Home base in Tuscany???
 

My husband and I (early 30's)We will be spending 6 nights in Tuscany in April. 2 of the days we would like to stay in Florence. What city would be ideal as a home base so that we could doday trips by car in the country side? Here are my choices.
Siena
San Gimiganao
Pienza
Montepulciano

I would love to stay at a agritourismo type place and we both love wine and great food.

Thanks for the help...
Monica

I would stay around Siena. There are a lot of agroturismo rentals in the area, and it is a central base for visiting most of central and southern Tuscany.

Thank you for your suggestion. Do you happen to know of a good agritourism in or near Siena? Also, Is it possible to do a day trip to Assisi from there or is it to far?

Sorry, monica, I don't have any specific recommendations, but you might try a search on this forum or check out slowtrav.italy.

As for Assissi, if you have a car, yes you can do it as a day trip, assuming you are willing to get an early start. It's certainly worth seeing, although there is more than enough to fill your 4 days without going that far. Really up to you...

Monica, Go to slowtrav.com and read about Tuscany and reviews of places to stay--it is a broad topic.

I second the Siena suggestion. We visited all those places easily from there. I've recommended it before on this site -we loved Frances Lodge. Great location, wonderful setting. Check out www.Franceslodge.it and post back if you have any specific questions.

Looks wonderful. Do you know if they have a cooking class?

Frances will do cooking lessons. They don't advertise them but she offered-we just didn't have time. She's the cook for breakfast and it was great.

Yes, Siena is an excellent base, just be sure to get good maps because unless you speak Italian- you will be hard pressed to get English directions- Ciao!

I've never stayed in Siena but it is a nice city. We got stuck in traffic there and hard a horrible time trying to find a place to park as the two big lots we had planned for were both full. Depending on where you stay, coming and going every day may not be the most pleasant experience.

After spending a week in Montepulciano I'd vote for either it or Pienza. Both are smallish towns that have a lot of nice restaurants to enjoy at night and are beautiful to stroll. If you don't need a lot of "nightlife", I think they're perfect.

We also really enjoyed spending a few nights in San Gimagnano a few years back and while it is very touristy during the day, the nights were simply heaven. But again parking and getting in and out of the city can be difficult. I'd opt for further south like Pienza or Montepulciano.

For our honeymoon in October, we stayed for five nights at Locanda Amorosa, which is a great small hotel located outside sinalunga. The location was great...from there, we were able to take easy day drives into Chianti, Sienna, San Giminagno, Volterra, Pienza, Montalcino, and Montelpuciano. We even took a foray through Umbria (to get Deruta pottery) on our way to Florence, where we also spent a few nights.

The only downside of staying at Amorosa was that we couldn't easily walk anywhere for dinner (they have a nice restaurant at the hotel, but we didn't want to eat there every night!) The nights we didn't eat at their restaurant, we ended up either staying wherever we had travelled that day for a fairly early dinner, or bringing some cheese, proscuitto, bread and wine back to the room for a little picnic dinner.

monica71,
See my trip report for ideas. I went to the same towns you want to see
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34494897
feel free to e-mail for more information.

Thank you so much for your suggestions...we are planning on renting a car so I really have to be aware of parking situations. If we stay just outside of Siena would that be a issue? I had planned on taking a train from rome to assisi with a overnight then rent a car and drive to siena for 3 night. Is that possible?

Monica71, Siena is wonderful. Just choose a hotel with parking, and park the car, and leave it there when you visit Florence. Take the bus or train between Siena and Florence. You absolutely don't need a car in florence!

No cars are allowed within the pedestrian-only historic city center, which is what makes it so wonderful, just like you've gone back in time to a medieval hill-top town.

If you stay in the countryside near Siena, you won't have any traffic. The poster above is talking about parking to see the city of siena as a day-trip. Even if you stay within the walls of siena, as long as your hotel guarantees parking you won't have a parking problem.

We loved the Palazzo Ravizza within the walls of Siena. the hotel provides parking but we didn't have a car. We took trains and hired drivers when necessary.

Roberto Bechi is a licensed tour guide with a van who lives in siena. WEb-site www.toursbyroberto.com He's terrific!