Staying in Tuscany- Florence vs Countryside

The choice is very simple in my book.

With a car >>> must stay outside of Florence, somewhere in the countryside or small town.
Without a car >>>>> must stay in Florence.

End of discussion with your husband.

I suppose Siena could also be a home base without a car. But for how many days and how many side trips are you hoping to include by bus or guided tours?

Working on getting my husband to take manual driving lessons (our main hang up with renting a car). After looking more closely at Sienna, that may be our choice for home base if we end up not getting a car.

@Laura - We will be in Tuscany for 3 days, and are think 1 tour that will give us a good overview of the region, and then a winery tour. We would love to squeeze in a cooking class if we could but isn't a must.

Thanks!

Three days are really a short time and visiting Florence alone will take a big chunk of that time.
Whether you stay in Florence or Siena, depends on which areas/towns of Tuscany you want to visit. However if your interest is the countryside areas and small villages, I would rent a car and stay outside of both cities (both Florence and Siena have severe traffic restrictions in the city centers). Learning to drive a manual transmission car is a good idea. However automatic transmission is also available in some larger models.

Why don't you learn to drive the manual and let your husband be the navigator? I am making my grandkids learn how to drive my car (a Kia that is a manual) because it is a big drawback not to be able to drive if you want to. Automatics are available, but sometimes they don't have them,and they often cost more, then you are stuck.... It really only takes a few hours practice to learn... it's that getting out of first that is a pain:) Worth the effort though to have the freedom of your own car.

Really, the only way to see and experience Tuscany is by car. Stick-shifts are easy to learn and driving them is a really fun experience

Siena is not a transport hub like Florence, and is on a secondary rail line, so I would not 'base' myself there.
I found myself in Greve without a car and its very limiting. If you had a week, then 3 nights in Florence, 2 in Siena and 2 in either Arezzo or Lucca. Alas you don't, so just stay put in Florence - one full day there and another to Siena. You can get a local SITA bus from the bus station near Firenze SMN along the scenic 222 road thru Chianti to Greve and Panzano.

I definitely plan on learning to drive stick as well. Ideally we would both learn so that we wouldn't be stuck if one us isn't able to drive. I think we have enough support from this forum to decide that we must rent a car to experience Tuscany the way we want to. Thanks all!

Next up...we have to figure out where to base ourselves :).

I would choose Chianti - along the 365 SITA bus route from Florence - Greve / Panzano / Radda / Giaole.
http://www.chianti.com/moving-around-chianti/tips-getting-around-chianti.html
This lets you forget the hassle of driving and parking in Florence.
One day you can head to San Gimignano (and Volterra).
Another day you can head to Siena (and Montalcino or Montepulciano),

We stayed in Montepulciano for a week and found it very central to many of the places we wanted to visit. If you get anywhere near there, we can highly recommend Cantine Medicee for a meal. Of all the meals we have eaten over several trips to Italy this is the place we talk about the most. Family run, local products from the family farm, wine, meats and cheeses on display downstairs and incredibly fresh, well-prepared food. It's located along the main road around Montepulciano.