1st time Tuscany
 

My husband and I want to rent a car and drive through Tuscany late Oct./early Nov. for 8 days. Then we have to go to Bologna and spend a day/night there to get a flight out. Where would you recommend going? What hotels, restaurants and rental car arrangements? I know this is a tall order.
EvaK

I forgot to mention: it's very hard to get information on distances between towns. Do you recommend a source?
EvaK

Hi Evak,

Your options for Tuscan towns and lodging are unlimited. Use the search box above, putting in "Tuscany" and start reading.

Also, get a good, detailed map for driving. Note that many of the small roads in Tuscany, especially in Chianti, are quite windy and will take longer to drive (with Photo ops) than the milage may indicate.

Buon viaggio!

Oh, forgot to say. With 8 full days, 2 base locations in Tuscany might be nice. Even farmhouses and villas should allow less than a full week off season.

Here are 2 good sites:
www.viamichelin.com
www.autoeurope.com

Now, search above for Tuscany info and plan to spend several hours. Then, go to www.slowtrav.com and do the same.
I would plan 2 base location, and one would be south of Siena. Good luck !

evak,
Searching trip reports may provide ideas for you, here is one http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34494897

Henry

About Bologna, we stayed at the Hotel Metropolitan and found it charming.
http://metropolitan.hotel-bologna.net/ Good size, clean, up to date room and bathroom, lovely breakfast room with ample food to choose from, the location is just off the main street, Via Indipendenza (pedestrian only) down a little alleyway. From there it's only short blocks (the map on the site makes it look further than it is) under the porticoed sidewalk to the Leaning Towers, the Duomo - and some incredible pizza with artichokes. If you choose this place, I'd suggest dropping off the car before reaching the hotel. We had to go around the block behind the hotel and back into the one-way alleyway so that if the car needed to be moved it could be done quickly. (Let's just say that that wasn't the highlight of my husband's trip.)

If you were going to stay a week in one place, I would probably recommend just around the outskirts of Siena. But with 2 places, I agree with Bob, south of Siena, perhaps close to Cortona so you can make trips into Umbria. And then I might choose a place nearer to Florence, which brings you closer to Bologna.

www.mappy.com is also a good site for finding out distances.

So, EvaK--did you ever see these posts--I am always curious.

One more detail: We should probably spend our last night in Pisa after droppping off a car, so we can take a car service to the airport early the next morning. Any recommendations for hotels and restaurants? Is there an alternative to staying in Pisa since we have to be at the airport 3 hours before departure, from what I hear?

In May for a first time driving trip we used a FlexiMap from Insight for Tuscany - it folds nicely, is laminated and shows the small country roads as well as the more traveled highways. Most roads are not marked with their "route number" like the US, but rather have signs that list towns the road leads to. Sometimes they skip the closest next town and list a few farther out so do study your map a little. We loved the area south of Siena in the Pienza area. We bought the map at Borders Bookstore.