day trips from Montepulciano

Siena, San Gimignano, Volterra and many others are all within a 1-hr driving range.

We've been to Montepulciano twice, the second time because we learned the first time that it was impossible to take day trips from there without a rental car! Orvieto is wonderful, as is Civita di Bagnoregio. We also went to Montalcino, Monticchiello, Radicofani, Cortona and Castiglione del Lago. The place that perhaps appealed to us most after Orvieto and Civita was San Quirico d'Orica (not as touristed as some of the more "famous" places).

We stayed in Montepulciano and loved it.. other towns we liked best: Montalcino, Pienza and especially Assisi.

The drive between Montepulciano and Montalcino, through Pienza, is truly lovely. If you get there early enough, outside of Montalcino is the Abbazia Sant'Antimo, worth a visit. Closes at Noon for la pausa though.

This will be the first time renting car in Italy even though its our third trip. How are the roads to navigate through? Montalcino and Orvieto seem to be two of our choices. Is it feasible to go to the Adriatic coast? My wife is very interested in swimming in it. How far away is it, and what towns are recommended ?

Driving for us was super easy and very enjoyable. We drove all over Tuscany and Umbria for a week, two times on two different trips, on two-lane roads (our favorite) and the freeways. We never had GPS, only a paper map, and never had a problem.. never got lost, never even took a wrong turn. Can't answer your Adriatic Coast question.. but I highly recommend www.viamichelin.com for lots of helpful info on routes, time, cost, etc. We brought a very detailed driving map of the area with us, which we bought here at a bookstore.

From Montepulciano within 1.5 hr-2hr drive or less you can pretty much go anywhere in Tuscany or Umbria. Choose the best towns here: for Tuscany: http://www.borghiditoscana.net/
for Umbria: http://www.10cose.it/umbria/cosa-vedere-umbria.html

Other good day trip options are Cortona and Chiusi. I would highly recommend a GPS. Montepulciano is a great base for day trips and a very relaxing place to stay.

We stayed in Montalcino and one day just got in the car and drove with no destination. It was a delightful day and we liked Pienza.

bring a GPS; we were glad we did! Driving isn't that hard in Italy, signage seems pretty good. We found it helpful to also have a map of the region to see where towns are in relation to one another and get a high-level view of where we were going; the 3" GPS screen isn't quite the same. Get a guide book or two and go to towns you find interesting. Can't really go wrong on anything you pick. We found it useful to plan on visiting 2 per day. Go to the more distant one in the morning. If you like it have lunch there and hit the 2nd on the way back, if not enchanted then have lunch at the 2nd one. We found that 2 planned stops per day allowed enough time for spur-of-the-moment extras. Driving down the road and you see an old castle on a hillside, spend an hour and go visit it. Or go past some small town with something that catches your eye stop and see it, grab a coffee. Even if a town isn't listed in your guidebook there are still many delights to be found by taking a chance. Come around the bend and there's a small farmers market going on, stop and buy some cheese. One word of warning - keep an eye out for the ZTL which unfortunately seem to be springing up everywhere. As for the coast, take a look on google maps and use directions to plot a route; decide if the time is worth it to you. You don't say when you are going, but the Adriatic side is very seasonal. There are stretches of town beach with restaurants, changing rooms, umbrella rental, etc. much of which closes after August.

These are day trips that you can do: 1: Orvieto + Civita di Bagnoregio 2: Assisi + Gubbio (+ maybe Perugia, if time allows) 3: Cortona + Arezzo + Anghiari 4: Siena 5: Monteriggioni + San Gimignano + Certaldo 6: Montepulciano + Pienza + San Quirico + Montalcino. 7: Colle Val D'Elsa + Volterra
8: Drive the Via Chiantigiana (SR 222) from Siena to Florence, then back via the freeway.

Thank you all for your input. Looking forward to seeing what the days will bring.