56 Best things to see & do in Tuscany

Tuscany expert Nicky Swallow’s summary of the typical foods, ingredients and flavours, cooking styles, dining scene and best foodie experiences in Tuscany.

Learn about these extraordinary tubers – the most highly prized of Tuscany’s rich food harvest – on an expert-led truffle hunt in traditional Tuscan countryside. Hunts are often combined with truffle-based lunches or cooking lessons with truffles.

Silently drift above superlative Tuscan landscapes, a unique perspective on the quintessential vineyard-clad hills of the Val d’Orcia, dotted with ancient villages and castles.

Tucked away in the south-eastern corner of Tuscany, Pitigliano, Sorano and Sovana offer a unique glimpse of the Etruscan period, with many necropolises, expansive museum collections and the mysterious Vie Cave.

Tuscany is full of natural hot springs or terme, many of which date from Roman or even Etruscan times and whose waters, originating from deep within the earth’s crust and emerging at around 35°-37°C, have long been known to have therapeutic properties.

Home to some of Italy’s best wines, the DOCG Chianti Classico stretches across 177,500 acres of undulating, vine-striped land between Florence and Siena.

An excellent cooking school based in Certaldo (southwest of Florence) offering truffle-hunting experiences in the Chianti woods, followed by a truffle-based lunch or cooking lessons with truffles.

Annual festival celebrating local white truffles in the ‘City of Truffles’; local trufflers supply restaurants, hotels and specialist shops all over Italy. The festival takes place over the last three weekends in November with tastings, markets and prizes for the biggest truffle.

The 12th-century Collegiata church has superb frescoes and a glittering interior, its vaults decorated with golden stars. The Santa Fina chapel is painted by Domenico Ghirlandaio.

The picture gallery houses a collection of 12th- and 15th-century paintings from Florence and Siena. Look out for a 13th-century painted crucifix by Coppo di Marcovaldo, and paintings by Benozzo Gozzoli and Filippino Lippi.