Accommodations in Florence, Orvieto, Lucca and Siena

Do you have the RS Italy 2011 book? It has good suggestions.

Will you be renting a car? Locanda Rosati, outside of Orvieto, is a wonderful agriturismo that has it all... including a charming host.

A car would be advisable, but Agriturismo Marciano just outside of Siena is fabulous. Not only is it everything you would picture a Tuscan winery to be, but they have optional dinners that are to die for. The best food we had in Italy...and we were there for 3 weeks and had a lot of good food!! When we go back to Italy we will definitely stay there again. www.agriturismomarciano.it/index_en.html

Susan, good job on Palazzo Olivia! We stayed there in 2009 & loved it. You can rest assured that it's a good choice. The location is excellent and the apartment we ed (Basilio) was spacious, quiet & comfortable. I can also personally endorse Agriturismo Marciano as Andrea suggested. It's a fantastic experience & my husband & I felt that it was a highlight of our trip. The owners are gracious & warm. If you stay there, you must have one of the optional dinners; the food is incredible. I would go back there in a heartbeat. As for Lucca, we were only there for 1 night & we stayed at the Hotel Melecchi a few blocks from the walled city. It was clean (I'm pretty picky about cleanliness!!) & the owners were very friendly & accommodating but it was a fairly drab & dark room. I chose it because of the free parking but if we were staying longer than one night, I would have preferred a more updated hotel. Have a wonderful trip. I'm so jealous that you're going for 30 days.

We have stayed twice at Al Tuscany in Lucca and love it, lots of charm. It's in the historic center, if you're driving you will have to leave your car outside of the walled historic area. We stayed at Hotel Picchio in Orvieto and liked that too. It was priced very reasonably and is located at the bottom of the hill from the historic center. A quick ride up the funicular to the historic center. You can walk to the hotel from the train station. It is family run and they are very hospitable.

Palazzo Olivia is ideally suited and a wonderful place to stay. Good choice! We enjoyed 5 nights there in October. In Orvieto we loved B&B Ripa Medici. http://www.ripamedici.it/IndexEng.html There are two rooms with a common room for breakfast or hanging out. Super quiet, free parking, outstanding view from the room. We paid 75 euros a night. A real bargain and very sweet people!

I forgot to mention where we stayed in Lucca. We stayed at the Hotel Rex, next to the train station and just outside the walls. They do provide free parking, and they also have free bikes you can use. Biking around the wall was so much fun. The Hotel Rex is an easy walk into town. It's not a B&B, but they do have a nice breakfast included.

We stayed at an awesome Agritourisimos a few miles outside of Orvieto last June. There was two fully self contained apts in the owners farmhouse. It was quiet, had a pool, and the owners spoke excellent English, and were great tour guides. Check out the reviews on Trip Advisor for Agritourisimo Frallanrenza. And the best thing: the roomy apt was only $75 Eu/nite! Same thing for Tuscany. We stayed in another agri outside Chianti, that allowed us quick trips to Siena and Firenze. It had a pool, view to die for, was a fully self contained apt., and was only $65 Eu/nite. Agri Borgo Sichelle. That are lots of great Agris in these areas; some offer meals, but all offer a wonderful experience in a private setting.

We also stayed at Hotel Picchio in Orvieto. The hotel was fine and reasonably priced as Jane mentioned but for us, the convenience of staying in the main part of town is worth some extra cost. On our last trip, it was after dinner and rather late when we realized that the funicular stops running at 8:30 p.m. My husband convinced me that we should take the trail down towards the train station to return to the hotel. After walking on a winding path in the dark for 45 minutes we decided to turn around and go back to the top. Luckily, we found that the bus runs later and were able to take it back to our hotel. On another trip, we stayed at Hotel Corso and liked the hotel and it's location. Alternatively, we should have thought to check the funicular/bus schedule before dinner to better time our return trip to Hotel Picchio.

We stayed at a RS recommendation, B&B La Romea and found it to be a wonderful location in the center of Lucca. It was very quaint and the rooms were beautiful. Be sure to try Gusto Pizza in Florence :)

Four of us rented a fabulous apartment in Florence two years ago through vrbo. It was on the top floor of a house on the pedestrian street that runs right into the baptistry, had an elevator that started at the second level (that would hold two people if they were very intimate!), and had a deck with an eye-popping view of the dome of the Duomo. It wasn't luxurious, but it was a terrific location.

I also stayed at Hotel Corso--it was clean, just a short walk to the Duomo; nice breakfast but it was an extra charge. go to la Polomba (sp) for a meal--every bite of my artichoke pasta was delizioso. Have fun, Mary

I am a bit late with this reply - but we stayed at B & B La Torre while in Lucca. Breakfast was at their main building and rooms were scattered around the area - all very close to the building. Our room was great - clean comfortable, nice bathroom.