After 2 days in Siena, we will be staying in a farmhouse in Tuscany.
With 3 days & a car, which towns are "MUST-VISITS"?
We are thinking of 2 per day. Would 3 be too much?
On the 3rd day, we were thinking of Civita & Orvieto before dropping the car of at Orvieto to take the train to Rome.
Any suggestions?
Hi, Jasmine: First off, you need to tell us where in Tuscany you will be staying. Given that you only have three days, you want to maximize your time in the towns and minimize your driving time. Second, I wouldn't try to visit as many towns as possible, check-list style, but try to truly experience each town...spend some time amongst the locals.
Your third day looks fine to me. On another day, I'd visit Pienza and Montepulciano...they're not very far apart and quite nice.
Depending upon where you're staying, you could do Cortona and Assisi in a day (although you'd be venturing outside of Tuscany proper).
Finally, Tuscany has so many charming tiny villages, such as San Quirico, Castlemuzio, and Monticiello, that you may want to just drive, take in the scenery, and stop and explore without a set itinerary.
In any case, have a great time!
Jasmine,
As Roy said, it would help to know the general area you'll be staying in Tuscany? IMHO visiting two towns in a day would be "pushing it" and while three may be possible, it wouldn't be something I'd enjoy. Just showing up in town and looking around for an hour or so before moving on to the next doesn't fit my travel style well. You'll have to consider driving times between towns also.
YES, visiting Orvieto and Civita would be a really good idea. The trip from Orvieto to Rome is only about an hour, so that's a perfect location to drop the car.
Happy travels!
Thanks to the both of you for helpful suggestions.
We'll be staying at Fattoria Tregole, not too far north of Siena.
What would you recommend for Day 1 & 2 based on that location?
Day 3, we'll start making our way down to Rome, stopping at Civita & Orvieto.
Where are you planning to visit while in Siena (or before Siena)? Florence, San Gimignano, Volterra? Since you're going to be north of Siena, those are prime candidates. Ordinarily, I would like the idea of Pienza / Montepulciano, but it would take you about an hour and a half to get to Pienza from where you're staying, and the return trip from Montepulciano would be close to 2 hrs.
Roy, thanks for the heads up. I did not realize that it would take that long to get back from Pienza / Montepulciano.
Do you know how long the drive from where we are staying to Civita is?
We will be spending some time in Florence, then Siena. Before leaving Siena, we will pick up a car to go to Fattoria Tregole.
Any recommendations on the top 4 hill towns to visit (e.g. Volterra, San Gimignano, etc, etc).
To retrieve 98 prior discussions on this forum of which are the best Tuscany hill towns, go here http://www.ricksteves.com/graffiti/helpline/index.cfm/rurl/topic/31950/bhow-to-search-helpline-for-prior-topicslatest-google-search-menub.htmland enter the search terms tuscany hill town in the top box.
Jasmine: Try punching in your start/stop points on http://www.viamichelin.com, then pad those times a little bit because they seem to be a little optimistic.
I hesitate to give you the travel time from where you're staying, but we stoppped in Orvieto on our way out of Rome and on the way to Pienza. It seemed like about half-way...about 1 1/2 hrs. from both Rome and Pienza.
