Tuscany without the crowds: five quieter alternatives to Florence

About 363,000 people live in Florence. In the first ten months of 2025 the city counted 9.7 million overnight stays, and phone-network data puts day-trippers at around eight million a year on top of that. Between January and October 2025 the city issued 50,333 entry permits for tour coaches, 45 per cent more than a year earlier. The Uffizi Galleries (the Uffizi itself, Palazzo Pitti and the Boboli Gardens) had 5.3 million visitors in 2024, and the Accademia, where Michelangelo's David stands, had 2.2 million.

The rest of Tuscany gets far less of this. The Florence area alone accounts for a quarter of all overnight stays in the region and about 31 per cent of visitor card spending. Arezzo's share of that spending is 1.4 per cent, the Lunigiana's 0.9 and the Garfagnana's 0.5.

Most people don't come to Tuscany for a queue. They come for Renaissance painting, a hill town in the evening and green country around it, and all of that is a train ride from Florence. Three of the places below are in Tuscany and two just over the border in Umbria. Each has a profile on this site with a tourist-density score out of 10 (lower means quieter). None of them is empty, though. In 2025 the Lunigiana and the Garfagnana had the fastest growth in overnight stays anywhere in Tuscany, up 25 and 19 per cent.

Arezzo — Piero della Francesca without the queue

Arezzo is the easiest swap, with about sixty direct trains a day from Florence. The fastest take around 35 minutes, and regional trains take one to one and a half hours. The main reason to come is Piero della Francesca's Legend of the True Cross, frescoed in the Bacci Chapel of San Francesco. Visits are by booking only, up to 30 people for 30 minutes, which is nothing like the Uffizi corridors. Walk down to San Domenico for Cimabue's painted Crucifix, and visit the house Giorgio Vasari decorated for himself; he was born here in 1511. The sloping Piazza Grande, with Vasari's loggia along one side, gets busy on two kinds of day: the antiques fair on the first Sunday of every month and the Saturday before it, and the Giostra del Saracino joust, held twice a year (next on 19 June and 5 September 2027). Read the Arezzo profile →

Garfagnana — chestnut woods on a slow railway

The Garfagnana is the Serchio valley north of Lucca, between the marble peaks of the Apuan Alps and the Apennines. Take a train from Florence to Lucca (1 hour 20 to 1 hour 45) and change onto the Lucca–Aulla line, about eighteen trains a day. Barga-Gallicano is around 45 minutes from Lucca and Castelnuovo di Garfagnana about an hour. In Castelnuovo, the Rocca Ariostesca is named after the poet Ludovico Ariosto, who governed the valley for the Este family from 1522 to 1525. Barga has a Romanesque cathedral with a view across to the Apuan Alps. So many of its people emigrated to Scotland in the late nineteenth century that it's called "the most Scottish town in Italy", and it holds a fish-and-chips festival every year. Order zuppa di farro, made with the valley's IGP spelt. Summer closures for engineering works are already planned for 2027 and 2028, so check for replacement buses. Read the Garfagnana profile →

Lunigiana — castles, statue stele and testaroli

The Lunigiana is the far northern tip of Tuscany, the Magra valley between the Apennines and the sea. The Malaspina family held it for six centuries and left castles on the ridges, and the Via Francigena pilgrim route crosses it. In Pontremoli, the Castello del Piagnaro holds the museum of the statue stele: abstract human figures carved in sandstone by people who lived here between the fourth and first millennium BC. Nobody is sure what they were for. Then eat testaroli. The batter is cooked in a cast-iron testo, cut into diamonds, softened in hot water and dressed with basil, oil and cheese; the artisanal Pontremoli version is a Slow Food Presidium. Two evening trains run direct from Florence to Pontremoli in about 2 hours 40. Or carry on from the Garfagnana: Lucca to Aulla takes about two hours, and Pontremoli is 20 minutes further. The Lunigiana has the lowest density score on this list, even after a 25 per cent jump in overnight stays in 2025. Read the Lunigiana profile →

Orvieto — busy at midday, quiet after dark

Orvieto, in Umbria, has crowds of its own, and its density score of 3.5 is the highest here. It sits on a tufa cliff above the railway. Eight direct trains a day come from Florence, most in about 2 hours 15, and a funicular takes you up from the station in five minutes. Inside the cathedral, Luca Signorelli painted the Last Judgment in the Chapel of San Brizio between 1499 and 1504. At the edge of the rock, the Pozzo di San Patrizio drops 62 metres, with two separate spiral ramps of 248 steps each, so that mules going down never met mules coming up. Day-trip groups, many from Rome, fill the cathedral square from late morning until mid-afternoon. Stay the night and the evening streets are largely yours. Read the Orvieto profile →

Spoleto — Umbria's quiet town, outside festival weeks

Spoleto takes longer to reach: regional trains from Florence to Foligno take just under three hours, and Spoleto is 20 minutes further. A chain of escalators carries you from the lower town up to the Rocca, the papal fortress at the top. Behind the fortress, the Ponte delle Torri crosses the gorge towards the old oak woods of Monteluco. In the cathedral apse, Filippo Lippi painted the life of the Virgin between 1467 and 1469, in the last years of his life. For a few weeks each summer the Festival dei Due Mondi fills the town (35,000 tickets sold in 2026); the 2027 festival runs from 25 June to 11 July. Outside those dates Spoleto is one of the quieter towns of its size in Umbria. Read the Spoleto profile →

So, where to go

Two railway lines out of Florence do most of the work. Going south, regional trains on the Rome line stop at Arezzo and then Orvieto, about an hour apart, so the two make a natural pair. Some of the trains that stop at Arezzo carry on to Foligno, where you change for Spoleto. Going west, the Lucca–Aulla line runs through the Garfagnana into the Lunigiana, so both valleys make one slow loop and come back to Florence via La Spezia. Florence is still worth a day: book the Uffizi and the Accademia ahead, go early, and sleep in Arezzo, half an hour away by fast train.

Questions, answered

Where can I see Tuscany without the crowds?

Go inland and away from Florence. In 2025 the Lunigiana and the Garfagnana each took under 1 per cent of visitor spending in Tuscany, against about 31 per cent for the Florence area. For a town, Arezzo is the easiest choice.

What is the best day trip from Florence without the crowds?

Arezzo. Trains run all day, the centre is a short walk uphill from the station, and Piero della Francesca's frescoes are seen by appointment in small groups. Avoid the first weekend of the month if you don't want the antiques fair.

Can I visit these places without a car?

Yes. Arezzo, Orvieto and Spoleto have their own stations, and Orvieto and Spoleto have a funicular and escalators up to the old town. The Garfagnana and the Lunigiana are on the Lucca–Aulla and Parma–La Spezia lines. A car only helps for the remote villages and castles.