KenP

I am planning to spend 7 full days in Tuscany in September 2014. I'm thinking of splitting my time with stays in Southern and Northern Tuscany to limit drive times in the area -- trade off is moving to different lodging every two days. Interested in your commentary about the following itinerary and whether I should consider a one or two bases for the week, if so what would you recommend. Our interest is in seeing the Tuscan Landscape, visiting a Chianti Vineyard (Castello D Verrazano near Grieve?) plus the sites of Florence. Not sure if I'm cramming too much into the seven days given drive times. Thanks for your recommendations.

Day 1: Drive from Rome to Montepulciano arrive around 3 p.m
Day 2: Drive around Val D' Orcia area (Montalcino, Pienza), stay in Montepuliciano
Day 3: Drive to San Gimignano area for day, stay in Siena
Day 4: Tour Chianti area (Radda to Grieve) from Siena
Day 5; Morning in Siena, drive to Florence
Day 6: Florence
Day 7: Florence

Jean

Rushed but doable.

You might think about doing your Chianti drive on the way to Florence on Day 5. That would give you a full day in Siena. You could also dip into southern Chianti on your way from Montepulciano to San Gim.

FWIW, we find the places in between the city destinations at least as interesting as the cities, so we rarely drive on the larger/main roads.

HappyTrvlr

Route 222 between Siena and Florence is beautiful as well as historical.

bobthenavigator

Variation on a theme:

Train to Orvieto---get car---to San Quirico[ Palazzo del Capitano
3 nites in Val d' Orcia---see hill towns and abbeys
Drive to Chianti base---Fattoria Tregole near Castellini---2 nites---see Chianti and San Gimi
Drive to Florence airport---drop car---2 nites in Florence

Same concept,just better logistics. Have fun !

Jean

If you follow bob's suggestion, make sure you know the open/closed hours of the car rental offices in Orvieto. I believe they all close for lunch, close for the day in late afternoon and are closed Saturday afternoons and all day Sundays.

uhoh_busted

Will you be staying in Rome before this, or are you flying into Rome? If your plan is the later, you can pick up a car at the airport and drive from there (It is easy to get to Tuscany from FCO) and you'll be paying the airport charge anyway since you'll drop it at the Florence airport.