Next June, we are thinking of the following 2 week itinerary:

1. Venice 3 days
2. Ravenna 1 day
3. Florence 2-3 days
4. Tuscany 1 week

My questions are

1) We will be using FF miles. If we are unable to fly in to Venice, what would you suggest as the most likely to be available alternative?

2) What do you think of the itinerary as it is?

3) Is there an agency similar to Gites de France in Italy?

Thanks in advance for your advice!

Hi W,

Nice plan.

If you can't fly into Venice, try Milan.

Also try flying into Florence FLR or Pisa PSA and out of Venice.

Enjoy your visit.

>Is there an agency similar to Gites de France in Italy?< Here's some I've used...

http://www.tuscany.net/
http://www.agriturismo.com/toscana/en_index.shtm
http://www.agriturismo.net/toscana/index_ita.html

I'd fly into Milan. The train to Venice takes 3 hours.

Bologna (BLQ) is another option.

Thanks to you all! I will definitely check out the Tuscany rental sites. I have perused Slowtravel somewhat as well.

More questions... what is your opinion on staying in Southern versus Northern Tuscany? Does it make sense to divide my time between the two areas, rather than staying a week in one place? Also, what about doing several daytrips to Florence rather than staying in Florence? Nightmare or dream?

BTW, I called Delta and they have nothing to Milan, Venice, Florence within a 5-6 day period--they tried Alitalia--nothing. AirFrance has availability to CDG and then to Venice (which I am holding), but it would be on the least convenient day. Oh well- w/ FF tickets, you take what you can get! I will try again tomorrow to see if anything has opened up.

Train to Florence and stay there for your 2-3 days. Then rent a car and relocate to somewhere near (to the south of) Siena for your 1 week.

Staying in that one location puts you in position to head north (Chianti), west (San Gimigliano) and south (Val d'Orcia).

Just to follow up, I called Delta back and we are able to fly out on a better day! So the plan at this point is, Wed-Fri Venice; Then we are planning on a Saturday-to-Saturday rental in Tuscany. Sat - Tues, spending the last 3 days in Florence, and then fly home...
Thanks again for your help...I will be asking for more in the future, I am sure!

Just wondering---since we have alloted a week for Tuscany, what do you all think about 2 bases rather than one? I was initially leaning toward staying near Pienza for one week, but now I am wondering if it would be better to divide the time between two areas.

If what you want to do is mostly visit small towns/villages and sitesee as opposed to doing a lot of relaxing, I would definitely consider two seperate locations. We were in Castellina in Chianti for 5 nights - we drove to Pienza for the day - and it was just a lot of driving. By the way, Pienza was our favorite town in Tuscany!

You might consider 4 or 5 nights in Pienza, then drive over to Umbria (Assisi, Perugia, Spoltetto) for the other days.

Thanks...So Jeanne, you would recommend 2 days in Umbria over seeing the more northern part of Tuscany?

DH is already saying he wants to stay the entire time in one place...sounds like we will just be forced to return to Tuscany (several times) if we hope to see it all!