Italy in Sept-

Sorry
I will try again...
Arrive in Venice-stay two nights;
Train to Seina-stay two nights in Seina with day trip to Florence;
Car to Tuscany-stay 7 nights;
Train to CT-stay 2 nights;
Train to Rome-stay 3 nights-Depart from Rome

DIANNA,
See http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/tuscany/hs_planning.htm for ideas where to base in Tuscany.

My husband and I stayed in Orvieto for 5 nights when we had a car. Next time we would stay in one town 3 nights then go to another town for two or 3 nights to tour more of the Tuscany/Umbira areas. The hilltowns are far apart. We took the autostada to get to them. We threw out many of the hilltowns we wanted to visit because of the distance. The map is very deceiving. We did Rome, Venice,Florence, CT, Tuscany w/car basing out of Orvieto, Rome. I would add a day to Venice and a day for Tuscany/Umbria and skip Cinque Terre. Look for B&B's that really serve a breakfast at no extra charge. I'd stay in Florence with a day trip to Siena if you can't spend the night in Siena.

Kent and Miss B
thank you so much,,,this is the advice I needed.
I will change the itinerary to the suggested #4-
which brings more questions...
which two towns in Tuscany/Umbria area to use as base-what is the best source for figuring out distances between towns which I am assuming will help me figure out which towns to base in?
If it rains while in CT-what else is there to do?
Is Sept a good time to visit CT or should I skip?
Is the best location to rent a car in my first Tuscany town or should I rent a car in CT and drive from CT?
Your advice is much apprecitated..

Get on ABCTuscany.com to see what towns you may want to visit. You can then figure out what town to use as a base. I had a long list of hilltowns to visit out of Orvieto. We dropped most of them because of the driving time even on the autostrado. IF you still go to CT, you can rent a car in LaSpezia then head to the hilltowns. Our schedule was too spread apart so missed towns around Siena. We had a hard rain in CT but walked the town and stood under the eves to eat our sandwich. The trails are usually closed if it is raining. I'd skip CT and concentrate on Tuscany/Umbria towns. We would cut out time in Orvieto to 3 nights then find another hilltown to use as a base. Driving into Siena was okay, well at the base of Siena and took 4 levels of escalators up to the town - IN THE RAIN!! Not fun but we only went to the church.

Kent, For a homebase, it all depends on what other hilltowns you want to visit as to where you choose to base. We used Orvieto as a base which had a lot to offer but we would cut it down to 3 nights and move on to another area for two or 3 nights.
We found the agriturismo was too far away from the towns we wanted to visit and just outside Siena, we did NOT find a place to eat for dinner other than the very expensive hotel in the area. We finally found a COOP, bought our food then went back to the agriturismo. I'd stay in Siena just to have the night ambiance if you were going to visit there anyway.