Any advice on Tuscany
 

Hello. I am planning a trip in November and am interested in Tuscany. I have 10 days. Is this too much time?

You'll have time to stop & smell the pasta! I would pick a place to base out of and explore from there. Try doing a search on Tuscany and see what the good folks here have recommended.

I would pick 2 locations as base camps with 10 days, and one may be in Umbria. Will you be driving--all the difference? Nov. will be chilly.

>>>Nov. will be chilly.<<

and brown, and many hotels & restaurants will be closed so they can go on their much needed vacation.

Stu Dudley

Brown, chilly - ya'll forgot rainy and windy. So what - it's still Tuscany. Great thing about November travel - fantastic rates. Last November we rented Bersagliere at La Foce - I did not want to leave it was so beautiful. Second great thing about November travel - dining in front of the fire. Tuscan food is better to me in winter, especially their roasted meats and hearty soups. Third - oil harvest and all the special menus to celebrate arrival of olio nuovo. Fourth - no crowds. You'll feel like a traveler instead of tourist because most everyone else is back in the States just dreaming about Italy.

As for 10 days, it's perfect. Try 3 in the Chianti - I like staying in the city of Castellina or maybe spend those 3 in Florence. Then take an apartment in the countryside near Pienza for a week.

Pack a coat and have a fabulous time.

No, it's not too much time. It's just right.

Hi brab, I agree with cmt. For one thing the first day you will probably be taking it a bit easy after the long flight. And the last day you will be packing and organizing yourself to fly home.

Tuscany is so beautiful. And yes it will be winter there but then again I imagine it will be winter where you live. So have part of your winter in Tuscany!! Pack accordingly and one great thing about winter clothes is that even though they take up more space you can wear them more as you are not dealing with heat and the high humidity that Italy is famous for.

And the winter food you will have along with the red wines! And the relaxed Italians in that the swarm of tourist will be gone.

Sound very good to me.

One thought. You might want to think of flying into and out of Rome if you are thinking of using either the Milan (Milpensa) airport or the Venice (San Marco) airport as both of those airports can get really foggy in November. That of course can cause extensive flight delays.

As Danacat said (love the expression) "you will have time to stop & smell the pasta!

November would not perhaps be my choice. But in any season 10 days is not too much. Did the Brownings or the Medicis or indeed the fictional Isabel Archer ever say "It's been 10 days and the kids are bored. We're outta here."??

also check out the april 2005 nat'l geographic traveler magazine - great article on Tuscany with lots of great ideas.

We used San Gimignano as a base. Did day trips from there to Orvieto, Chianti, Siena, etc.

I'd split it up. 5 days N near Chianti/San G/ Florence, 5 day S near Montepulciano, travel into Umbria. See www.tuscany.net for farmhouses and inns. I am jealous!

Lucky you. I based 5 days out of Montepulciano and followed all of Karen Brown's directions for seeing
southern Tuscany. I could not have had
a more fabulous self-guided tour. In
addition I went to Cortona and DeRuta
for pottery.Castellina is another good
choice for "home" and to see Greve, Rhadda, San Gim., etc. Oh yeah, my friends knew where Frances Mayes house
was in Cortona, so when we rode by on
bikes her and her husband were coming out the front door, they could not have been nicer to us. Is this more info. than you wanted to know?

I heard that Frances M has now left Cortona -- just as Peter Mayle had to leave Provence. Can anyone corroborate?

I then was lucky enough to hear Frances Mayes speak at Denver University this past spring about writing and she is still in Cortona, in fact she and hubby are taking on another renovation - sounded like an abbey or something around Cortona, but she spends a fair amount of time on the west coast because she now has a grandchild. Grandchild has been to Cortona 3 times.