ITINERARY in Italy--Tuscany or Umbria?

Susie,

One possibility might be to stop at Orvieto (Umbria) on the way to Siena for one or two nights. It's a wonderful town with a very interesting history (be sure to visit St. Patrick's Well!). If you have time, you might also enjoy a visit to one of Rick's favourite hill towns, Civita di Bagnoregio.

If you have the time and haven't been there before, I would definitely recommend a stop in Florence (two nights would be good). Although your teenagers probably won't have the attention span for a lot of Museums, short visits to the Uffizi and Accademia would be a good idea. You'd probably enjoy a visit to the famous Ponte Vecchio (bring money!) and if time a short look at Fiesole (one of the Red Bus tours goes there). There are a LOT of things to see in Florence!

Happy travels!

I agree with Ken, I think that you'd all enjoy Orvieto. It's easy to get to, beautiful, striking, and youthful. We love the charming,perfect location & great value Magnolia Inn (see RS). If your teens haven't seen or can't remember Florence one day would be better than missing it all together. When they study history & art in school it makes a nice base for their studies- bringing it alive. Although we've been to Rome with our teen when she was younger she really enjoyed our fast pass there this summer and it was fun to share it with her.

Thanks, Ken and Karen--I'll look into Orvieto. We'll see how long and when we're in Siena. We can be there for the Palio, but only if we can sit on a balcony, and it's REALLY expensive. So just might have more time for Florence after all.

Susie

Train to Orvieto and stay night,pick up car and work way north stopping in different towns and staying in as many as you have time for.Assissi,Montalcino,Pienza,Montalpalcino to mention a few are great.

We really liked Orvieto. It had more to offer than most hill towns, cathedral, underground tunnels dating back to etruscans, cliffs rather than a hill. It's a little bigger and may not be as quiet as some more out of the way places (if you can find an out of the way place).

We also liked San Gimignano, very medieval, but I'm not sure I'd want to visit in the high season.

Skip Florence? Are you crazy? You should spend at least one night in Florence to climb to the top of the Duomo or tower, see the museums, shop in the market, see the David, walk over Ponte Vecchio. There is so much history, so much to see!

Tell your husband that the 3 of you need to see Florence and he can suffer through a day or two. In my mind Florence has so much more to offer than Venice, and a trip to Italy is not complete without seeing Florence! If nothing else, take the train or bus to Florence for a day trip from Siena, you can do quite a bit in one day, Florence is very walkable!

Smaller hilltop towns are wonderful, I'd almost suggest that you don't plan to "visit" but just drive and see where you end up. You could discover something totally off the Rick Steves path and find a true gem.

Florence is the one place in the world I would not skip.

It's not crazy to skip Florence - there's no rule that you MUST visit the "big 3" all in one trip (Rome, Florence, Venice). In fact, you may get more enjoyment if you don't try to cram all that culture into one trip. (Our first trip to Italy, we visited Florence and Venice (and Tuscany and the Lakes), but not Rome. The second trip, we visited Florence, Tuscany and Rome, but not Venice. You get the idea - and we LOVE art/culture.)

So, it depends on the interests of you and your family. If you ALL really enjoy the culture and museums and churches (and art in churches), then include Florence. If you think your kids (and adults) will have had enough of museums, etc. from your time in Rome and Venice, then it's reasonable to skip them.

Also, make sure your kids will enjoy the hilltowns. We (DH and I) love them, but I'm not sure that kids would enjoy them as much. Consider what you'd do in Bevagna, Orvieto, Siena, or whatever. If you do spend time in Umbria, Bevagna is cute, as are Montefalco and Spello. Gubbio is also a nice little town, but more out of the way. And Assisi is very beautiful, and definitely worth the time if you're in that area.

Enjoy!

We "skipped" Florence kind of. We treated it more as a day trip on our way to Siena. We took the train in, spent the day at the major sites; The Duomo and seeing David. Hopped a bus to Siena and then after Siena - we came back to Florence and saw the Meddici Chapels. Worked perfect for us. The only regret so to speak is that we didn't see the Uffuzi. I didn't know our exact arrival and departure times in Florence so I couldn't make a reservations and the line was posted as a 4 hour wait. But I was kind of Museumed out after Rome, so it was okay. Plus it gives me a very good reason to go back. But I would not feel like I had to sacrifice Siena just to see Florence. Both are great and we loved Siena and are very happy we did it the way that we did.

At the risk of sounding redundant - Orvieto for certain. Was there over the weekend and had a fabulous time. Took the bus over to Civita de Bagnoregio as well - both wonderful cities to visit and photograph.

You all have been so helpful--thanks to each of you.

Maybe I didn't mention this, but my husband and I have been to Florence and Siena--we adored Siena, but by the time we got to Florence we had lost the stamina to take on another major city. By then we had travelled all over Europe for 9 weeks. That was 17 years ago, the last time we were in Europe.

I think refraining from going to all of the major cities is a really good idea.

So I'm skipping Florence in favor of Siena. We could also stop in Florence on the way to venice, but we'll decide that when we're there.

After all of your comments, how can we not stop in Orvieto! Has anyone been there in the summer? Is it horribly crowded? I remember the bigger hill towns as being as CROWDED as a New York subway at 8 AM. I think it was Urbino that was the worst.

I'm stuck on the idea of being in the Umbrian hilltowns near Bevagna, but it may be too difficult to manage Umbria, Siena and then Venice on public transportation. Though we will have a car in Tuscany.

Fodor's said that it's easy to travel up and down the hilltowns on the major highways, but it's much more of a challenge to cut across east-west across the towns. Anyone experienced that?

Finally, being in Siena for the Palio's dress rehearsal is a fabulous idea. Did they run through at about 7:45 pm like in the real thing? I can find that out, I'm sure.

Where were you when you were higher up to see it all?

S.