where to stay in tuscany?

I think Siena makes a nice base. From there it's a easy day trip to see different great Tuscan hill towns like Volterra, Montepulciano, Pienza, Montalcino, Monteriggioni, and/or San Gimignano.

It's also not too far to make a day trip to Florence or, better yet, spend a night in Florence so you have a couple of days there.

Siena's also large enough and busy enough to give you some things to do in the evening, as opposed to staying in one of the smaller towns which don't have much night life.

On the other hand, Florence isn't a great base for Tuscany since it's a bit far north for seeing many of the towns mentioned above as day trips, plus it's a more expensive city to stay in than Siena.

sara,
Tuscany is a big area. You will have to decide what towns you are interested in then look for some place in the middle of most of your 'wants'.
I think southern Tuscany is one of the most beatiful areas. For ideas in southern Tuscany see http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/tuscany/hs_planning.htm

Sara:

Henry is right. Tuscany is bigger than you think. All of the roads except the Autostrada move slower than you think. (There are long windy stretches where you never get out of third gear!).

We love wine and so our favorite headquarters village is Panzano. It is located exactly between Florence and Siena on the S222 (also called the Chianti Road). It has great restaurants, lots of villas to rent, Italy's most famous butcher, great nearby wineries and the wonderful Tuscan village charm. Have fun.

I second the idea of staying in Siena. It's a great small city on its own and you can get to plenty of Tuscany from there.

http://www.sienaquietvilla.net/
is a wonderful, affordable place to stay, barely outside the city walls so you can park your car there, but still really close to everything. It's run by an Italian + American couple who are wonderful, insightful, helpful and generous hosts. We loved staying with them.

Siena is great but if you are planning on taking day trips to other hilltowns each day I would pick a smaller town. Siena is a city and driving into and out of it each day would not be enjoyable. I like the Val d'Orcia area near Pienza - very close to Montepulciano and Montalcino. Find an agriturismo thru google. Good luck - September is the perfect month.

If you have a car and a full week I would base my stay in a small town, maybe an agritourismo. We booked a place in the Chianti area which turned out to be a great central base for day trips to Siena, Florence, San Giminiano, Volterra.

Not sure what reasonable lodging is but that may determine where you stay. the suggestions made so far are great. For ease of parking an agriturismo is better and very classic tuscan. It may be more pricey though than other type lodging. I staye din Siena and bussed out almost everyday. Did not need a car until I went to Chuisi, Assisi, & Cortona.

JS,

there is a wide variety of choices for agriturismos. Some are like a B&B and might be more pricey. We had an appartment at an agriturismo with pool but otherwise simple. As a result we paid 20 Euro/night/person.

Personally, we found staying in a rather rural location in Tuscany felt very peaceful after touring places like Rome. And quite "authentic" as we couldn't see that many tourists around.

We just got back last weekend from a 3-week trip to Italy, one week was spent in Tuscany at Agriturismo Campopalazzi. It's about 30 min. south of Siena and is just the most beautiful place. It has a swimming pool which we used extensively. The place is very peaceful and relaxing, and the proprietor, Anne Marie, is very welcoming and happy to have you sample her wines and olive oil. We have 2 kids and they loved it as well. There's a small town 4k from the farm that has amenities like groceries, bakery,etc (plus the best restaurant we ate at our whole time in Italy!) I can't say enough about it.
http://www.campopalazzi.it/page_eng/home.asp

We stayed at Agritourismo Marciano, right outside Siena. http://www.agriturismomarciano.it/ I found that Tuscany is not as big as everyone on this website makes it out to be. You can day trip easily from this location and see more then 1 hill town per day even if you take it super slow. We found that they take the siesta seriously, everything was closed from 12:30 - 4, especially the vinyards in Chianti. Print out driving dirctions from Via Michlen http://www.viamichelin.com/viamichelin/gbr/tpl/hme/MaHomePage.htm?dmn=co.uk&zone=gbr
Its so easy!!! Do the local route