Where to stay in the Tuscany region?

We found Panzano central to seeing a lot of towns so we differ. We have also stayed in other towns in Chianti region- Castellina, Radda but they are near Panzano. Also stayed in Lucca and Cortona, on opposite sides of Tuscany and enjoyed them both. Pienza too. Tuscany is quite large so it is hard to find just one place to use as a base.

My husband and I stayed at the Relais Villa Grazianella outside Montepulciano and loved it. It is a hotel and winery with a marvelous restaurant. There are easy day trips from the hotel to many Tuscany towns, including Siena, Montelcino and Pienza. Orvieto and Civita are a little farther away, but still a very do-able day trip.
We liked the hotel so much, we are going back again this spring.

Hello! I would like to mirror the comments of the previous post and add that Montepulciano is my go to place. Not only is it an beautiful town that I have been visiting for a number of years (been travelling to Italy for 45+ years), it is in a prime location to explore both Tuscany and Umbria. You can easily access Florence, Siena, Pienza, Cortona, Montalcino, Assisi, Perugia, and Arezzo...just to name a few of the larger towns. There are also countless hilltop towns and wineries to explore - even a day trip to the Maremma beaches are just about 1.5 hours away.

Back in 2019, I discovered a B&B that I fell in love in just outside of Montepulciano called Fonte Martino. It's a more modern B&B with only 3 rooms and has incredible gardens and pool. The owners are amazing and I visited this past summer and plan to visit again this coming summer. If you are looking for an apartment, then I can suggest Charming Homes. It is a very nice apartment near San Biagio church at the base of town.

I hope you have a wonderful time wherever you decide to visit! - Norman

Thank you so much, Suki, Winter-James, and Norman. I actually came across Fonte Martino back in 2019 when we went to Italy. For this upcoming trip, they are booked for our dates as well as Charming Home. So I am continuing to search and really have my heart set on Montepulciano or close by. Welcoming more suggestions!

This is the place we stayed during our last visit to the Val d’Orcia...we really enjoyed our stay there and found it very convenient to the surrounding area. The views from our windows were stunning. We stayed in the BellaVista 2 bedroom apartment.
https://www.terredinano.com/en/
For our trip in 2020, which we had to cancel due to Covid, we had reservations at a 3 bedroom apartment at La Foce. We are still looking forward to be able to return to Italy and stay there. We visited the gardens there in 2011...stunning area with amazing views.
https://www.lafoce.com/en/

This summer I spent six nights driving around Tuscany and it was probably the best part of the whole trip. I picked up a rental car at the Pisa Airport and did 2 nights in Volterra, 2 in Siena and 2 in Montepulciano before continuing on to Orvieto and Rome. The best scenery is south of Siena heading towards Pienza and Montepulciano. To be absolutely "central", probably Siena would be best. You can still do day trips both north and south from there. I really liked the charm of staying in a hilltop town like Volterra or Montepulciano, but it may depend on how much you want to move around. I have never searched out villas because I travel by myself, but I'm sure there are plenty in the Tuscany area for two couples. For the best views, I simply followed the drives in the RS Florence/Tuscany book.

Jconsol and Bill - thank you so much for your words of advice. I have to agree, I feel more inclined to stay in the southern region of Tuscany. The last time we were in Tuscany (stayed in Panzano as I mentioned at the beginning of this thread), we didn’t make it to Assisi and I was disappointed. This year, we plan to go and I think being in Montepulciano will make it easier. That said, I found a lovely villa - Villa Sogni D’ Oro in Montepulciano. A bonus is the owner is a Floridian so making it easy to communicate! Thanks again everyone.

We have stayed multiple times at Hotel Villa Casalecchi in Castellina in Chianti. This is a lovely little town in Tuscany with a real Italian feel. Between Siena and Florence. Plenty of good restaurants. We used it as a home base to visit all of the hill towns including Radda, San Gimignano, Siena, Volterra, etc. We even drove to Assisi - much farther than we anticipated! The hotel manager at the time was a lovely older gentleman who recommended a winery very nearby where we had a wonderful lunch and wine pairing - Poggio Amorelli. With his Italian accent we weren't quite sure whether he said it was 125euros or 25euros. When we were experiencing the winery lunch, we decided we didn't care. It was 25!