Italy in August

I forgot to mention that we would like to rent a car. We want to get to know an area, but don't want to over-do it by trying to squeeze too many "must see's" into 5 days.

Rome is a strange and very hot place in August. The Italians leave, which makes for a more tranquil city, but many services and restaurants outside the main tourist area are closed. And it is HOT! Other places (small towns in Tuscany for example) will also have some closures, especially the week around Ferragosto the big Italian holiday. With only 5 mights, I would stay in one place. Maybe Sienna, which will have decent tourist services, may be a little cooler than Rome, and you can drive to all sorts of beautiful places from Sienna, seeing views that never close.

Spending 5 days in Rome and having a rental car are mutually exclusive! If you want to stay in Rome, forget the car. If you want the car, spend the days traveling around Tuscany. Solely because of the heat, I would vote for Tuscany.

Thanks for the suggestions. Yes, if we were to make our base Rome or some other large city, we would not have a car. We were only going to get one if we did smaller towns. Sounds like the latter may be the way to go. So which area would you all suggest? Any Ideas for a base city and then tips for day trips? Which airport should we fly in and out of? I know August isn't ideal to travel to Italy, but it would be during the first week of the month, so hopefully those smaller towns would still be happening.

Your best bet to fly home direct is through Rome on Atalia. Otherwise, you'll have to go through Paris or Frankfort or some other gateway city back to the U.S. I would suggest getting accommodations in Florence for a couple of days, and then renting a car as you leave the city. Florence is too important of a city in art, architecture and history to miss. Then move to an agriturismo or small hotel 20-30 miles south of the city (in Chianti) for a couple of days doing day trips to San Gimgnano and Volterra. Montalcino is where the incredible Brunello wines come from. Then take a leisurely drive down to the hill top town of Orvieto where the rental car can be turned into at the Hertz office (across the street from the train station.) We loved Orvieto. The Rome train station is 70 minutes away, and you can change over to the Leonardo Express that goes to FCO airport hourly. FCO is not the most efficient airport, and I would suggest a later morning flightas close to noon as possible. 6:00 a.m. flights don't cut it there.
If you're into food and wine, Tuscany (and other areas of Italy) are hard to beat.

I second that Rome is MISERABLY hot in August. It is also loaded with sweaty people. We were n Italy two years ago in July. Never again in July or August.