OK, I know that this question has been done to death, but since I'm the one going this time, I wish I had paid better attention to all the previous responses. Anyhow, we are staying in San Gimignano for 3 days/nights and in Siena for 1 day/night in early April. We have a car, and want to day trip to Florence for one day. That leaves us with 2 wide open days before we go to Siena. We will have our 5 year old with us, so we want to include him in our fun. Any ideas from you seasoned fodorites?

I'm missing something, you have 3 days in San Gimignano and 1 in Siena....where are the two wide open days????

If you want to day trip into Florence which I really don't recommend if you have 3/1 days do so by using your rental car to get yourselves to the nearest and most convenient train station serving Florence...could be driving almost there but recommend train but you could drive in and pay park...thats doable.

Good luck, sounds like some weird plans but I'm sure will be fun.

I was in Italy in October and spent a wonderful week in cortona (that is where the movie, Under The Tuscan Sun was filmed) I didn't go there for that reason but I loved it - it was everything I had hoped Italy would be. We were close enough to do day trips to all the places you have mentioned staying. Teri

traveler863,

I guess I should have been more clear. We are staying at a B&B in SG, but are not planning on spending three days there. We will be doing other things during the day, and returning to SG in the evenings.

Thanks for your response.

HI gravy--the good thing about this board is that even if you were not paying close attention to previous responses, they are all--or mostly all--still there. Just use the search function. Happy sleuthing!!

>>wonderful week in cortona (that is where the movie, Under The Tuscan Sun was filmed) <<

Many of the "beautiful countryside" scenes were not filmed near Cortona. That double row of cypress trees zig-zagging up a hill was filmed near La Foce in the Val d'Orcia. That small church sitting on a crest of a hill with an umbrella pine & another building next to it - again in the Val d'Orcia just 2 K east of San Quirico.

Stu Dudley