Too ambitious?

Hi Stephanie. My husband and I are picking up a rental car in LaSpezia as we leave the Cinque Terre but dropping it off in Orvieto.(We are only renting a car for 6 days to tour the Tuscany area. You could use Orvieto as a base and pick your car up there. We are renting through AutoEurope. We've leased and rented from them several times and have not had any problems. If you find a cheaper rate on another website, they will match it. We are staying at LaMagnolia B&B in Orvieto. It's small and Serina has been pleasant to correspond with.

Stephanie, it's definitely doable. One caution about agriturismos. Most of them rent only for a week at a time and for most of them, the week begins on Saturday. Agriturismo Cretaiole, very near Pienza, is a great place to stay and has several positive postings on Rick's graffiti wall. Isabella leaves a book in each rental unit delineating the places to visit nearby, great restaurants to eat at, etc. Autoeurope is a good place to rent a car from, and they have pickup places in many places in Italy. If you're visiting Siena you may want to pick the car up after siena, as its main square is pedestrian only.

Stephanie - It sure looks like you have a good plan. In the past (and coming up this fall) we used Panzano as our Tuscan base town. It is exactly between Florence and Siena on the Chianti Road (S222). A charming small village with good restaurants and the finest butcher in Tuscany!

It is a good base for exploring all the wonders of Tuscany.

For a villa check out Il Palagio (www.infochianti.com). A wonderful villa - family run and very nice and clean. Have fun.

Stephanie - An agriturismo is great way to go. You have easy access with a rental car whereas most towns in Tuscany have difficult parking. I wouldn't hesitate to pick up the car in Florence. Go to www.viamichelin.com to get driving directions south out of town. SR 222 is the Chianti Road and takes you through beautiful wine towns. The area has dozens of agriturismos (agriturismii?) and from there you can go to all of the towns you mentioned. I also agree with trying Autoeurope for your rental car. They'll probably book you with Europecar whose office in Florence is on the Borgo Ognissanti close to the town center but near the Arno and roads leading you south.

your plan sounds good for 10 days. realize tho you do not really need a car for part of Tuscany you are doing. We bused it from Siena (our base) to Pienza, Montepulciano and San Gimignano. Easy frequent and low cost, buses are clean, friendly and drop you off at convenient stops. Its your call but you could save a bunch and let someone else drive, park. it is in Ricks guidebk.

Thanks to everyone for your thoughts & tips.

Stephanie, this is absolutely NOT too ambitious. You're just missing one key thing. If you want to make it easier to see all of those places and save a lot of money on lodging then make Siena your home base. It's closer to just about every one of the places you want to go.