Suggestions for a "home base" scenic town with lots of rail service?

Where have you been in Italy before this trip ? Orvieto ? Would your "southern" town be a Lucca or Bologna (which are on the train routes) or would you like to start further south ?

Rick's books and this website have his train route mapped out. That would be a great starting point for discussion.

For south, Naples or below. However, a second town "further north" could be anything, so we will look at Lucca and Bologna.

We spent a few weeks traveling through Genoa, Cinque Terre, Florence, Oriveto, Rome and surrounding area in 2015. Glad to have seen the sights in the big cities, but not what we want for a home base.

Thanks!

Bologna is a fair-sized city but it has everything in terms of transportation, great food, markets; but no view.

For a southern base, I think Salerno would be a good fit; also not a small town but very good train, bus and ferry connections. You can have harbor and coastal views. I would stay in Napoli but that will not be particularly relaxing.

If you are interested in staying further north, Vicenza or Verona might be worth looking into.

Another thought: Pesaro on the Adriatic Coast.

I suggest Modena. Small beautiful city on a main line and next to Bologna, one of Italy's most connected cities. Also near Parma for trains to Liguria. Look at this map for other ideas: https://www.italiarail.com/italy-rail-map

Thanks! These are exactly the sort of suggestions we were hoping for! Mike, thanks for the train map link. I tried Trentalia but they did not have one on their site.

Bologna is bigger than you want, but look at the many other places nearby. I'd start with Ferrara, which is wonderful and not touristed (and close enough to Padova or Bologna for a daytrip). Everyone bicycles all over town - you could be in Amsterdam or Copenhagen instead of Italy! Also check out Parma and Modena.

For the Veneto, look at staying in Padova. It's smaller and far less touristed than Verona, but allows you to go easily to Verona, Vicenza, and Venice, and with slightly longer trips (some involving connections) to many other places in the northeast corner of Italy.

"Scenic" is in the eyes of the beholder, so look at photos of these places online to see if they meet your needs. If scenic is a high priority, look at the towns in the Dolomites; these would require buses to supplement the trains. Bressannone is small enough for you, and from there you can get to Bolzano and Ortisei.

I was also going to suggest Verona for your northern base. It's not a small town but has a scenic medieval old town area and good transportation options - easy for 1-2 day trips to Padua, Venice, Bologna, Milan, Ravenna, Ferrara, Lake Garda, etc. It sounds like you have not visited that area of Italy so might be a good choice.

Siena. Train or bus for day trips.

You say, " Scenic is a must: hilltop location, ocean view, or the like. "
It's really difficult to be in a scenic location if you're depending on trains and even buses for transportation. Tuscany and Central Italy just doesn't have trains going to every worthwhile tourist sight.
With an automobile, you can cover 3x or 4x as much territory. Even staying on an agriturisimo is just extremely difficult without wheels under you. Roads are well paved and easy to navigate for the most part.

In general terms, I would suggest Siena or Vicenza. If you want a nice lake view, you might want to consider something like Stresa (Lake Maggiore) or similar with good access to train connections through Milan.

I'd also recommend checking out your day trip destination ideas for train travel times on rome2rio.com. Places that are farther away geographically may actually take less time to reach since some of the trains run much faster. This could help decide exactly where you want to stay for your base location.

Salerno is not exactly scenic in the sense of a picturesque hilltown but it's a little city that is situated perfectly as a home base, with a great transportation hub, a charming Old Town, wonderful restaurants and shops, and not touristed-up, at least not yet. In fact, I would say that its lungomare ped walkway bordering the Tyrrhenian Sea is quite beautiful, and yes, scenic. For destinations within southern Italy that you have not visited--Matera, Naples, the Amalfi Coast, Paestum, Pompeii, Ercolano--this is your place.

And, as stated above, to the north, Bologna might be your spot. I've never been there, but it would seem to serve the same purpose as Salerno to the south.

Enjoy your planning!

I suggest Orvieto, Siena, Lucca in the north (in no particular order) and Sorrento in the south.

I think the above suggestions are all good, but I'm doubtful about Bologna for you because of its size, though I very much enjoyed the city itself and used it as a base for day-trips in 2015. It really sounds as if you are looking for a place that is or at least feels smaller than Bologna. Of course, once you are settled in the historic district, you don't realize you're in such a large city.

If you place a premium on small, Vicenza might be better than Padua (though, again, I used the latter and liked it).

If you enjoy walks in the mountains (which can be quite flat), the Alto Adige/Sud Tirol is worth checking out. I'd consider Bolzano in addition to Bressanone even though Bolzano is quite a bit larger. The historic district in Bolzano is closer to the train station and bus stop, and Bolzano has several worthwhile museums. Both those cities have good bus service up into the Dolomites (with onward access by mountain lifts) as well as train service to neighboring towns and south to Verona. If you are planning a summer trip, be aware that many lodgings in this area do not have air conditioning, which you are quite likely to need, since both Bressanone and Bolzano are down in the valley, not at altitude. Assuming a willingness to hop on a bus to get higher up, this is a very good area to visit in high summer, since if a heat wave hits, the mountains are about the only place to get away from it.

One out-of-the-way possibility is Lecce in Puglia. It's a beautiful Baroque city, not terribly large but certainly larger than Orvieto. There's not a lot of train service down there, but in 2015 the tourist office was organizing van trips to surrounding small towns. The schedule depended on where visitors wanted to go and when, but it would work for someone spending a good bit of time in the area. The cost was 55 euros for a full day of being delivered to 4 or more small towns and dropped off near the key tourist points. One of the trips went as far as Matera in Basilicata. There are also public buses running out of Lecce, which would work when you were willing to go to just one (or possibly two) small towns per day. Puglia, however, positively bakes in the summer.

All of this information, all of these suggestions are wonderful! We are even thinking about moving a bit more frequently than first planned (we thought 3 weeks each in two places) and spending a week each in more towns. Thanks to everyone for sharing their experiences. RS Forum participants ROCK!

I think one week each would be great for most bases. Otherwise, you may be going back and forth over the same train tracks pretty often.