Beyond Tuscany, Tuscany.

Selected houses beyond Tuscany's borders — the Dolomites, the Lakes, Liguria and Umbria — for itineraries that reach further.

On Beyond Tuscany

Beyond Tuscany,
from Smaranda.

Every villa week in Tuscany sits within reach of country that is not Tuscany at all, and the best itineraries use it. This page is the honest map of what lies over the borders: Umbria first, whose Trasimeno shore begins twenty minutes from Cortona and whose hill towns, Assisi, Perugia, Orvieto on its tufa pedestal, reward the long day; Rome, which the train from Chiusi makes a plausible day trip from the southern estates; and the Ligurian coast, where Cinque Terre is a morning's drive from the Lucca houses, best visited from Tuscany rather than slept in.

Our advice follows one rule: cross a border for something Tuscany does not have. Orvieto's cathedral facade, Assisi's Giotto cycle, the Cinque Terre's vertical coast and Rome itself all qualify. We plan these days with the same honesty as everything else, including telling you when a border day costs more of the week than it returns; the drives are real, and the villa pool has its own argument.

When to come

Follow the villa's season; border days are best in the shoulder months when the roads and the sights are calm. Cinque Terre in July and August is a crowd experience we advise against.

Towns worth knowing

Orvieto: The cathedral facade alone justifies the drive; under an hour from the southern estates.
Assisi: Giotto's Life of St Francis; go early, the basilica rewards the first hour.
Perugia: Umbria's capital: escalators through a buried Renaissance fortress, and October's chocolate fair.
Riomaggiore: Cinque Terre's first village; take the train between villages, never the car.

Best for

Second weeks and returning guests
Day trips with a single clear prize
Pairing a Tuscan villa with Rome or Liguria
Cortona and Val d'Orcia stays adding Umbria

Practicalities

Chiusi-Chianciano station puts Rome ninety minutes away by rail from the southern Val d'Orcia. For Cinque Terre from the Lucca houses, drive to La Spezia and use the coastal trains; parking in the villages is not a real option.