €10.80: roughly half the services are direct and take 1 h 27–1 h 35, while the others change at Empoli. Or by the 131R Rapida bus run by Autolinee Toscane, €10.90, in about 75–80 minutes. The bus stops close to the centre, whereas Siena station is down in the valley: from there you go up by escalator or by bus.

Are the Cinque Terre in Tuscany?

No. They are in Liguria, in the province of La Spezia, just beyond Tuscany's north-western border. On our map you can see them outside the outline of the region. From Florence it takes 2 h 50–3 h 20 by train to Monterosso, always with at least one change at La Spezia.

Can you get around Tuscany by train and bus alone?

For the art cities, yes: Pisa, Lucca, Siena, Arezzo, Prato and Pistoia are all linked to Florence by frequent regional trains, and San Gimignano by train plus bus from Poggibonsi. Chianti, the Val d'Orcia and the Maremma, on the other hand, have few buses: there you need a car or an organised tour. In practice, the Cascate del Mulino at Saturnia can only be reached by car.

Is Elba part of Tuscany?

Yes. It belongs to the province of Livorno and is the largest island in the Tuscan Archipelago, at about 223 km². From Florence you take the train to Piombino Marittima, changing at Campiglia, in about 2 h 30, then the ferry to Portoferraio, which takes about an hour.

Map of Tuscany: provinces, distances and areas

The Tuscany map

Tap a place to open its page.

This map of Tuscany brings together the towns and areas that the guide covers one by one. Every point is clickable and opens the matching page. If you have already decided where to stay, start from there; if you haven't decided yet, the table of distances further down tells you how much time each trip from Florence will cost you, and Florence is the base of the trip for almost everyone.

How to read the map

The map is deliberately simple. It is not a road map and it won't replace a satnav: its job is to show you where things are and how far apart they lie.

The outline is that of mainland Tuscany, taken from the official ISTAT boundaries and simplified. Elba is at the bottom left; the smaller islands of the Archipelago are not drawn.
The points are the places that have a page in this guide. Florence is the largest point. The number under each name is that page's number in the site index, like the parcel number on an old land register.
The straight lines all start from Florence and run to each place. They are not roads: they only show the connection. The real road is almost always longer, and in the hills much slower too.
The thin line crossing the region from east to west is the Arno: it rises on Monte Falterona, bends around Arezzo, runs through Florence, Empoli and Pisa and flows into the sea at Marina di Pisa.
The scale bar at the bottom right measures 50 km. To give you an idea: Florence to Siena is about 51 km as the crow flies, Florence to Pisa 69.
The Cinque Terre sit outside the outline, to the north-west, because they are in Liguria.

Whatever you use it for, the method stays the same: pick your base, look at what lies within an hour of it and plan your days as spokes radiating out from there.

The ten provinces and their capitals

Tuscany has ten provinces. The regional capital is Florence, which since 2015 has also been a metropolitan city. For each province, the table shows where you'll find the details in this guide.

Province	Code	Capital	In the guide
Arezzo	AR	Arezzo	Arezzo and Cortona
Florence	FI	Florence	Florence, part of Chianti
Grosseto	GR	Grosseto	Maremma and Saturnia
Livorno	LI	Livorno	the Livorno coast and Elba
Lucca	LU	Lucca	Lucca, Versilia
Massa-Carrara	MS	Massa	the Carrara marble quarries, on the page about Versilia
Pisa	PI	Pisa	Pisa, Volterra
Pistoia	PT	Pistoia	Montecatini, on the page about thermal baths; Collodi and the zoo in caves and parks
Prato	PO	Prato	the Museo del Tessuto (textile museum), on the page about exhibitions
Siena	SI	Siena	Siena, San Gimignano, Val d'Orcia, part of Chianti

Two points worth clarifying. Massa-Carrara is a single province with its seat in Massa, even though some sources list Massa and Carrara as two capitals. And Chianti Classico does not match any one province: it straddles the province of Florence (Greve, San Casciano, part of Barberino Tavarnelle) and the province of Siena (Castellina, Radda, Gaiole, Castelnuovo Berardenga).

Distances and journey times from Florence

Distances are as the crow flies, measured from Florence's Duomo to the centre of each place: by road the kilometres add up to more, and in the hills a lot more. Train times and fares are for Trenitalia regional trains in second class from Santa Maria Novella; regional fares are fixed and don't go up if you buy at the last minute. The buses are run by Autolinee Toscane.

Destination	Distance as the crow flies	Regional train	Bus or alternative
Prato	18 km	17–21 min, €3.00
Empoli	26 km	21–40 min, €5.30
Pistoia	33 km	32–51 min, €5.30
San Gimignano	38 km	to Poggibonsi 63–68 min, €8.90	then bus 130 or 133, 20–25 min
Montecatini Terme	41 km	47–65 min, €6.60
Siena	51 km	1 h 27–1 h 35 direct, €10.80	bus 131R, about 75–80 min, €10.90
Volterra	52 km	no station	bus 770 from Colle Val d'Elsa (46 min) or 500 from Pontedera
Lucca	61 km	1 h 20–1 h 46, €8.90	DD bus, about 60 min, €9.90
Arezzo	61 km	46–62 min, €9.80
Pisa	69 km	51–60 min, €9.80
Livorno	80 km	1 h 11–1 h 42, €11.40
Viareggio	81 km	1 h 20–1 h 49, €11.40
Cortona	81 km	to Camucia 1 h 09–1 h 48, €12.40	then an uphill bus
Montepulciano	87 km	to Chiusi-Chianciano 1 h 33–1 h 48, €15.90	then bus
Grosseto	113 km	2 h 37–3 h or more, €19.10	bus 50G, about 2 h, €18.40
La Spezia (Liguria)	121 km	2 h 20–2 h 35, €15.90
Saturnia	125 km	no useful station	in practice by car only
Portoferraio (Elba)	130 km	to Piombino Marittima about 2 h 32, €18.40	then ferry
Monterosso (Liguria)	135 km	2 h 50–3 h 20, €20.45	always with a change

Greve in Chianti is only 22 km away but has no train: you take the 365 bus from Florence, which takes roughly 45–70 minutes depending on the service. For Montalcino and Pienza the practical base is Siena, with buses 114 and 112 via Buonconvento.

There is just one rule for reading the table: the line matters more than the distance. Arezzo and Lucca are the same distance from Florence, but Arezzo is on the main railway line and you get there in under an hour; Volterra is closer than either, yet without a car it costs you half a day.

The areas of Tuscany, from north to south

To choose where to go, think in terms of areas rather than provinces.

Florence and around. The hub of everything: museums, trains, coaches for day trips. See Florence and the day trips from Florence.
Lucca, Versilia and the Apuan Alps. In the north-west: the walls of Lucca, the coast between Viareggio and Forte dei Marmi and the Carrara marble quarries on the page about Versilia.
Pisa and the coast. The Piazza dei Miracoli in Pisa, an hour by train from Florence, with the region's main airport.
Chianti. The wine hills between Florence and Siena: Chianti and the wine tours.
Siena and San Gimignano. The medieval heart: Siena, San Gimignano and, if you prefer small places, the borghi, Tuscany's hill towns and villages.
Volterra and Elba. The Etruscan town on its hilltop and the island off Piombino: Volterra and Elba.
Arezzo, Cortona and the Valdichiana. To the east, along the railway to Rome: Arezzo and Cortona.
Val d'Orcia. The UNESCO landscape south of Siena, with Pienza and Montalcino: Val d'Orcia.
Maremma and Saturnia. The south of the region, with its free hot springs and wild coastline: Maremma and Saturnia.
Across the border: the Cinque Terre. In Liguria, but on almost every Tuscany itinerary: Cinque Terre.

If you would rather have a list by type of trip, with art cities, villages, the sea and spas, see the page on things to do in Tuscany.

Borders, islands and map traps

A few things that maps of Tuscany don't tell you, or get wrong:

The Cinque Terre and La Spezia are in Liguria. Many tourist maps include them in Tuscany: they are not.
Montepulciano is not in the Val d'Orcia. It lies in the neighbouring Valdichiana senese, even though almost every tour lumps the two together.
The Tuscan Archipelago includes, besides Elba, Giglio, Capraia, Montecristo, Pianosa, Gorgona and Giannutri. Only Elba appears on our map.
There is a scrap of Tuscany inside Emilia-Romagna: Ca' Raffaello, a hamlet of Badia Tedalda, an exclave entirely surrounded by the territory of another region.
Lucca, Volterra and Elba are not UNESCO World Heritage sites. The ones that are: Florence, Piazza del Duomo in Pisa, San Gimignano, Siena, Pienza, the Val d'Orcia, the Medici villas and gardens, and Montecatini, as part of the Great Spa Towns of Europe.

Getting around the map: train, bus or car

The railway network forms a kind of star with Florence at its centre: Pisa and the coast to the west, Lucca and Viareggio to the north-west, Arezzo and Chiusi to the south-east, Siena to the south. Everything at the tips of the star is easy to do without a car.

The rest of the map, especially the south, calls for a car or a tour. The main roads are the A1 motorway, which crosses the region from north to south via Florence and Arezzo; the Florence–Siena link road, a toll-free dual carriageway; and the FI-PI-LI between Florence, Pisa and Livorno, which is also free. In the historic centres of Florence, Siena, Pisa, Lucca, San Gimignano and Montepulciano, however, a car is a liability: the ZTLs (limited traffic zones, closed to non-resident cars) are watched by cameras, and every unauthorised entry can cost you from €83 to €332.

If you don't want to drive and have a single day to see several points on the map, the simplest solution is an organised day trip from Florence.

Tuscany day trips from Florence on Tiqets

Map of Tuscany