agriturismos

We booked our Bologna area agriturismo using this site. They have so many options and the filters are very useful. http://www.agriturismo.it/en/

Look up here in these websites: www.agriturismo.it www.agriturismo.net www.agriturismo.com Location is key. Some might be located in very secluded farm houses a long distance from the freeways. That will make it difficult for you to efficiently day trips to the various locations. Therefore before you book one, study carefully on Google Map where their location is with respect to the freeways entrances. Although the distance in Km may not seem far, some roads in Tuscany are so curvy and narrow that you won't be able to drive over 40 km/h (25 mph). Try this one if they are available for your dates. It's only 5 min from the freeway entrance at Badesse and about 20 min from Siena. Within an hour you can be virtually anywhere in Central Tuscany and Assisi (Umbria) is less than 2 hours away: http://www.agriturismo.it/it/agriturismi/toscana/siena/AnticoUliveto-AzAgricolaBiologica-7080100/index.html This is their website:
http://www.anticouliveto.it/?lang=en

Last May we were very pleased with Castello Di Montegufoni (Montegufoni.eu) About 30 minutes outside of Florence.

Charlie,
Try http://www.lacrociona.com/

Charlie I am assuming you are planning to rent a car? Umbria: during the summer of 2007 we stayed a week at agriturismo La Fornace. www.lafornace.com Our family of 4 had the "Poppies" apt. with 2 bedrooms/2 bathrooms. We really enjoyed this place and the location was perfect. It is 3 km from Assisi, 45 km from Gubbio, 16 km from Perugia, 14 km from Spello, Deruta for pottery is closeby and not too terribly far from Todi. We also took in Montefalco and Bevagna and one day drove to Orvieto and Civita di Bagnoregio. Tuscany: In June 2002 we stayed at a lovely agriturismo outside of San Gimignano called Il Rosolaccio. www.ilrosolaccio.com Our family of 4 had Apt. "Ginestra" with 2 bedrooms/1 bathroom. You can easily get to Florence (but be careful about driving here with the ZTL's in the center, we have parked at the train station and Piazelle Michelangelo), Siena, Monteriggioni, Volterra, Certaldo, etc.

As others said it depends on locations you plan to visit. We choose Il Canto del Sole just south of Siena because it was centrally located to the Tuscany and Umbria places we wanted to visit. While I can't vouch for them yet, since our week stay begins Oct. 7th, they have been responsive in all our communications and have good reviews on Trip Advisor. We had to cancel our last year trip due to a medical emergency and they were very understanding when we had to cancel. Their website: http://www.ilcantodelsole.com/inglese/index.asp If your day trips are futher south, look at agriturisomos around Multipulciano.
Good Luck.

Thanks to everyone for the information. This site and the people who participate are so friendly and helpful.

The previously mentioned websites are good places to make reservations. Many are listed in Booking.com, the largest website there is for rooms. I like them because they don't bill your credit card until you arrive. Most of the Tuscan and Umbrian farms are relatively small-20 to 30 acres. We noticed (driving thru the countryside) that virtually every farm has apartments and rooms as a secondary source of income. And the Tuscan agriturismos are fantastic places to stay. We stayed outside Certaldo/San Gimignano last year for 5 nights. We ended up going to the big supermarkets down in Poggibonsi and cooked many of our own meals.
If you read on the internet about agriturismos enough, you'll see the same names popping up time and time again.

I had to look up the name of another agriturismo we stayed at in Tuscany in Sept. 2010. It was Podere Bellavista. www.poderebellavista.net It is located just a few km outside of San Gimignano and run by a sweet gal named Virginia. It was just my husband and I and we had the one bedroom apt. called "Maria" and it was perfect for the two of us. Location was great for daytrips all around the region. Would stay here again.