Florence or Siene for 5 days?

I'd stay in Siena. I found it a much more agreeable place than overcrowded Florence. A couple of years ago I had a hotel just outside the city centre (somewhere around the Viale Vittorio Veneto), where it was downright quiet at night, something which is hardly possible in Florence.

You could stay in either city, depending on what you want to see. You may want to make two day trips to Firenze and stay in Siena. Siena is quiet at night since most people day trip there, Firenze is "on" until the wee hours with noise and crowds. After a couple of months, you might appreciate the peacefulness of Siena.

Personally, I would stay in Florence and day-trip to Siena. That is, if you have never been to Florence before. I think there is plenty to see in Florence for a four or five day visit. I recently stayed in a really nice little apartment on Piazza di Madonna degli Aldobrandini overlooking the Medici Chapel. Although it was in the thick of things, it was amazingly quite.

You said it yourself - "maybe overdosed on museums by then". I find Siena more charming. Stay in Siena for the days, head out to the countryside and a daytrip to Florence for 1 day. All easy from Siena.

Thanks for the advice. If I stay in Siene and we don't have a car can we still do day trips? Is there affordable transportation to some of the outlying sights? Chanti countryside looks wonderful.

I would split my time between the two ...

Rome, May 22nd to May 27th
Florence, May 27th to May 30th
Cinque Terre, May 30th to June 2nd
Siena, June 2nd to June 4th
Venice, June 4th to June 8th

So far I see
Rome: 5 nights
Cinque Terre: 3 nights
Florence and/or Siena: 5 nights
Venice: 4 nights (or maybe 5 since it's not clear if you are flying home on June 8th or if you are in Venice that night as well).

You are not specifying if you are willing to rent a car for portions of your trip. But if you like smaller places I would consider renting a car in La Spezia (near Cinque Terre) and drive from there to a small town or a country villa/hotel between Florence and Siena. It will be very relaxing, trust me.

You could visit both Florence and Siena from that countryside location. If you don't care too much about museum, just drive to Florence in the morning, park outside the city walls, and spend all day there. If you think you could visit an extra day, just go back another day and do the same. Siena can easily be visited in a partial day. The rest of the time you can visit the small famous towns and countryside in that area (San Gimignano, Chianti Hills, Monteriggioni, Pienza, Volterra, and many others.

You could drive all the way to Venice and return the car when you arrive (on Piazzale Roma) or you could return it in Florence and from Florence proceed by train to Venice (2h 5 min train trip).

If that is a workable plan for you, then I would even consider a longer stay in that countryside setting. All you have to do is borrow a day from Rome (Rome is a vast city, but 4 nights are sufficient to see the basics) and maybe one from Venice. Three nights in Venice is generally more than sufficient for Venice and the islands (Murano, Burano, Torcello); with 4 nights I would definitely take a day trip to Padua, just 20 min away from Venice.

If you don't rent a car, I would probably stay in Florence, which is the transportation hub and from there you can take day trips to many places, including Siena. In spite of the warnings about Florence being busy and crowded, there are plenty of places, even in the city center, which are very quiet and not particularly overcrowded with tourists, especially considering that the entire city center is off limits to cars. I don't know where the hotel mentioned above on Viale Vittorio Veneto is, because Viale Vittorio Veneto does not exist in Florence (maybe the commenter meant Piazza Vittorio Veneto, which however has quite a bit of traffic during the day).

While Siena is a wonderful city with an interesting history, my suggestion would be to stay in Florence and use that as a "home base" for Tuscany. Although you may be suffering "museum fatigue" by that point in your trip, you can do as much or as little as you want and don't have to visit museums or galleries. Florence provides not only a greater variety of activities, restaurants, etc. and as Roberto mentioned, it's also a great base for day trips to places like Siena, Lucca, Pisa, etc.

Thank you so much all. My husband does not want to rent a car so we may do Florence just because it has more transportation options for day trips. Also I didn't mention my 15 year old daughter will be with us also, and we studied the Renaissance all last year in her homeschooling so Florence might be the better choice. Also since we will be getting a break from museums in Cinque Terra, maybe we will be up for a few. Thank you again for all the helpful advice!

Florence, absolutely Florence. (A day trip to Siena by bus or train is easy to do.)

Florence is so rich in Renaissance Art that it takes several days to just skim the surface. Siena is wonderful but you can see the key things in an easy day trip by bus from Florence (spend time in the fabulous Cathedral, climb the Torre Mangia (https://janettravels.wordpress.com/2011/09/18/climbing-the-torre-mangia-at-67/) or go to the high visibility point in the museum if you aren't up to that, have lunch on the Campo, tour the town hall, perhaps stroll a bit in the contradi near the Campo) Love Siena but Florence is the place to invest time. We usually stay in Oltrarno to be out of the worst of the crowds and either make reservations or get a Firenza Card to make line management of major museums easy.

I would also cut a day from the CT -- two nights is plenty and gives you the full day for the walk from Riomaggiore to Monterossa if the trail is passable.

Take the bus up to Fiesole from Firenze, very close by and a nice break for a morning or afternoon.

Thanks Zoe and Janet. I copied your advice to follow!

I simply ditto the advice about staying in Florence and day tripping to Siena. For me, 5 nights in Siena is too much. I could easily spend all that time in Florence though. Or, 3-4 nights Florence and 1-2 nights Siena.