Planning a 14 day June trip to Italy for our 25th wedding anniversary. This will be our second trip to Italy. First trip was 7 days Rome, 4 days Florence, 3 days Venice. Thinking we’ll fly into Rome and since we would arrive early morning, we would immediately take the train to Florence. From Florence we want a place to base ourselves to either drive, hire a car or take public transport for a few day trips (i.e., Cinque Terre, San Gimignano, Montepulciano, Siena, etc). Thinking we’d stay in one area of Tuscany for 10-11 days with 3 days in Rome at the end. Or split the 10-11 days in Tuscany between two locations and still end with 3 days in Rome. Any suggestions for the best place(s) to base ourselves in Tuscany? Either one location or two to make these day trips easy?
Posted by
Portland, OR
83 posts
Congratulations on your upcoming 25th wedding anniversary! One of our most favorite trips was almost exactly what you are describing you want to do. For what we did, you will need a car (which is sounds like you are open to). We arrived in Rome and then drove to Lucca. We stayed with the walled old town at a wonderful B&B called L’Antica Bifore. You will need to park just on the outskirts, but the town is small and the walk was never too far to the B&B. From Lucca, we were able to drive and explore the Cinque Terre, Livorno, Volterra, and Pisa.
The second part of our trip, we stayed in our favorite town of Montepulciano. Over the course of our many visits there, we have our two favorite places to stay. Charming Homes are nice apartments in the old town, and Fonte Martino is a beautiful B&B just outside of town. From Montepulciano, we did day trips and explored Pienza, Cortona, Siena, Assisi, Perugia, Arezzo, Montalcino, and many others.
After our stays in Lucca and Montepulciano, we then returned to Rome and spent our final 3 days there with no car. Both Lucca and Montepulciano made great bases to explore two different parts of Tuscany and even a bit of Umbria.
Hope this helps. Here are the links to where we stayed:
L’Antica Bifore: https://www.anticabifore.com/en/
Charming Homes: https://www.charminghomemontepulciano.com/
Fonte Martino: https://www.fontemartino.com/
Posted by
8084 posts
Tuscany is wonderful and Florence is hard to beat for a base. You can do day trips easily via the train.
Driving in Italy was no big deal back when we lived in Germany from 87-91, but so many people that rent cars in Italy get enormous tickets. Not sure that I would want to drive there now.
Check out the Hotel Balesteri in Florence.
Posted by
Huntsville, AL, USA
8307 posts
We stayed on an agriturismo between Certaldo and San Gimignano--about 5 miles north of Poggibonsi. It was a great, central location to see many hilltowns, including Siena. The drive was maybe 30 minutes south of Florence.
We later headed south to Orvieto where we turned our Hertz rental car in across from the train station and took a 70 minute ride into the Rome Termini.
Posted by
11505 posts
We have stayed in the Chianti region many times- Castellina and Panzano, on the historic SR 222 that connects Siena and Florence. We like that it’s landscape has a lot of green rather than yellow or brown. We also stayed nearby in Radda. All the towns worked very well for us.
We also spent a week in Cortona which gave us access to Umbria too.
Posted by
Nanaimo, BC, Canada
1425 posts
We stayed in three locations Florence, Siena and then Lucca. They were all great locations but there was something about Lucca that was different from the rest. Indeed it was small but staying in the old town area inside the city walls was special. It is a bit north but day trips were possible.
Perhaps these pictures will help you decide.
Lucca https://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr54/albums/72157675723169046
Siena https://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr54/albums/72157674387131812
Posted by
4820 posts
My inclination would be two bases--one either at or close to the coast and the other within reach of the interior towns. A good tool is Google maps--I use it a lot when choosing locations and planning day trips because I really hate being in the car for longer than an hour or so per day. First decide if you want a town or rural accommodation and then plug in the day trips to find the sweet spot. congrats!
Posted by
Vancouver, BC
375 posts
Stanbr -- your pictures of Lucca are fabulous! I think of Lucca as my European home because that's where my husband is from and it's the place I've been most often. You really covered it beautifully.
Posted by
Nanaimo, BC, Canada
1425 posts
Nickelini thank you for your kind words. We loved Lucca and plan to return someday.
For fun here is a link to a Youtube music tribute to Lucca. We recognized about 80 percent of the locations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHYvkkrSLKA
Posted by
Vernon, Canada
32325 posts
stanbr,
Thanks for posting the photo albums - wonderful pictures! What type of photo gear were you using?
I also really enjoyed the video. Hopefully I will also be able to return to Lucca and Siena some day.
Posted by
Nanaimo, BC, Canada
1425 posts
Hi Ken these photos were taken with my Canon PowerShot SX540 HS It is a reasonably sophisticated point and shoot. It has lots of megapixels and has an incredible built in lens that can take close ups and then zoom to 50 times. It obviously also has image stabilization. Last year I actually downsized to the Canon PowerShot SX730 HS . It is just a bit smaller and fits into my pants pocket and has a 40x Optical Zoom. The 540 now lives in my trailer at the Oceanside where I need the extra zoom for eagle pictures.