What to do in Tuscany? Trip to Italy, active vacation in Italy

The best place to start your Tuscan journey is Pisa: tickets are inexpensive and the city is conveniently located from the point of view of all further advancements. Believe me, only at first sight it seems that there is nothing to do there but to pose against the background of the falling Tower of Pisa. Historians and art historians believe that Pisa is one of the most important Italian cities in terms of art, it still hides many mysteries, only by solving which you can fully realize how rich and diverse its history is.

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Cycling

The best way to get to know the city is to rent a bike. You can do it in Smile&Ride – the office is located next to the railway station. And then it’s all about improvisation. The road to the heart of Pisa – Piazza del Miracle (aka Duomo) – lies through the embankment of the Arno River, dozens of small streets and small squares. In the meantime, you can take a look at the Corsa Italia, the main road of the city, where the life on it stops only at nightfall. There you should look at the churches of St. Dominic and Santa Maria del Carmine, and then move towards the Mezzo Bridge, which offers a beautiful view of Palazzo Gambacorti, a palace with Gothic facades. The road will take you to Piazza Garibaldi, around which another palace rises. The square smoothly passes into the medieval quarter of Borgo Stretto, where you can look into the church of San Michele in Borgo. Once you get to the Duomo, try to walk through all the places that are collected there: go to the Cathedral of Pisa, where once Galileo Galilei caught the isochronism of the pendulum, look at the cemetery of Caposanto, the walls of which are covered with unique frescoes, try to catch the echo in the Baptistery and, of course, climb the tower, which offers an incredible view of the whole ensemble.

After such a walk you should have a dense and delicious meal. First you can go for an aperitif at the Mani’omio restaurant, where you can try one of the delicious aperols, and then you can stop by one of the best places in Pisa, La Clessidra, where they serve delicious carpaccio and offer tasting of Tuscan wines.

National Park

The next day you can go for another bike ride, but not in the city, but in the San Rossore National Park. Fresh air, greenery, silence and tranquility – this place has everything to relax your soul. You can also go horseback riding there: Equitiamo will organize a horseback ride for you. You don’t have to go back to town for lunch: right in the park is the Poldino restaurant, which serves traditional dishes based on old recipes.

Rafting

Active vacations are not limited to cycling. In the province of Lucca, you can raft down a mountain river and enjoy views that will keep you dreaming for a long time to come. The great advantage is that no special training is required: an experienced instructor sits in the boat with you, giving commands and rescuing you in case of emergency. The password is Garfagnana Rafting.

Climbing

Climbing lovers will not get bored here. To conquer another height, it is worth going to Candalla – in the province of Lucca. You don’t need to bring any equipment – you’ll be given everything on site.

Surfing

Yes, that’s right. You can conquer the waves in Forte dei Marmi – there is a Sunset Surf School on the beach, which will teach you how to stand up on a board. Before you go into the sea, on the shore they give you a briefing and tell you how to put your feet up, get up and what to do if you fly into the water. All this takes an incredible amount of effort: after an hour and a half of continuous attempts to catch a wave, it feels like you’ve been unloading wagons all night. So after such activity the ideal development of events is dinner on the shore. The best octopus is served at Bagno Bruno!

We believe that it is quite difficult to organize such an intense trip yourself, so the Italian company Soul Running, which specializes in organizing active tours both in Italy and in other European countries, will help you.

Where to stay

Be warned – we are not talking about a five-star hotel in the center of Pisa. There are much better places to stay, such as La Brilla, a small guest house in the Tuscan countryside near Lake Massaciuccoli. It used to be a rice processing center, so there is still a huge rice cleaning machine on one of the floors. Now it is a restored building run by a lovely couple, Enrico and Luisa. Home cooking, the possibility to always ask for advice, a beautiful terrace where you can read or just enjoy the silence and birdsong – all in all, perfect to relax.

Thank you Soul Running for the opportunity to get to know Italy from a different perspective.