One week trip Italy- large group

I think you just described Florence.

Sam, except for the noise part.

ss2,

It does sound like Florence would be a good place to start, as it doesn't get much more "similar to Tuscany" than that (Florence is the capital of Tuscany). You could perhaps stay in a nearby Agriturismo, although finding one to accommodate a group of 15 might be a challenge. There will be wineries in that area but unfortunately no nearby beaches that I know of (I'm not sure that beach weather would be all that good in April anyway). There are lots of day trips possible from Florence.

If you want beaches (even for "sunning") you could also look at Liguria which is easily reachable from Milan / MXP. That will have great beaches, but may not have some of the other things you're looking for.

There are lots of rental villas around Tuscany, but you might want to try the opposite approach of searching by size and price first, for instance at VRBO.com, before narrowing down which location looks most convenient.

Laura's approach is how I would conduct such a search. Find a property that works and see how many of your needs it meets. One area that might work if you can find the right property, is Assisi, but no beach.

Laurel, Assisi and 15 partiers who want to make some noise? Just saying. Best would be to rent an entire property so other guests don't feel, umm, left out.

Hi Zoe. I kind of thought they'd rent a whole house.... I just think Umbria has a lot of big houses and offers a nice alternative people don't think of.

Most of my trips to Italy (and elsewhere in Europe) have been with large groups where we rented a house with a pool and then drove around to the various places we wanted to visit. We were 2 - 5 families with kids rather than a group of girlfriends, but some of my observations may be helpful. It can be a nice mix of relaxing and sightseeing, as long as you are not too ambitious about what you see, and don't mind driving. In my experience, large private house is not compatible with walk to a village for restaurants or basic groceries. The bigger places are in the country, at least in Tuscany and Umbria. I've stayed at properties where you can bike to a restaurant, but wouldn't recommend this after dark or after drinking (wouldn't recommend driving after drinking either, of course). We generally structured our days to sightsee in the morning, eat a nice lunch out and return late afternoon. Dinner would be something simple we prepared ourselves or even bread and cheeses and meats we picked up in a market.

Italy is certainly warmer than my part of the US, but I wouldn't count on beach weather in early May north of Rome, so I expect the Amalfi coast would be the better choice. I would go on VRBO or HomeAway and search in Campagnia, Italy, limit to 6+ bedrooms and sleeps > 10, and see what you come up with. Many of these rentals offer a market trip and cooking lesson with the caretaker, which we've always really enjoyed as a group activity, and you can often arrange to rent bicycles to be delivered to the house.

Good luck

With a group of that size just the planning could be a nightmare and the 'planner' could be blamed if anything goes wrong.... :) With that size of a group you could actually have a private tour through GoAhead Tours where all the details and logistics are handled by the company. How would you plan to travel about? I am sure you would want to do some activities. You can take a look and see if they might be able to facilitate your group. At one time they had a tour that included a lot of time at spas, etc. and small villages and sounded perfect for a bunch of girlfriends...
However you do it... sounds like a fabulous time!