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Tuscany farm stay home base

Posted by on

I'm planning a May trip to Italy. The middle part will be a 7-night farm stay in Tuscany with a car. I found a farm stay near Colle di Val d'Elsa and another one near Pienza. Is it a good idea to split our 7 nights between these two (one for Siena and north, and the other for south Tuscany), or should we just stay at one of them the entire time. We plan to visit Siena, San Gimignano, Volterra, Pienza and surrounding area, Montepulciano, some Chianti towns, and probably Assisi and Cortona. We will have already been to Florence, Orvieto, and Civita di Bagnoregio by then, so they are not part of the 7-night plan. We will get the rental car from Florence and return it to Florence too.

If you have any suggestion of other towns/areas as a home base, I'd like to hear your advice too. Thank you.

Posted by
2023 posts

We based near Montalcino and visited every town on your list with the exception of Assisi which we had visited on a previous trip. You could add San Quirico to your travel plan and Radda and Greve are wonderful little Chianti towns. Another nice town is Castelina which was not far from Assisi. We stayed at Agriturismo La Crociana just outside of Montalcino for six nights. Our accommodation was actually a small apartment and we loved it--and the price. Also in this area is S'Antimo Abbey which should not be missed. I should add that our trip was also in May and we found that to be a perfect time to enjoy Tuscany--poppies were blooming everywhere.

Posted by
15165 posts

I wouldn't split anything. Colle and Pienza are just 1 hour apart.

Colle Val D'Elsa is logistically the best location for your intended itinerary. You have immediate access to the Florence-Siena freeway and also to the highway to San Gimignano-Certaldo, to the highway to Volterra, to the highway to Castellina (in the Chianti). You are also next to the fortified village of Monteriggioni, a village totally walled even mentioned in Dante's Inferno, which is a must.

Colle is at the crossroads of all of those roads and all of the above towns are within 15-30 min from Colle.

As far as Assisi and Cortona are concerned, Pienza is closer to those in terms of kilometers, but you have to drive through some winding curves to get down to the freeway, so you won't save much time compared to departing from Colle, maybe just 15-20 minutes longer.

Pienza is next to Montepulciano, but both can be visited from Colle in an easy day trip as you are only 1 - 1.5 hours drive away from either.

Posted by
38 posts

Thank you very much for your suggestions, Susan, Henry and Roberto! I have learned a lot from you guys.

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