I am planning to go to Italy, in May for 17 nights, we will arive in Rome, stay for 3 nights and leave from venice where we will spend 2 nights. In between we have 12 days, with 1-2 of those nights spent in Parma visiting familly. We would like to spend time in Cinque Terre Siena, San Gimignano, Lucca, Pizza, Montepulciano, Montalcina, Cortona, Orvieto, Civita and Florence. Can anyone recomend maybe 2-3 locations that could be a home base for cruising the countryside? Should we rent a car leaving Rome or take the train? We like art, love wine and food!
Posted by
Seattle, WA, USA
7737 posts
"San Gimignano, Lucca, Pizza, "
Pizza. Your Freudian slip is showing. I can see that you really do love food. (^_^)
Lucca should be a good town to use as one of your bases.
Posted by
OP
OLD WESTBURY, NY, usa
77 posts
wow!!!! I cant believe I did that!!! My husband is laughing at me!! So do you think we day trip all those little towns if we base from Lucca?
Posted by
Wilmington, DE, USA
712 posts
Friends spent a week in Lucca 2 summers ago. Their sister who lives in Engalnd made the arrangement. Their original plan was to stay in Florence, but could not find a weekly rental in their budget. They just raved about Lucca and did many day trips out of there including 2 trips to Cinque Terra. I have not done that so could not advise you, but they loved basing themselves in the walled town of Lucca. My husband and I went to Italy in Sept and did Rome 4 night, Cinque Terra 3 night and then Venice. On another trip in the future we would like to rent a Tucan villa for a week and see that area. As for a car, take the train and if you are in Tuscany you could then rent a car from there. Driving in Rome would seem too crazy. I loved our Roman Taxi driver that was watching TV as he he was driving us from the Trevi Fountain area back to our hotel. Maybe he was only really watching TV at the red lights (at least I hope so). I loved him going across 3 lanes of traffic to make a left turn.
Posted by
Portlandia
3313 posts
The towns at the southern end of your itinerary will be long day trips from Lucca. With a car, I'd try to find an agriturismo somewhere outside of Siena. Most have free parking and easy access to the major roads. Getting in and out of larger towns - even Lucca - can take half an hour just to negotiate the suburbs and get to and from parking.
Posted by
Seattle, WA, USA
7737 posts
I'm a big fan of Google Earth for these sorts of things, to see what's where. It's a lot more fun than a paper map. You can choose to have the highways displayed as well, to see how the towns and cities are linked. I don't think the Cinque Terre lend themselves to being either daytrips or home bases, but they merit two nights of their own, preferably after a big city.
Lucca would be a good base for trips into Pisa and Florence by train. But if you're an art lover, you might want to do 2 or 3 nights in Florence. (Florence claims to have something like 1/4 of the entire world's art treasures.) Most of your other ones are farther south (as pointed out elsewhere) and I agree that an agriturismo in Tuscany (in the Cortona area) with a rental car might be the way to go with those. There are scores of them.
Posted by
Hendersonvlle, NC
486 posts
If you are looking at a weekly rental in Florence, check out http://rentalsflorence.com/index.htm. I used them based on the recommendation of "Paula Frommer's Italy" and was very pleased. That first apartment on the web page was where we stayed and, yes, it is right by the Duomo. We got a better rate in October so Gabrella may bargai. We payed €790+cleaning for 8 days. Had 2BR, 1 BA, washing machine (saves €€€), kitchen (saves more €€€) and LR so you can relax, as well as a patio.
Florence is pretty central. We took bus to Siena and train to Pizza (uh Pisa) on day trips. Unlike smaller towns, Florence has lots going on at all hours and there were hundreds of people around the Duomo even late at night yet it was quiet.
PM me if you have any questions.
And, no, I have no relationship with them other than we stayed there.
AND GET CELL PHONES WITH ITALIAN NUMBERS for use there. Worked great for us all!
Posted by
Collierville, Tennessee, USA
516 posts
I love Cortona. By car Montepulciano and Montalcino, in one day, and Orvieto and Civita, in one day, are good day trips. So is Siena. I have been to San Gimignano as a stop on the way from Florence to Cortona, so I think it is doable as a day trip as well and can probably be seen with Siena as a day trip. Florence is a great day trip by train from Cortona. I have not been to the other places you want to visit but I think they are a bit far from Cortona, even though in March of this year friends who were in Cortona with us made the trip to Pisa by train and spent time in Florence that day as well. Cortona is a great place to visit all by itself. We have rented from classictuscanhomes.com, La Certosa and Pancrazi and have been pleased with both. In March I stayed at a B&B in Venice, Domus Orsoni. It was really nice and only 60 euro per person per night. They have a website.