My husband and I are planning a two week trip to Italy in April of next year. We are allotting one week to Tuscany and Florence and would like some recommendations from this group. Some of the things we are currently considering ... How many nights to stay in Florence vs Tuscany? For the Tuscany portion, should we stay in one town and day trip from that home base, or split our stay between two towns/regions? What towns/regions to visit in Tuscany and where to stay overnight? Hotels/agriturismos/BnBs to consider? We're also open to recommendations on private guides and tours, as well as any unique experiences.
As background, this will be our first visit to this part of Italy. We've been to Rome already, and the first week of our trip will be to Venice and Cinque Terre. We expect to fly home from Florence, so we are currently planning our trip as follows: Venice -> CT -> Tuscany -> Florence. We're assuming that traveling by car makes the most sense for this leg of the trip, so we'll likely rent a car in either CT or Tuscany. We enjoy cooking, red wine and photography, and want a good mix of seeing the "must sees" and going off the beaten path. For lodging, we like the idea of being able to walk to restaurants and wine bars, so for Tuscany we're leaning more towards staying in town, but we're open to the idea of staying at an agriturismo. Budget wise, we don't have unlimited funds, but also don't mind spending the extra money (where it makes sense) on a trip like this.
We are just in the planning stages so we are starting with a clean slate. All tips and suggestions welcome!