When your tour gets cancelled

Don't think of it as bad luck---see it as an opportunity to learn to travel on your own.

I believe the closest major airport in the Tuscany region is Pisa if you want to concentrate on that area.

I can't suggest a specific farmhouse (we wanted to stay inside the walls of Lucca), but vacation rentals are very easy to find inin Italy. You might start by reading some reviews on SlowTrav:

http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/vr/reviews.asp

I found our Lucca rental on this website:

http://www.knowital.com/tuscany/accommodation/

Or you might start with this Agriturismo, which a close friend of mine highly recommends:

http://www.tuscany.net/agriturismo-molinuzzo/

Since you had originally booked a tour, and since your planned departure date is only two months away, you may want to consider finding a good travel agent in your area who specializes in Italy. They should be able to offer you other packages that would fit your needs, and take the pressure off you to work out every last detail on your own in a relatively short period of time.

Hi Patti,

Don't fear! Change of plans are always the best part about vacation, especially in Italy. :)

I would encourage you to check out the Graffiti Wall and look at the Italian Agriturismo section. Book at one of the locations for a week. (You can fly into Rome or Florence.) Then you can day trip from the agriturismo. You will note that many of the agriturismos assist guests with plans, directions, reservations, etc once you are there. They really are so hospitable.
Ideas:
Visit Florence (museums)
Visit Seina
Wine tours in Chianti and/or Brunello region.
Cooking class.
Get lost.:0

For this option you will want to rent a car.

patti,

I tend to agree with Norm's suggestion. A few other thoughts to consider.

While Pisa or Florence tend to be the closest airports to Tuscany, in my experience airlines only offer flights to these smaller airports in "peak" season (ie: June-Sept. or thereabouts). You may have trouble finding flights to the smaller airports in early March.

My suggestion would be to check for flights into either Milan / MXP or Rome / FCO, as there will probably be far more flights available and the cost may be better. You may wish to speak with a Travel Agent about this as time is so short (let the Travel Agent do the "legwork"; it would be worth the fee IMO).

Have a look at either the Italy 2010 or the Florence & Tuscany 2010 Guidebooks, as they will contain lots of information on lodging suggestions, restaurants, Museum and Gallery opening and closing times and most importantly transportation access to the various towns. There are also Agriturismo listings.

You didn't indicate the duration of your trip in Italy, but you might also have a look at Rick's 9-day Heart of Italy tour, as it appears to still have openings for the Mar. 20 departure.

Good luck and happy travels!

Look into Untours.

They will give you lots of help with accomodation (apartments/farmhouses in both Tuscany and Umbria as well as other areas of Italy), transportation(usually a rental car) and a local representative to help. They can even help you with airfare to Italy.

Their motto is "Independent Travel with help."

You could fly into Florence or Rome and then take a train to the city where you're staying. Even Milan would work; its easy to get around Italy by train. With over 2 months you have enough time to plan a trip; what you need to do NOW is nail down the flight and accomodations, you'll have enough time between now and March to figure out what towns to visit and sights to see. If you stay in a farmhouse you'll need a car, so book that too (and bring a portable GPS). I would suggest getting Rick's book "Europe thru the Back Door" as a good introduction to traveling independently, and his book on Tuscany will cover the region. Get a map of Tuscany now so you can get a sense of distances as you read chapters on places you can visit. Also your local library probably has DVD's of Ricks travel shows; you might want to view the episodes covering the Tuscany & Umbria region (they adjoin each other, when people say "Tuscany" they're often thinking about about both regions).

I can suggest a fantastic agriturismo (farmhouse) near Siena. It's called Agrit. Marciano. Their web-site is www.agriturismomarciano.it

It's very clean and comfortable and it's a working organic vineyard & olive grove. The dinners that they offer are exceptional & the 2 dinners we had there were the best of our entire trip! The hospitality can't be better & the rates were very reasonable considering what a superb experience we had. My husband & I are still talking about that place! You can also check out the reviews on Trip Advisor. I'm assuming that you'll have a rental car. The farmhouse is located only 10 minutes from Siena's walls by car. The agriturismo was a perfect base to explore other Tuscan hill towns.

Have a great trip!

Frank II made a great suggestion with Untours. Also, have you considered doing the itinerary on your original tour?

Yes, definitely look into Untours. A former coworker and some of her friends did a vacation in Italy using Untours not too long ago and they really loved it. Just got an e-mail from Autoeurope offering specials on car rentals in Italy, so look into that too. You'll need a car if doing a farmhouse stay.