The following is our itinerary for first trip to Italy this October - any suggestions, additions or subtractions?<BR>1 night Orvieto<BR>2 nights Pienza<BR>3 nights San G.<BR>2 nights Portovenere<BR>1 night Montalcino<BR>4 nights in Bevagna <BR><BR>We enjoy the countryside, small towns, good wine, friendly people and small lively restaurants. Thanks!

Acccording tom your itinerary I guess you will be travelling by car. In this case I absolutely discourage you to sleep in San Gimignano (and in Pienza as well). Instea, look for an agritourism accomodation: www.agriturismo.regione.toscana.it. In one of these accomodations you will be able to sleep in a usually very confortable room in a true farm. Some agritourisms also offer dinner and breakfast (usually food is good quality). Drive a lot through the hills: just get lost in the woods.

SOPHIA, I love your destinations but I am not sure you need so many, and I do not understand the sequence. Pienza is :30 from Montalcino--you do not need both---I would prefer Montalcino. I am a big fan of 3 nite stays. So, why not?<BR>Orvieto--1<BR>Montalcino--3<BR>San Gim.--3<BR>Portovenere--3[a good idea]<BR>Bevagna--3<BR>That flows well and gives you one less hotel to unpack for. Of course, the good people at slowtrav.com would say to combine your 2 Tuscany locations in to one weekly rental at a farm location.<BR>Not a bad idea. You can stay near Siena and easily combine those into 6 days.

Portovenere? Unless there's a Portovenere in Tuscany or Umbria that I'm not aware of (none were listed on my maps), the only one that I know of is on the La Spezia penninsula, south of the Cinque Terre. Now staying in Portovenera, Liguria is probably going to be heavenly, but geographically it's way out of the way of all of your other cities, especially given the itenerary you propose.<BR><BR>Also, to minimize the amount of schlepping you do, consolidate your itenerary to only a handful of home-base cities, spend more time in them, and then take day-trips from there. Arrange them in a logical, geographical progression. This way you won't be spending more time traveling than you are sightseeing.<BR><BR>I'd consolidate the trip to something like this:<BR>* Portovenere [3 nights]<BR>* San Gim [3 nights]<BR>* San Quirico d'Orcia (for Pienza and Montalcino, maybe Montepulciano) [3 nights]<BR>* Bevagna [4 nights]<BR><BR>Orvieto is a doable, albeit long, drive from both SQO (80 km) and Bevagna (70 km).

Matt, Portovenere is 2 hours from centro Toscana and makes a wonderful addition to any Tuscan itinerary. I assume the 1 nite in Orvieto was after landing in Rome--not a bad idea.

Thank you all for your help. Yes, the one night in Orvieto is because we will be flying into Rome that afternoon. One of the main reasons we are staying in Pienza is that we wanted to stay at the B & B Le Traverse (have any of you stayed there? - If you feel that it is not that extra special, please let me know. And yes, I do know that Portovenere is not in Tuscany. Thanks to all the good information from Bob the Navigator, we decided to spend some time there. All help is greatly appreciated.

You've already received a lot of good advice, particularly from Bob (two nights in Portovenere would really only give you one full day in the area - not enough)<BR><BR>I also like the suggestion for Montalcino over Pienza. I'm not familiar with the B&B you mentioned, but I remember Pienza as being a very small town, though a jewel, and if I'm spending multiple nights anywhere, I'm interested in something a little bigger, where I have more variety in restaurants, moonlit walks through town, gelato shops and cafes for morning coffee. I think you'd find that in Montalcino, but not Pienza.<BR><BR>Orvieto is a good choice, distance-wise from Rome and because it's an enjoyable town to visit.<BR><BR>I envy you your trip!

The point to touring this part of Italy is not staying your wholke two days oin One place, much better to use the car a lot and spend every day touring one different place. The best part of this area of italy is the landscapes, so staying in one village for the whole day means to lose a whole lot.

Sophia,Do not let accomodations decide your itinerary for you. There are cute places at all of these destinations. I am reading VANILLA BEANS AND BRODO now--and it is a must for anyone going to Montalcino--check it out at amazon.com.

Thank you all for your suggestions. Bob, you always have such good advice. Do you think I should cancel the beautiful B&B in Pienza and book two nights in Montalcino at the Il Giglio Inn and add an extra day to Portovenere(if possible)?

Thank you all for your help!<BR>I changed a few places and times to the following:<BR>1 night Orvieto<BR>2 nights Montalcino<BR>3 nights San G.<BR>3 nights Portovenere<BR>4 nights Bervagna<BR><BR>I know wherever we are, it will be wonderful!!! Thank you so much.

Actually, I wlould have rather cut off Montalcino AND San Gimignano (which can be visited from Pienza) and left Pienza in. Make it longer in Pienza a use your car.

I would skip San Gim altogether, and go to Siena! Or just go to San G for a visit late in the day.

Disagree on skipping San G. It's a great base for day trips (easy to drive in and out) and it's charming town in the evening. We spent 2 nights there and did day trips (wine tours, etc.) and loved coming back to the town at night when the crowds had left.<BR><BR>Also, poster saying "use car alot"...it depends on your travel preference. We prefer to spend a day in a town (maybe less in some of the really small towns), but we like to linger over lunch and wander and don't want to spend the entire trip looking through the windshield. Our thought is we can always come back if we don't see everything we want, but it's vacation and we don't want to rush to check off all the sites on our list.

San Gimignano is no better base for daytrips than anywhere else in the area. Actually the best way to see the area is to find a nice agritourism where to both sleep and have breakfst and dinner and use it as a base. These places can offer food that is better and more "real" than any restaurnt in San Gimignano or Pienza or anywhere else, and they allow you both to mett people and to get in tough with real Italy. Something that is almost impossibile in piejnza and absolutely impossible in San Gimignano.

Sophia, Guess what? You will have a ball at any of these places. Keep a smile on your face have gelato twice daily---molto bene ! Report back.