Travel hopefully, take the train to Tuscany

Is it asking a lot of young children to make them spend 20 hours taking the green route to Italy? Just to salve your conscience about the size of your carbon footprint? James Hanning talked himself, and his family, into the idea...

On the way to Waterloo with my wife and two children, I passed an advert on a bus saying "Gatwick to Pisa, £27". So, the four of us could get to Tuscany for just over £100. Why, I wondered silently, were we going to spend the next 20 hours on a train, give or take a break in Paris?

Because we thought we ought to. That is often a bad reason for doing anything, but when even John Redwood realises that global warming is no joke, and air travelproduces insane quantities of carbon, surely we should, at least, consider the alternatives. We can still have a great time; we just take a bit longer getting there.

You know how that first dip in the sea is never quite as good as you imagine it to be when you see the ad on your daily commute? My expectation was that getting the train to a tiny hilltop town in southern Tuscany would simply be prolonging the anticipatory agony but heightening the eventual pleasure.

As it happened, it was a bit of an adventure. The Eurostar was everything it should have been (lunch included). In Paris, with five hours of sightseeing in the offing, I was tasked with schlepping the suitcases across town to Gare de Bercy, while wife and daughters became acquainted with various croissantières before we met at the Eiffel Tower. (What they don't tell you is that there is nowhere to leave your luggage at Gare de Bercy, so more schlepping across town with suitcases.)

Paris was a hit, but for two little girls, aged two and five, a three-bed compartment on the Paris-Florence train at 7pm was the real revelation. What could be more exciting than being toe to toe in bed on a train? Nothing, which is why they didn't go to sleep for ages. When they did, though, it was very soundly.

We were due to arrive in Florence just after 7am. But we woke with a start at 7.15am not in lovely Florence but in the dullest bit of Italy. In the event, we arrived four hours late, during which time the children complained that it was "boring" being on the train. And we weren't helped by a friend in Florence sending jeering texts: "Does the planet feel better now?"

At this point we cheated and hired a car. (Self-righteousness has its limits, and the damage done by a car scarcely compares with a flight, so there.) Two hours south down the motorway lies Chiusi, and half an hour off it, to the west, is Bagno Vignoni, a spa town in the Orcia valley which, as the guidebook says, "has to be seen to be believed".

I first visited Bagno Vignoni 20 years ago. It was small, charming and a little more run down than even the term "unspoilt" could indulge. It remains small and charming, but it has now got its act together and realised the value of its thermal waters (rich in calcium, magnesium, sulphate and bicarbonate).

Most spectacularly, the owners of the Adler Thermae have built a magnificently appointed hotel on the slopes just below the town. While to some it may be a bit big and international, it is cleverly landscaped and discreet. It also does what it says: however you get there, you can't help relaxing.

The hotel proved to be a great base. We could take ourselves off in the car on jaunts to the hilltop towns for which Tuscany is famed. (And no, they haven't been ruined by tourism: you can still be bowled over by the quality of the food, the charm of the people and the modesty of the bill.) And the hotel also organises endless activities for the guests, as well as childcare for the over-threes. We went on some magnificent walks, an unforgettable wine tour – this is home of brunello, one of Italy's newest and best reds – and horseriding, cycling and visits to local markets are all on tap.

The delight of the Adler Thermae is that you can visit at any time. We visited in April and were concerned that the weather would be tricky. In the event, it was sunny and warm, but it wouldn't have mattered. The hotel's three pools are all heated with naturally warm water, making outdoor swimming restful and enticing all year round.

So do you have to go to a hotel this good to recover from taking a train to Italy? No. None of us regretted going by rail, although the tickets aren't cheap. Our daughters loved it, or almost all of it. We got out of work mode gradually, not suddenly with a 4am train to Stansted. We travelled with a sense of anticipation, of progressing. We actually saw a bit of France, as it whizzed by, and spoke some French. And Italy is worth going a long way for. So, £27 to get to Pisa? It's an insult.

How to get there:

Rail Europe (08708 304 862; raileurope. co.uk) offers return fares from London to Florence from £141, on Eurostar and in a six-berth couchette on the overnight Artesia train from Paris to Florence. Citalia (0870 909 7554; citalia.com) offers seven nights' half-board at the Adler Thermae from £1,279 per person, based on two sharing, including return rail travel and car hire.