Itinerary help for hill towns in central Italy..

These are all great towns. Haven't been to Cortona yet, but have done Orvieto and Assisi by public transportation, also Montepulciano and San Gimignano. (So many towns, so little time...)

Thanks Janet. Thought Cortona would be popular w/its "Under the Tuscan Sun" fame.. Did you sleep over in these towns?

We went to Sienna, Assisi, Orvieto, and Sorrento on our last trip to Rome. I loved them all. While public transportation is available, we decided to rent a car in Sienna and drove to San Gimignano for a half-day visit, then to Assisi (where we decided to stay a second night). We then drove to Civita de Bagnoragio for lunch and dropped the car off in Orvieto after our stay. Then back on the train for the remainder of the trip. The Italian countryside was easy to drive and the scenery from Assisi to Orvieto was quite dramatic. By renting the car, we didn't have to plan around bus and train schedules. We had some major train delays during our trip, so we were glad we weren't counting on trains for the hill towns. Plus, many trains don't go directly to the town - you may have to take a taxi or bus from the train to the hilltown.

Yes, we stayed over two nights in each town except Orvieto (one night - which wasn't enough!). This was in 2004: Camere Bellavista in Montepulciano; Carla Rossi's rooms in San Gimignano (in-town - Camera Blu in Arco di Goro; this is an apartment with two bedrooms, two baths, but the kitchen is only usable if you rent both rooms, which we did not - we really liked this accommodation, however); Hotel San Rufino in Assisi; and Valentina Zanchi's rooms in Orvieto. All of these lodgings are still in Rick's Italy 2008 book. The restaurant we'd most like to go back to (ate there both nights in Montepulciano) was Aquacheta.

We used Cortona as a base to see Orvieto, Montalcino, Montepulciano, Pienza, Siena, and San Gimigiano this May, but we had a rental car. A car really does give you some more flexibility in this area but I can also understand why many prefer to stick to the public transport accessible areas. I would suggest looking at how far some towns are from each other, Cortona (Camucia train station) to Orvieto is only a 1 hour train ride, and maybe do day trips instead of the time it seems to take to move from a hotel in one town to another hotel in another town, check out, check in, have one of them hold luggage, etc. It realy comes back to what you want to do and want to see.

Sounds like we will have to pick out a few towns and spoend a few night in each if we aren't going to rent a car.. Thanks, Steve

Steve, I have been planning a our trip for the last few months, and the majority of responses I have received indicated that it might be more enjoyable to pick a base for a longer period of time, and day-trip from there. We are staying close to Montepulciano, and are going to rent a car for a week to visit as many towns as possible. This will be our first extended stay in Tuscany, so the driveing will be a first for me, but everyone says it's easy if you avoid the larger towns. Hope e you have a great time. Jeff

Thank Jeff. Looks like Orvieto has rentals. If I may ask where are you picking your car up? Steve

We will be coming from CT, so I rented our car in La Spezia, and will be dropping it of in Chiusi and catching a train from there to Venice. Jeff

My wife and I spent a week in Tuscany/Umbria this past June. We chose to use Cortona as a base. We then rented a car and drove to several hill towns. A couple of ideas:

1. Car rental: depends from where you are coming and going, and where you will be lodging. For us we were coming from and going back to Rome. Two towns, Orvieto and Chiusi, are on the main train line. Since we were staying in Cortona, we chose Chiusi since it was a 45 minute drive. However, there are several possibilities.
2. GPS: It was sooooo easy using one of these. It is VERY easy to get lost driving in and around the hill towns.
3. You might think about staying a minimum of 3 nights in 2 towns...or the whole time in one place. Have not been to Orvieto, like many others. However, we loved our time in Cortona. Also, would go back to Assisi in a heartbeat!

Just remember...always act like you will go back. Next time my wife and I will get to the CT, Pisa, Lucca, more of Florence, and places farther north.

Enjoy!

Thanks for the advice! Steve

I've heard Pisa is overrated. The only thing to see there is the tower. I would do Cortona, Orvieto, and maybe Siena since they are "relatively" close to one another. Assissi might be very good as well!