I'm still working on finializing my itinerary for our early May trip. At the moment we have 5 nights planned in Tuscany and Florence. Where is a good place to have a home base? We were going to stay in Tuscany then move to Florence but I decided that was too much moving around and would rather stay put for the 5 nights. Any suggestions as to a good central locale? We plan on seeing Florence and Pisa and touring through some of the smaller towns in Tuscany.

TIA!
Allison

ttt

Anyone?

http://www.agriturismo.it/toscana.asp could help you in finding a 'agriturismo'base somewhere in tuscany.
Anywhere in the provines of Siena or Pisa, or the close part of the surrounding provinces can be suitable for a stay as a home base.
Depends on what you want to see but the province of Siena is most central... or southern part of Florence province... It's your choice.

We stayed in castle tower in Stigliano that we found at www.tuscany.net. We loved the location - 20 km from Siena (which we could see from our tower room) - but there wasn't really anything to do in Stigliano itself. There was a great restaurant but literally no other business.

I loved Pienza and Montalcino and both are well located in Tuscany. However - my biggest advice is that 1)Get a car for Tuscany (and do NOT drive it in Florence) and 2) Stay in a small town where you have restaurants and enotecas to enjoy after you have spent your day exploring. We really regretted that we didn't stay in a "bigger" small town where we could have enjoyed more wine without having to worry about driving home.

Hi,
I know a beautiful place near florence but in the countryside, in a hill. It's a big old house, with pool, nice panorama and peacefull atmosphere.You can contact the owner at 0039349 44 69 610 ciao

beanweb - we are thinking of staying near Pienza. Are there restaurants there? What about Montalcino or other places in that area?

Both Pienza and Montalcino have great restaurants.
Check out this web site.

http://www.nautilus-mp.com/tuscany/indexing.html

Also the Castello Banfi web site has many options for accomodations and eating.

We loved I Parigi B&B (florenceby.com).
It's in Galluzzo just south of Florence on the road to Siena. A 15 minute bus ride to central Florence, 1 hour car ride to Siena or Pisa. Beautiful surroundings, great breakfast,very nice staff and reasonably priced. Enjoy your trip!

We stayed last year in a great little place in the town of Regello. If you stay there, there's a woman who essentially runs the place named Evelyn and she was awesome helping with places to eat, go, etc. Here's a link to their web site http://www.villarigacci.com/

If you go, ask her to get you a reservation at Il Canto DiMaggio. It is the best restaurant I've been to in the WORLD!!

Consider Montalcino. You will
need a car but there are many little towns very close (within a half hour)
Siena, Pienza, Montepulciano, Bagno Vignoni, Sant Antimo, Monte Oliveto
Maggiore, Buonconvento, Murlo. The driving is easy and the food and wine in
each town is special. If you want more information e-mail me.

We stayed just N of Montalcino and Loved it. Other option would be to stay in or near San Gimignano to hit Florence, Pisa, Lucca, Siena, Volterra and the NW areas! How about 3nights near Montalcino and 2 in San Gim?

Montalcino is small and should be easy to get in and out of. If you are there for any time do check out the fortezza for wine tasting.

We stayed near Gaiole in Chianti and when we wanted to go to Florence we drove to the train station, parked the car and took the train into Florence. We drove everywhere else. My biggest tip would be to stay in a city, town or village that is within easy driving distance of the autostrada--it makes the return trip from exploring some of the small towns a lot easier.