Excursion to Volterra and San Gimignano (Italy)

Has anyone visited Volterra and San Gimignano on a Celebrity Excursion? I would like to know what it would be like taking a wheelchair. Please note that I am young and can push uphill for quite a distance (it helps that my wife is petite :) ).

Any advice on the terrain, bus drop off point, road surface etc would be fantastic. Pushing uphill on tarmac is easy, but uphill on cobbles is hard work :eek:

Looking forward to our trip next week!

Been to both walled towns on my own.

SanGimi should be fine. They will drop you off near one of gates to town . the Main Street is very straight from one end to the other. it will be very crowded with other tour bus cruisers.

Volterra,on the other hand ,is hilly, twisted cobble stone streets.

I also suggest you look at Lucca if you have not been there. it is bigger than San Gimi and more interesting IMO, and a wheelchair would be fine there too.

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Yes, Lucca should be ok with wheel chair. Flat and the stone slab paving are in relatively good order.

S.G. especially the main thoroughfares are flat and stone paving relatively smooth.

Volterra, may well involve greater difficulty, but I would have thought the excursion details provided by the cruise line should give the information you require.

Guess we have been to a different place then some :). San Gimignano (where we have stayed a few times) is primarily about its main street (with a few deviations) which gently slopes uphill from the main entrance. Normally we would suggest that somebody with mobility issues look for the mini-bus that can take you up to the Cistern. By the way, the name of that main street is the Via S Matteo. Once at the Cistern it would be easy to take a wheel chair back to the main entrance (the tour buses normally drop and pick-up outside this entrance) since it is a gentle downhill slope. As to Volterra (we love this town) it would be a challenge for wheelchairs since there are many areas of steeper slopes...cobblestones, etc.

Getting back to an excursion, we think this can cause some problems since cruise line excursions tend to stay in a group (except during some free time periods). So you might want to talk to your excursion guide about breaking away from the group to use the mini-bus in San Gimignano. Keeping up with a tour group in Volterra will take some effort for the pusher.

Hank

I just spent three days in Volterra this past June and I agree it's one of the hilliest of hill towns. Very few flat areas that I recall aside from the central piazza. Lots of steep ups and downs and lots of cobbles.

That said, I believe the from the parking area where all buses load and unload to the central piazza is not a long walk -- about 10 minutes? -- and isn't the steepest road in Volterra. So if you would be willing to go that far, you can enjoy the Piazza dei Priori and possibly even visit the several buildings close by that are open to sightseers including the Duomo and the Palazzo dei Priori. There are also some pleasant cafes on the Piazza and a lovely store that sells marble, one of the traditional products of Volterra.