In South Tuscany....please HELP.
 

We are staying in South Tuscany for four nights after we go to Venice and I have found rooms at a few places....I would love to hear the plusses and minuses. I wanted to stay in Montepulciano but because I have been told the Sant' Angelo is not good for a honeymoon, I wanted to hear what you think about these few places.
There is a place in Bucine called Castelleto di Montebenichi, however, I have not heard Bucine talked about very much and cannot tell if it is a good home base.
There is another place in Cortona called Villa di Piazzano but I also don't know if Cortona is a good base. Then there is a place in Gaiole in Chianti, but I am not sure if that is where we want to be. I could use help if you are willing to give it! We would like AC and possibly a pool...

There is also a hotel called the Collegiata in San Gimignano but I have heard it may not be the best place to stay?

There are dozens of places around Montepulciano that have pools. It shouldn't be a problem to find one. You listed four different areas of Tuscany. Cortona would not be base for areas around Montepulciano, nor would it be for San G, etc. If you want to do daytrips around each of these areas, you need to select four different places to stay. Of the places you listed, I would only consider Montepulciano as southern Tuscany and only San G and Montepulciano are in the same province, but they aren't that close together. Here's a map of the Tuscan provinces.
http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/maps/tuscany.htm

Try using either mappy.com or viamichelin.com to plot day trips from the various locations. Many of these roads are small country roads (some not paved - google white roads Tuscany) that are curvy and it will take longer than you think to get places.

Thank you. Any info on Bucine or do you think we should stay in Montepulciano? Have you stayed in any of these places and prefer one over the other? We want to be able to see quite a few places in our four nights and five days...

Hold on....* digging furiously thru trip files and folders *

We spent 4 days in Florence and 8 days driving thru Tuscany: Florence>Gubbio (OK, ok...it's in Umbria)>Cortona>Siena>Montepulciano>Chiusi. In (actually, just outside) of Montepulciano is Villa Poggiano (www.villapoggiano.com). You *want* to stay there; it's wonderful. If (and I'm reading between the lines) this is your Honeymoon...you * MUST * stay there!!!! Were it me, I'd stay 1-2 days in Montepulciano to explore Montepulciano/Montelcino and 2-3 days in Siena to explore Siena/Chianti. Are you driving, or what? If so, and you stay in Siena, then you can do a loop from Siena via SP408 N. thru Gaiole-in-Chianti to Montegrossi to SR429 W thru Radda-in-Chianti to Castellina-in-Chianti and then SR222 S back to Siena. It's a wonderful day's drive.

If you want a beautiful place to stay just outside of Montepulciano I suggest Sant'Antonio. It is run by THE nicest person you could ever meet, Nico, and he will do his utmost to make your stay enjoyable. It is an agriturismo, making their own wine and delicious olive oil. He has 11 different apartments and small villas to choose from, each being appropriate for varying numbers of people, etc. Check out his web site and the reviews on tripadvisor to get an idea. We were there about 6 months ago and thoroughly enjoyed our week there.

Thanks for the help....someone told me the Sant'Antonio might be kind of big with a lot of kids for our honeymoon? What do you think?

It certainly is a family oriented place. But since there are only 11 apartments, there cannot be THAT many people. And if you choose one of the two (I think) free-standing villas, it can be quite pleasant. Not secluded of course but there are plenty of grounds and they are built in such a way that if you don't want to be seen, you don't have to.

Any place like this that you choose may or may not be filled with families, you can never know.

I don't think you MUST stay anyplace or MUST do anything.

This is YOUR honeymoon, right?

What do you want to do on your honeymoon in Italy?

And what kind of accommodation are you envisioning? Some place with plush amenities? Some place with people to serve you drinks by the poolside? A view over vinyards and a grandmother cooking you dinner? Or just someplace blissfully quiet and rustic so you can forget about the world for a little while and be with each other?

Almost every square inch of rural Tuscany is really very beautiful, so it only matters if you think you want to do a lot of scenic driving every day to famous scenic towns or famous art towns or famous shopping towns.

Do you want to do any of that? No problem if you do. Just describe what kind of lodgings you want and you'll get LOTS of options. I could have lived my entire life without ever seeing Montepuliciano. It's very pretty. So are 2,358,987 other hilltowns in Italy, 681,328 of which are also located in Tuscany.

So just what kind of a Tuscan honeymoon are you dreaming about?

Well, we would like something fairly close to the towns of Pienza, and Siena, Montalcino and Montepulciano without necessarily being in the town. We would like a good amount of luxury as it is our honeymoon so preferably a pool. Cute little restaurant or two to relax and the ability to ramble around...
Our plans at the Montebenichi got cancelled so now we are looking at a place in Montalcino called the Castello Banfi Il Borgo...(thoughts?)

Banfi Il Borgo a bit too pricey. Trying to get a room at La Saracina in Pienza now...this has been quite difficult!

We love La Saracina - have stayed there about 6 times. I think it would be perfect. The owner, Simonetta, is a wonderful, gracious hostess. Keep us informed of your progress...

I've not been following your threads, so I hope I don't repeat things you've rejected. You need to check these with tripadvisor.

http://www.lupaia.com/tuscany-relais.html

http://www.sanbrunorelais.com/

and here is a website you might want to peruse:

http://www.hotelrelais.it/tuscany_relais.asp

Since it's a honeymoon, you might be looking for "luxury". If so, do Google searches for the towns you would like to be near, plus the words "Italy relais."

If you don't care about "luxury", then use this website. It has advanced search features that allow you search specifically for "pool" and "romance" and "siena" and "hilltown" -- plus restaurant if you want that too. It has user reviews, but you should also google up the name of anything you see that you like, not only to get their website but to see if there more user reviews on Tripadvisor and other places.

http://en.agriturismo.it/tuscany/siena/index.jsp

Good luck!

Darcy: My sister stayed at La Saracina last spring and adored the place, and the owners.

Both she and her husband are quite fussy and if they both gave it a rave review, I would say that you can lay your head down there without fear. The location is perfect.


http://www.lasaracina.it/home.en.php

Hubby and I went to many of these towns last year and San Gimignano was are favorite! I cannot comment on the hotels, as we stayed in Florence, but if we were to go back and stay anywhere, I would stay in SG. For a honeymoon...even better.
There are cute shops, restaurants (we went to Cum Quibis and it was the best meal we had on our 2 week Italy trip), and views all around the city. Very cute! If I were to go back, I would stay in SG or rent a villa somewhere between/near Pienza and Montelcino. A villa rental could be very cool for a honeymoon...you can rent a car, drive to Pienza and get some wine and amazing fresh cheeses and take them back to your villa. Devne!!

I have to say that I consider Cortona (and Pienza and Montepulciano) to be south tuscany, and that both Cortona and Montepulciano make decent home bases. I know that COrtona has one or two relatively luxurious villa type hotels (one below and one above the actual town) and I think i recall seeing a pool at one of them.
Cortona makes a good home base because the road leading to it is good. You can get to Siena in 40 minutes, you can see San Gimignano as a day trip if you want, but also visit pienza and montepulciano. The town itself is quite alive and pleasant at night, whereas I do not think that Montepulciano has nearly as much to offer. Also the restaurants are less expensive and better. Furthermore you can hop into Umbria if you want to visit Perugia or Assisi.
Here is a google map with some points on it of things you might visit if you choose Cortona as your home base.
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?sourc...ed0782ae1&z=10