Recommend base location for 4 day Tuscany / Umbria trip

Peter,
Take a look at http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/tuscany/hs_planning.htm

I'm assuming you'll have a car. If you want to make day trips in as far flung an area as Tuscany and Umbria, I'd suggest an agriturismo somewhere south of Siena. From such a location you could get to Assissi and Gubbio in Umbria and Montalcino, San G, etc. in Tuscany. SlowTrav is a good resource.

To make day trips the only two practical bases are Florence and Milan. Using trains and buses will be best.

I would not recommend renting an auto. Although I have driven the area twice.

However, if I were choosing a base, I would prefer a small town in the region, but only if I have a car.

Rooms will be cheaper and driving and parking will be easier for you.

I would study the map and research the towns by googling.

Milan is actually a considerable distance from Tuscany and Umbria - quite impractical for day trips. Florence is on the north side of Tuscany and some distance from Umbria. But I agree with Carl that it is a decent base if you are limited to traveling by train.

Traveling by car is much easier in Tuscany and Umbria for all but the largest of towns.

thanks for replies thus far. I will have a rental car so i have more flexibility.

We've stayed at a great agriturismo outside Orvieto... Locanda Rosati . www.locandarosati.it It is perfect for home base.

We are visiting in May and chose Montepulciano as our base. After doing lots of research it seemed to be a central location for the area. We are staying at the Politian apartments www.politian.com. We wanted to stay in town at a place with some local character.

Peter-
We used Cortona as a home base and loved it. We rented a car in the town of Cortona-Terontola (we arrived via train from Rome- you can check the trenitalia website for lines that stop here) from a small place called Il Girasole. It was v. good service, no problems, and we got GPS for 10 dollars US a day. The rental car pick-up is about 2 blocks from the station. It's a short drive to the hill town of Cortona. You don't drive you car in the town- you leave it in the free parking area just below it. We stayed at the hotel San Luca which is recommended by Rick Steves and loved it.
This was our first time renting a car in Italy and we loved it! I wouldn't do it in the major cities but for this area it's great. We had zero difficulties especially using GPS!
Good Luck!

Peter--

We used Italian Vacation Villas. (http://www.villasitalia.com) They are an U.S. company. Martin was very helpful. Our villa was exactly as described and I felt very comfortable sending money to a U.S. company. We stayed in Radda in Chianti. We loved the location. We were close enought to make day trips to Pisa, Volterra, Siena, Florence and Pienza but still experienced the small town charm of Radda.

Charla

One thing to consider is what to do with a car when you visit Florence. My husband has stated that he would never, ever drive in that city again, even if it was an emergency. I recommend you take his advice. If you stay closer to Florence, it would be easy to take a bus in for the day. We stayed in Greve-In-Chianti (near Rodda-in Chiant previously mentioned) and there are other small villages that would work as well. From Greve, there is a bus that takes about an hour to get to Florence and drops you right at the train station area. The down side is that it is not as centrally located as some of the other places mentions (Cortona, etc.), and it is a little far to day trip to Orvieto and other Umbria villages. I'm not sure where you are traveling from to get to Tuscany,but if it is Rome, you could see those cities on your way up. Another option is to drive to a small town near Florence, park your car and take a bus from there. (I know Greve had free parking, but there were other villages closer to Florence that may work out better.)

Re driving a rental car into Florence, of those travelers posting here who have driven into the Florence city center, the voting is about 100 to 1 to not do it again (I'm one of those). Actually, it might be 100 to zero--in a couple of years on this board, I can't remember anyone who had done it and said they would drive into the Florence city center again.

We used Orvieto as our home base and stayed at Palazzo del Cardinale. They had a spacious apt. with kitchen facilities and a view that would take your breath away. It cost us 80E a night and we wouldnt hesitate to stay there again. Here's their link at tripadvisor.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g194843-d305259-Reviews-Bed_Breakfast_Palazzo_del_Cardinale-Orvieto_Umbria.html

We stayed outside of Florence and then took the train in. DO NOT drive into the city of Florence! Check out this place www.agriturismosavernano.com. Unbelievable place. We loved it. Check out the reviews on tripadvisor.com. You can't go wrong with this place. Any other questions email me directly.

We stayed in this lovely B&B in Monticanni.
http://www.la-tartaruga.com/bed-and-breakfast/tuscany/welcome.htm
From there we did day trips by car to Pisa, Siena, Lucca and Volterra.
Sylvie also made our reservations for the Academia and the Uffizi.
Great breakfasts, wonderful room with bath and great recommendations for interesting places to dine and visit.