Exploring Tuscany

I think you are trying to do too much in too short a time. If you drive from one town to another, checking into and out of a hotel that won't leave you much time to look around that city. At the most you'll have most of the afternoon and evening before you are packing up to do it all again the next morning. I would suggest that you pick one town and stay there for a few days. This will give you time to explore the city and relax. Donna

Donna- As most issues that is the most simple and best idea. Thanks. Fred

Since you're obviously retired, have you considered going in a different month? Italy in the middle of the Summer is very hot, and hotels actually have regulations that are somewhat anti-air conditioning. Much of Italy virtually close up for the month of Augustmassive vacations. Most people take the bus from next to the Florence train station into Sienaas the bus drops you off in the middle of town. It's a 1 hour trip approximately. Your other itinerary looks very gooddriving through the cities in the countryside. You should allow plenty of time, in case you need to recharge your batteries. By the time you get to Orvieto, it'll just be another town with the city surrounded by walls on top of a hill. Your time would be better spent in Romean hour and 15 minutes south or Orvieto by train. You shouldn't hesitate to take a car through Toscanathe best way to see the countryside. Good luck!

Hi Fred From Florence you will be taking a bus (about an hour) to Siena. If you want to explore the countryside then the car rental is a good idea. If you are just visiting inside the cities then it probably isn't necessary. Also, on the bus trip from Florence to Siena you really don't get to see much scenery from the bus( a little maybe). The road seems pretty tree-lined so you are just seeing a blur go by the window so you can't count on getting any scenic tour on the way there. It may or may not be like that on the way to the other cities, I don't know. You really didn't say how long you were planning to allocate to these towns, so I don't know that I would say that it was too much. If you have a couple nights to spend in each area then I think you would have an enjoyable time. From a Siena base, you can do day trips to San Gimignano, Volterra, Montepulciano, Montalcino, and Pienza. The drive from Siena to the Montalcino area is suppose to be really pretty and the area has a name that has just totally escaped my brain right now. So you could probably send 4 days or so in the Siena area if you chose. Then maybe you could move down to Orvieto, use that as your base and do a day trip over to Assisi and spend 2 to 3 days in that area before heading to Rome. I know you can find bus tours of the Montepulciano/Montalcino that leave from Siena, if you decide not to rent a car. I don't know how they are but I saw information on them the last time we were in Siena. I've not been to Assisi but I've heard it is a nice town to visit. Personally, I really like the small towns and continue to enjoy them. I also liked Rome a lot although with all the walking we did there, it was my most tiring city. Have fun!

I think we have been convinced that we should pick on town and headquarter there and take day trips to explore other places in hte Tuscany area. Does anybody have a good suggestion for a middle priced hotel, with air and bath en-suite from which we can explore the Tuscany area? Fred

Fred: Florence is a very important place to start your Tuscan travels, and has art and sculpture beyond compare. There are hundreds of hotels, villas and bed and breakfasts of all prices in Tuscany. Pick a town you'd like to stay in, and research the rooms on TripAdvisor.com. Other great places for rooms are Booking.com, AirBnB.com and Venere.com. You can Google the name of most hotels and sign in directly to their booking engines. We're going to start in Florence city center for 3 nights, then move to a small town in Chianti for 4 nights. We're renting a car for day trips to Sienna, San Gim. and Volterra. Then, we're driving to Orvieta and dropping our rental car at the train station before going to a bed and breakfast outside of Rome for 4 days. Bed and breakfasts and agrituristimos can introduce you to memorable characters, and are far cheaper than hotel rooms in larger cities. And, they often will cook better food than you'll get in the cities. We travel between cities by train.