queenmum

My sister and I will be staying in the Umbria area for 5-6 nights in early Oct. Is Orvieto a nice town for a home base? We will have a car for only this part of our trip. Destinations: Assisi, Cortona and a few other smaller towns. We would like a base with good restaurants/shopping/exploring etc. and a place we can enjoy for about two full days out of 5-6.
Thank you in advance for any suggestions or help you can give us. We will be arriving by train from Florence and will continue on from Umbria stay to Rome by train.

joannyc

I would suggest 2 bases during this part of your trip. Maybe a few nights in Cortona or Perugia (although I love Assisi) followed by 2 nights in Orvieto. It would give you a shorter distance to travel each day to see towns close to your bases.

Are you planning on seeing Siena from either Florence or your Umbria base? I think Siena is worth a night or two on it's own.

sandralist

It would help if you mentioned what "few other smaller towns" you want to see. Umbria sprawls, and Orvieto is one southwestern corner of it, much closer to southern Tuscany. If you want to see more Tuscan towns (like Cortona, in Tuscany), it might work out fine. If the rest of what's on your list is in northeast Umbria, you might want to pick another location in Umbria (or even Tuscany) for a base.

isabel

Depending on the other places you want to visit it might not be very central geographically. But it meets your criteria for a great town in and of itself with plenty to do for a few days, lots of restaurant choices,etc. And it is very close to both Todi and Civita di Bagnoregio (go early in the day to Bagnoregio).

Here's my photos of those and some other Umbrian towns
http://www.pbase.com/annforcier/umbria

bvlenci

If I were staying in Orvieto with a car for five nights or more, I might not want to stay in the center, because the drive up and down would begin to get old pretty quickly. It would be fine for a few nights.

We once spent some time in the center of Montalcino, and I began to wish we had found a place in the valley. I tend to get carsick on winding roads.

indyhiker

I'm admittedly partial to the area around Spello. Spello itself is a pretty quiet and small town, but it is geographically well located within Umbria and is an easy town to get in and out of, with a free public parking lot just outside the main town gate. From Spello, you can easily get to Assisi, Montefalco, Bevagna, Foligno and Spoleto. And Gubbio, Perugia, Deruta, Orvieto and Norcia (among others) all make for viable day trips. Plus, Spello is on the train line back to Rome.

I, too, like the idea of two bases. That's what we're doing this coming May, with a few days in Panicale and another six days in Spello. We didn't mind the longer drives we had for some of our day trips (Orvieto and Norcia in particular), it did make for some long days in the car. The good news is that traffic isn't overly heavy in Umbria and the countryside is pretty. But, as mentioned above, there are some windy roads.

I'd note that car rental can be tricky in Umbria as there are a limited number of agencies from which to rent. We used Europcar in Foligno last May. We're using Europcar again this coming May with a pick up in Chiusi and drop off in Foligno. Remember too that most agencies outside of the major cities are closed on Sunday and are closed from around 1-3 p.m. most other days. So, just make sure you have the rental details worked out before you commit to an itinerary.

NYCFoodSnob

Orvieto is a hill town near the southwestern edge of Umbria. The entrance road that leads to the city center on top, Strada della Stazione, is on the northwest side of the city. To some drivers wanting to drive east into Umbria on a regular basis, the in and outs of Orvieto with a car could be perceived as inconvenient.

Personally, I find Orvieto easier to conquer with a car than Siena or Perugia, but every hill town in Italy has a learning curve for cars. Many of the streets of Spello are tiny, and parking for tourists can be very limited.

The devil is in the details, and it helps if you know what you want to explore and to plan around those co-oridinates.

For a driving-in-Italy novice, basing yourself in a hill town to explore a region is not an easy endeavor. Most hill towns in Italy these days discourage car use, especially cars rented by tourists.

queenmum

Thank you to all who have given me things to think about regarding a home base. I'm thinking possibly a couple nights in Orvieto and a couple in Assisi could possibly be something we would be interested in pursuing. The car pick-up and drop off will be the big catch as to where we are staying because I do not want to drive a car out of Florence to our destination; I prefer to pick it up in one of the towns we lst arrive in after Florence. That will be a big part of our decision regarding where to stay.

Thanks!

bvlenci

You could try Indyhiker's pickup and dropoff towns. Chiusi isn't very far from Orvieto, and Foligno is near Assisi.

sandralist

I don't know if your problem picking up a car in Florence is that you don't want the stress of urban driving, or if you want to limit the amount of driving you do from the time you pick up the car and reach your first destination.

You can skip the stress by picking up the car at the airport in Florence. From there to Assisi it is about a 2 hour drive.

If you want a shorter drive to your 1st destination, and if your first destination after Florence is Orvieto, makes sense to me to rent the car in Orvieto. If it is Assisi, there are trains to Foligno that are only a half hour longer than going to Chiusi, and from Foligno it is only 30 minutes to Assisi (as opposed to 90 minutes or so from Chiusi).

sandralist

(or at least I think I have that right -- one thing you need to check is when rental offices are open in your target towns on the day you would be picking up the car. Airport offices are open all day; small town offices, no.)

indyhiker

As far as I know only Avis and Hertz maintain offices in Orvieto and neither are in Foligno. They may have offices in Spoleto though. I went through some of this last year when I learned that Avis had closed its office in Foligno. My husband did not want to pick up the car in Rome, so Foligno was our easiest bet. But the Europcar in Foligno (which isn't right at the rail station) turned out to be great so it worked out. But the point is that you really have to nail theses details down before committing to an itinerary. Certainly, if you can pick up your rental in Florence, that may make things a lot easier.

isabel

I didn't think the drive up to Orvieto was bad at all, and it's only 5 or 10 minutes. But parking can be a problem up in the old town. However, there are at least two huge parking lots down on the "flatlands". The one by the train station is connected to the upper town by a funicular, and the one on the other side of town by an elevator. So depending on where your hotel is located, parking and getting up there shouldn't be too much of a problem.

RonZ

Driving tips:

http://driventoit.blogspot.com.au/

simpsonc510

The Picolomini Hotel is close to the large parking structure with elevator, on the other side of the upper older Orvieto town.

Dayle

Quite a few years ago we stayed in Orvieto for 3 nights at Palazzo Piccolomini. Loved the hotel, parked in the free parking structure below and took the series of underground escalators ( a unique experience) which come out right at the hotel.

We loved Orvieto! So much to see and enjoy. We also did a couple of day trips from there, one day to Deruta and Todi. Another afternoon to Civita di Bagnoreggio.

Turned out car in at Orvieto and trained on to our next destination, Santa Margherita Ligure.

Orvieto remains one of my very favorite places in Italy and still wins for best passeggiata.

EYWandBTV

There is a similar thread on this question, begun a few days ago. You may find it helpful:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...a-570444-2.cfm

queenmum

I love to read everyone's suggestions.
I don't want to drive out of Florence, would prefer to pick up the car in Orvieto and return it there before training to final destination of Rome.
Thank you for the hotel suggestions/for parking etc.
I appreciate the time everyone took to help me out with my question. I will be looking into suggestions.

Queenmum