Advice for renting a villa for a month - Rome, Florence, Pisa areas

Hi and welcome to the forum!

First thoughts? With the exception of Pisa as a day-trip from Florence, Rome, Florence and Venice aren't close enough together for multiple days trips nor would that be an economical way to go about visiting them. Without knowing your interests, the rule of thumb for Rome is a minimum of 4 nights/3.5 days just to cover the main sites and get your head around the city. More is better: we've spent much more over several trips without running out of things to do.

I'll say the same for Florence, depending on interests, PLUS that one is a great location for day-trips within the region by inexpensive regionale trains or bus.

Venice? Lovers of that city will tell you that the best time to be in the city is at night - when the day-trippers leave - and there's a lot of exploring to do when you add in some of the smaller islands. You could also day-trip to, say, Padua, by inexpensive regionale train in just 27-48 minutes. The city may also be a less-pricey base for Venice (accommodations tend to be very expensive there), with day trips to Venice itself, Vicenza, Verona and some other locations.

But back to the original desire for a base in the middle, which would very likely be Florence... You'd want to be taking the high-speed trains to Rome (90 minutes) and Venice (2 hours +) for making decent time, and those are not going to be inexpensive for spur-of-moment tickets, for 4 adults, over multiple trips. Personally, I'd prefer to avoid all that backtracking.

So I'm thinking that splitting your month into 3 or 4 different bases is a better idea to provide variety plus put you closer to some day-trip opportunities so you're not spending so much time (and possibly $) on rail. I am, of course, assuming your main form of transport will be rail as none of the cities you list are car-friendly.

Just noodling... Let's see what others of "The Hive" think?

Agree with Kathy.
While staying a month in same place sounds appealing- doesn't really work with the places you want to visit- too far flung, way too much time/expense traveling. to and fro.

3 bases should do it.
1 in Rome
1 in or near Florence- if outside Florence this is only place you might want/need a car for day trips to surrounding countryside.
1 in Venice- or maybe Padua or Vicenza (both have good rail connections and will be less pricey than Venice)

Thanks Kathy and Christine. This is big help!

Hello. Kathy and Christine both have good advice. My only thought on a single base would be to contact the owner/manager of the property and ask for a possible better lodging rate. It has worked for us even staying for a short term (less than 2 wks).