questions about itenerary? help!
 

My husband and I are traveling to Italy on Sept. 10. The following is our tentative Itenerary. Please critique. e_roz, I especially value your opinions as I have been reading your posts and know that you did a very similar trip.

Sept 10: Leave USA
Sept 11: Arrive Venice
Sept 12: Venice
Sept 13: Leave Venice, train to Florence
Sept 14: Tuscany by car
Sept 15: Tuscany by car
Sept 16: Tuscany by car
Sept 17: Tuscany by car- turn in car? where? train to Cinque Terre
Sept 18: Cinque Terre
Sept 19: leave Cinque Terre, Late afternoon train to Milan
Sept 20: Fly home

Questions:
1. Shoule we rent the car out of Florence or Sienna? Where should we turn it in to travel on to Cinque Terre?

2. We have no reservations (Except Venice) and plan on getting rooms as we arrive- is this doable?

3. What is a good route for Tuscany. The towns I think I want to see are Chianti, Montelpuciano, Montelcino, Volterra, Siena, Lucca and Pisa (although I realize we may not be able to see all of these places in such a short amount of time) Should we stay in different places everynight or base in Sienna or elsewhere?

Please do not reem me for waiting this long to plan (as I have seen you do to others). This started out as a backpacking trip and we were just going to go wherever we felt like once we got there, but I am inherently a planner so the closer it gets the more planning I do. Mainly I want to optimize the short amount of time that we have. I wasn't going to rent a car to see Tuscany but after reading this board I changed my mind. Your thoughts???? Thanks in advance!

Hi
My husband and I are going to be in Italy the same days you are.(for our 10 year anniversary) We just started planning our trip at the beginning of July. It is a bit overwhelming! Check out www.slowtrav.com they have loads of information. We are doing almost the same things you are except we are flying into Rome, renting a villa in Tuscany for 7 days and spending the last three days in Rome. The car rental is a huge issue for us as well and I look forward to reading what people have for feedback. Have a great trip!

Where are you renting your villa? I looked into villas a little but it looks like they might be over our budget. Who knows, maybe our paths will cross somewhere in Tuscany!

Have you checked into the website www.tuscanhouse.com. What price range are you looking for? The villa we rented is alittle pricey but its our 10 year anniversary and thought we would splurge. We didn't book our villa through this site but have heard rave reviews about Zak who organizes accomodations. Have you been to Italy before? Are you staying in a hotel in the tuscany area?

After Venice, I'd stay two nights in or near Florence and two in or near Siena. We did that last fall (except we had three nights in Siena), and it was fine for us. We picked up our rental car on the way out of Florence to Siena, which we then used as a base for seeing San Gimignano, Voltera, Montepulciano, and Montalcino.
I'd plan to drop off the car at Lucca, though I haven't been there. Wanted to see Lucca, but just didn't have time.

One thing that worked well for us was that we stayed at Palazzo Raviza in Siena, a nice hotel, with very convenient parking behind and below the hotel, providing easy access to outside roads to the outlying areas. I don't know what your budget is, but you'll probably have to pay more if you want convenient parking.

We are trying to keep our accomodation costs to 50 euro or under per day. We will stay in hostels if we need to. Booked a room in Venice for 60 euro. Other than that we have no reservations. We do not want to limit ourselves by having to be in a certain place at a certain time because of reservations. We'll see how this works... The villas and farms are very tempting.

I like the idea of dropping the car off in Lucca. How are the trains from Lucca to Pisa?

Flights changed. We are not training from Cinque Terre to Florence and flying home through Florence. So now reconsidering the Venice to Florence thing. Any thoughts on Venice to Sienna to pick up rental car. Problem there is that the rental car place is closed on Sunday in Sienna. How is driving out of Florence??

IT is much easier to drive out of Florence than to drive into Florence.

I have done both and the signing is better when you leave Florence.

So glad to hear (read) that you are both planning stops in some of the wonderful "hilltop towns" in Tuscany and Umbria. They are absolute must see's. The hilltop towns show you the true Italy, in my opinion. A city is a city is a city... (altho some are very memorable)!

I enjoyed Orvieto very much, stayed in an old hotel there. I was on a group tour summer 02 and can't tell you exact cost of the room but it was up in the old city. Also stayed two nights in Siena and had time for that interesting city.

I also enjoyed Cetone. This was on another trip to Italy and we visited friends who live near Rome. We had the best Italian meal in Cetone at a place called Da Nilo "Osteria Vecchia" (I have their ash tray). Valentino the designer has a home in this tiny little hilltop town. The hilltop towns are perfect for leisurely strolling and shopping. Remember that most shops will close for a couple of hours in the middle of the day for lunch!
Have a great time in Italy, both of you.