Part of my upcoming honeymoon will be spent in Tuscany, albeit for too short a period. We're planning about 1.5 days in Florence proper, and 2 in the countryside centered around the wine festival in Castellina (May 29-30). We've narrowed down some choices, and I'm curious if anyone has any experience or impressions of the following (I've included weblinks):

Poggio Al Sorbo
http://www.poggioalsorbo.it/
(sadly, no pictures)

Fattoria Tregole
http://www.castellina.com/tregole/tregole_eng.htm
(a bit scruffy of a website)

Poggetto
http://www.agriturismo.net/poggetto/indexeng.shtml
(probably my initial favorite)

We'd consider staying elsewhere if there are favorites, and though I'm tempted by Vicchiomaggio in Greve given the festival we're focusing initially on Castellina.

we stayed here in 2000. even though it says "greve" for the location, it is really closest to a tiny and lovely town named panzano. when you open the website, and then click on "location", a map will appear, and then when you click again on the map, the map will enlarge to show the details of the towns' locations. this b&b was lovely and we stayed there at the same time--end of may. altho it gets very hot there, the night air is so cool that there is no need for a/c. even during the day, it was always cool and lovely in the hotel. here is the website--- http://www.venere.com/it/toscana/gre...nti/villarosa/

Author: Traveler2
Date: 02/26/2004, 02:10 am
Message: Hi,
First, I couldn't help notice your screen name and I am curious as I live in Wa. Are you from Wa. and going to WSU?

My husband and I spent the better part of two weeks in Chianti. We loved the town of Greve. Stayed in Castellina for 3 nights also. Both lovely towns, but my preference was Greve.

I can highly recommend Villa Vignamaggio, just a few km from Greve. It would be a perfect place to spend a honeymoon. You can read my review of it if you like as it might be of help. http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserR...o-Tuscany.html

We also stayed at Vicchiomaggio.
Let me know if I can be of further assistance.

You will love Italy!

Thanks for your replies. Yep, I'm in Pullman, though as a new professor (Renaissance Literature) after teaching in TN for two years.

Our constraints lie in the fact that you've only gotten a small part of our 2+ week itinerary, which includes Budapest (my mom) and a couple of days south in Capri (my wife's choice). So we really have 3.5 days in Tuscany, sadly.

Given that our brief time frame coincided w/Castellina's wine festival (29-30 May) we centered our search there, in part just to cut down options. But is Castellina worth basing ourselves there rather than driving down to the festival for a day? I'm curious where you stayed in Castellina.

(BTW--We had looked at Vignamaggio but was put off a bit on the price.)

http://www.poggioalsorbo.it/appartam...partments.html

You stated that the above site had no pictures. It has a lot of pictures of the accommodations. Check it out.

You know what--just saw that a couple of minutes ago as well (took me a bit to wander through all the links). Thanks.

Sorry my posting posted twice. It did not show my posting so after 10 min. I took the time to post it yet again. Have no idea what happened.

The place we stayed at in Castellina is: http://www.chiantiandrelax.com/CASTE...index__14.html

We enjoyed it, but I definitely prefer Vignamaggio. 2nd choice would be Vicchiomaggio.

Many people on this forum recommend staying in or around Greve/Castellina around as it is centrally located to Siena and Florence.

Our preference for Greve over Castellina, was Greve had more to offer at least for our needs.

Hope this helps and I also hope you enjoy our beautiful state!

I doubt thatthose places you listed will take you only for 2 days, they are agritourisms and normally they only take weekly reservations. Castellina is better than Greve according to me, the latter is at the bottom of a valley, Castellina on the top of the hill, the surroundings are nicer in Castellina and is easier to reach.

Podere Torre in Greve is wonderful,inexpensive and allows daily rentals.We stayed there last year and return this May.

We stayed just outside of Castellina in Chianti at Locanda Le Piazze and thoroughly enjoyed it. It is set in the middle of a vineyard, has a beautiful pool overlooking the hills and has an excellent dining room.

I was going to mention Podere Torre and saw that jabez had reccommended it. I heartily second! We stayed there in early June -- beautiful time of year!

I think the easiest way to get to their website is to go to www.greve-in-chianti-com and then link to poderetorre.

Great place and I would definitely stay there again. I can answer any questions you may have if it looks interesting to you.

Whew! Walk away for a day or so and you find more stuff--sometimes I think all the information on the Internet makes things more complicated than less.

Thanks for the suggestions--we're probably looking at Greve right now since we're trying to cram in another night in Tuscany rather than Florence, but we need to return our car to Florence and catch a train to Rome (where we're flying out the next day). Castellini is a bit further away.

And yes, I know that it's not that far, and we could go out of Siena...it's all making me dizzy.

Regardless, I'll post what we end up deciding. Thanks again.

Excuse me Cougar but why take the car back to Florence and then take a train to Roma where you will have to take anotherone to reach the airport when you could drop off the car directly at the airport in Rome? The road is very very easy and fast and you don't even touch any cities. From Siena you drive to Grosseto and then take the highway to Rome, you will find the exit for the airport in Fiumicino. From Castellina to the airport its 2.30minapprox

Honestly? Probably part was just that I didn't think about it. Though part is probably also that I'm hoping my wife will like Florence enough to stay there another day rather than take a morning train to spend a couple of hours in Rome (I've been there already, she hasn't).

Right now it's looking like the Vicchiomaggio for our stay.