Cortona - as a base for 10 days to two weeks?

Let me clarify. We will be in Italy for 5 - 6 weeks altogether, not just the 10 days we may spend with Cortona as a base.

Will you be renting a car? That makes a different as to what's accessible.

Cortona would make an excellent base for exploring Tuscany and Umbria. If you're looking to visit Venice, Cinque Terre, and Croatia, those obviously can't be done as day trips from Cortona, so that will have to come before or after your stint there. Rome can be done as a long day trip, but with all the sights to see, Rome should really be done on its own as well. But in Cortona, you have access to several towns nearby such as Assisi, Orvieto, Spoleto, Perugia, Montepulciano, Pienza, Arezzo, Florence, Siena, etc. (the list goes on) which can all be explored on a day trip via public transportation. If you are renting a car, the list of towns to explore expands even further. With a car, then you'd be able to visit parts of Marche on a day trip as well. So, it's a great base with lots of options, not to mention an excellent Tuscan hill town in itself.

We will definitely have a car while visiting Cortona. I know that Venice/CT/Croatia/Rome/Florence are not day trips. I'm just curious how far they are from Cortona. Everything always looks so close on the map! I'm just starting to get an idea how the variuos area's I'd like to visit will fit together. Since I'm travelling with children and my mom; I don't want to travel to much or too often. I see that Lake Tramisimo is not too far. Is that a nice area? The 10 days in Cortona would be spent visiting places within about 1 1/2 hours of Cortona; so any cities reachable by car within 1 1/2 hours drive are what I'm interested in.

We love Cortona and have used it as a home base several times. It is a great destination on its own with two good museums and several very good restaurants. Florence IS a day trip from Cortona. Just catch the train at Camucia, the more modern town just below Cortona, instead of taking the car. I think it takes about an hour to an hour and a half to get there. Arezzo is another great town that is easiest to get to by train. Once a month there is an antiques fair in Arezzo that is great fun to visit. Towns that are day trips by car include Siena, Montalcino, Montepulciano, Pienza, Assisi, Spello, Perugia, Orvieto, and a lot more. You could probably even do San Gimignano and Greve from there. You can also do Civita di Bagnoreggio from there with enough time to visit Orvieto the same day. One of my friends even went to Pisa from Cortona, but I think that is a little too far. Cortona is four hours from Venice by train. I can't remember how long the drive took, but we have driven from Cortona to the Cinque Terre and I don't remember it being more than three or four hours. You can get to Rome in around two hours from Cortona. and we love driving to Castiglione del Lago, a little town on Lake Trasimeno. There is a little pizza place there, Come di Parre, that we like. Be sure to get pizza in Cortona, I can't remember the name of the place but it's where all the locals go to eat pizza. I think it is just off the Piazza Signorelli.

I've only seen Lake Trasimeno as we passed it on the train, so this isn't a first-hand account, but I've heard some call it "Trashy-meno" and say it's not worth visiting, unless you're going to a specific place, like the one just mentioned. Again, not first hand, but I did file it away for myself for future checking.

Have a great time (and be sure to study how Italian road signs work before you go.)

Lake Trasimeno can be a good place to go to as well. The town of Castiglione di Lago has a couple of interesting churches and shops that can be worthwhile. I've heard there are some good restaurants on the other side of the lake, but I've never had a car so that's the only town I've been to on the lake. But a couple of the locals told me their favorite town on the lake was on the opposite side. So since you have a car, maybe you can try a trip around it one day. The lake is not far away at all. But, keep in mind that it's definitely not a lake you can swim in, like many of the lakes are around the US. Pretty much all Italian lakes have this characteristic of not being too clean (even Lake Como and the lakes up north). So if you're thinking of going to take the kids for a dip...think again. But you can check in the tourist office in Cortona and see if there are some paddle boats to take out somewhere on the lake or something. It's still very pleasant out there.

You've all been wonderfully informative and helpful! It sounds like Cortona will be a wonderful base for part of our trip!

We just spent 3 nights in an apartment within walking distance of Cortona and loved it there. I wish we would have stayed for a week! Enjoy your visit

Check this site out. It's one of the best I have seen for determining driving directions, distances and driving times.
http://distancecalculator.globefeed.com/Italy_Distance_Calculator.asp

Thanks Bill. That's exactly what I needed!

Kerry:

If you have a GPS that can be loaded with Italian maps, it will be invaluable in driving. Many of the Garmin models accept an SD card and you can get a relatively cheap one for Italy. Ours was both in Italian and English.

Absolutely. We actually used a GPS when in Spain and France last summer and it was wonderful - with one exception. On one occasion we missed a turn on a roundabout and the GPS put us on a different course which ended up being a very scary mountain pass with NO GUARDRAILS and cliffs on both sides of the narrow road. We spent about 1 1/2 hours driving thru one switchback after another after another.....