New to agriturismo staying (help)
 

I am completely new to the idea of staying in a agriturismo or farmhouse. we are going to tuscany for 5 days and now thinking about renting a car. we are still in the planning stages, but this idea was just brought to our attention and seems WONDERFUL as well as a cheaper alternative to our staying in hotels, which we always do.

since i am very new to this and there are TOOOO many options on the internet for agriturismo in tuscany, can anyone provide a great centralized, relatively INEXPENSIVE agriturismo which we could stay. there are 4 of us all together and dont mind sharing a bed. all in our upper 20s. we definitely want to do siena, montalcino, san gimignano, montapuliciano and others as time allows. so being central to those would be an advantage.

thanks as always !!!

Good question! I have seen this scenario hundreds of times. My best advice is to not look at a single option until you lock in location---I mean really lock it in.
Next, decide if you want to be on your own. It sounds romantic until the water goes out or you cannot operate the stove. I would not suggest it for a first experience. You want the owner there or very nearby. Or, rent an apt. on a farm with other guests on the site.
Now, you can start to shop. Always start at www.slowtrav.com and look at their counsel on Tuscany locations and then rental property reviews. There is no subsitute for first hand referrals. If you merely get a big catalog or giant website and start to browse properties you will go crazy. It is a big decision--take your time. You will likely want to locate south of Siena with your wish list. Good luck and come back with questions.

All 4 of you sharing a bed??! I dont think there are agriturismos like that in Italy.
But if you are really interested in living the simple life, eating great food and seeing the lifestyle of central Italy check out elegant etruria's list of itineraries and places to stay. They have been gleaned by a 40+ years resident and guidebook writer who knows the area,

well we wouldnt all be sharing a bed, but i was refering to possibly a place with only two beds and we would sleep two and two. haha

we are just lookin for something relatively inexpensive and simple, since we will not be planning on doing much more than sleeping and changing in the agritourismo. we plan on being on the go, out seeing tuscany. so to spend a fortune on a agritourismo wouldnt make sense.

I suspect you are equating agriturismo with saving $$$ and that is not always the case. Do you plan to cook for yourselves? Here is a place in a great location that is very good value.
www.cretaiole.it

We considered staying at a farm house in northern Italy a couple of years ago; but it was away from cities and villages, and not meant for a day or two.

How is your Italian?

Europeans city folk love the idea of communing with nature the old fashioned way, sleeping in the hay, helping with the farm work, tending to the animals. Great for a family with kids. Or, if you're thinking Tuscany, you'd probably get some outdoor wine drinking and music... I enjoy the mushroom picking and cooking.

You mention visiting old medieval cities in Tuscany, which is different from country living. Have you considered the alternative of staying at one of the old estates in the country?

This fall I enjoyed the hill towns of Orvieto http://www.orvietoonline.com/ and Civita di Bagnoregio http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/desti...y/civitabd.htm . Note the promotions for agriturismo and historic houses.

One aspect of farm life to consider: upon reentry from Europe into the US, you fill out an agricultural questionnaire, declaring whether or not you've come into contact with farm animals. The customs agent accepted only YES or NO answers, no in-between explanations. I don't know how Italy rates on the scale of foot-and-mouth disease, but would you want to risk getting quarantined and fumigated?

Greek:

Bob is right (as always). First, you have to decide on the location you want to concentrate on. 5 days isn't a long time for Tuscany. Also, you haven't mentioned what your budget is.

The most central location to all of Tuscany is the Siena area. Below is a link to a nice agriturismo near San Gimignano (which is close to Siena). We've stayed there and sent friends there as well. But, it's not cheap. The cheap agriturismos (and there are cheap ones) usually don't have web sites.

http://www.casanovadipescille.com/

We recently got back from a stay just outside of Montepulciano at this agriturismo :

http://www.s.benedetto.it/

We had the separate Annex which was very nice and comfortable. It is a one-bedroom with a sofa sleeper as well so it could work for you or they have 4 other apartments, I think 2 of which have 2 bedrooms. I felt the price was really reasonable, we paid 290€ for 4 nights, so 72.50 a night.

It was a good base to see Montepulciano, Pienza, Cortona, Monalcino. We did not get to San Gimignano as it was a couple hours away and being november the days were short. It would be possible though.

They also have a swimming pool which may be nice if you are going in summer.

The only thing a bit negative was the fact that there was some noise from the highway as it runs right next to the agriturismo. It didn't really bother me at all but my boyfriend was a bit. We would still stay there again, no question.

Here are many options; this site gives you 33 pages of agriturismi in Siena province of Tuscany alone; many are quite inexpensive:



http://www.italy-farmholidays.com/ag.../toscana/siena

Here's something that might be useful to you - a brief summary of the "agriturismo experience" - aspects of it anyway. http://www.bella-toscana.com/agriturismo.htm