Recommendations needed for rentals in the Tuscan countryside
 

I need help in finding a good tried & trusted vacation rental in the Tuscan countryside (preferably in Chianti or the likes, we don't care so much about beaches)..
We'll be spending a week there during a 2-week honeymoon in Italy next September.

We're looking for something small & cozy since it's just the two of us,
We'll be renting a car, so it doesn't matter if it's far from big towns (actually seclusion & a romantic atmosphere is a plus!),
and our budget is not more than €360 for the whole week rent.

Any suggestions? :)

Www.slowtrav.com has a really good listing to give you a good start to your research

That budget will be a challenge. Do you plan to have a car?

@jamikins Thanks a lot, will check it now :)

@bobthenavigator.. yea sure, as I said "We'll be renting a car, so it doesn't matter if it's far from big towns (actually seclusion & a romantic atmosphere is a plus!)"

actually I did find some places that fit our criteria on ownersdirect.co.uk , but I needed more reviewed options just to make sure

You can try booking.com. They have some villas and apartments in villas, and many of them have very recent reviews. Start out with a google search for "booking.com chianti", and then when you get the website, narrow the search to "apartments" or "villas" (and you also might try "honeymoon romance"). I don't know if they have anything in your price range.

Another place where you can read reviews is on this website:

http://www.agriturismo.net/

although I don't know how reviews get posted on their site. On booking.com, the only people who are allowed to post a review are people who booked their stay through booking.com, and then the property owner confirmed that they stayed there. On other sites (including Slow Travel as far as I know, and Tripadvisor), there is no independent mechanism for assuring that someone actually stayed on the property they reviewed).

This is another website where you can see reviews, but these are more apartments than independent villas (same is true of the link I gave above).

http://www.agriturismo.it/en/



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Thanks @goldenautumn, I always do all my bookings on booking.com but the countryside rentals are a bit trickier to find.
Thanks for your help anyway :)

We rented a lovely farmhouse in Tuscany through chianti-and-more.com. They were a joy to work with. While there we had private cooking class and met a lovely lady named Orsa. She and her cousin have an agriturismo just outside Siena. I took some ladies on a tour the following year and stayed there. It is borgopersonatina.com/ita. It is not only a great place to stay but she is a wealth of information ( and her husband works for wine consortium.) it was fun to sit around in the evenings and here another side of Italy.... Congratulations on your marriage. You are going to love Italy:))

Congrats on you marriage.

Some beautiful Chianti Villages are
Radda
Panzano
Castellina

I think that 360E is not realistic for a week. I know of one place in Gaiole that is a very idealic one bedroom "honeymoon" kind of place with a private pool....but it is an amazingly good deal at 1000E a week.

There are two places near Radda that might work. They are both basic but great settings/pools
http://www.casaporciatti.com/ They don't mention it on the web site but they have a one bedroom apartment on the outskirts of Radda. Use the contact and ask about the price for their apartment
The other is Le Selvole (just google Leselvole Radda and you can find various sites). the selvole has beautiful grounds, one big building with various apartments

Your best search site will probably be slowtrav.com

Most of the apartments at this villa Le Torri (link below) are are €475 a week during September. Recommended on slowtrav.com >

REVIEW 1:http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/vr/review.asp?n=5151

REVIEW 2: http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/vr/review.asp?n=4211

REVIEW 3: http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/vr/review.asp?n=4148



Le Torri Villa website: http://www.letorri.com/index.php?dis...hianti-tuscany


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Wow, I am going to look into this place when I go back next year!

Thanks everyone for the links :)

@jnjfraz we're actually looking for something a lot more basic than the "honeymoon" type with a private pool.. We already know that's way over our budget :D

We actually found 2 places on flipkey.com and ownersdirect.com but we're trying to find somewhere that we're sure of.. The reviews on flipkey seemed over-enthusiastic to me so I need to double-check if anyone here has personally found something suitable.

Sorry that's ownersdirect.co.uk

>>>><i>We actually found 2 places</i>

It would help if you linked the specific apartments here.

This one on VBRO is actually €330/week
http://www.vrbo.com/488600ha?unitId=1243527

This one is for €346
http://www.ownersdirect.co.uk/italy/IT4220.htm

This one's for €350
http://www.ownersdirect.co.uk/italy/IT3908.htm

And this one is for €317
http://www.ownersdirect.co.uk/italy/IT5190.htm

The problem is, I can't find reviews for the ones on ownersdirect.. The owner of the one on VBRO has very good reviews, and I found some others on Flipkey that only seem to have over-enthusiastic reviews

Which of these would you go for?

Get a good map of Tucsany and do some reading.
Tuscany is quite large, and is really 5 distinct geographic areas to me. First, you decide what you want to see and do in Tuscany and only then start to look at rentals. The ones you have listed are in the less popular areas of Tuscany and therefore less expensive. It is called supply and demand and it works in Italy too.

I will add that the only location I would consider among those above would be the Volterra one. But, you are still an hour to mainline Chianti or Siena. You really need a good map.

@bobthenavigator, well yea we do know it is vast, and that's why we're renting a car and the location of the rental is what's going to determine the places we'll see, not the other way around..
It may sound weird, but that's all we can get with our budget, and we really just want to spend some quality time in the Tuscan countryside that's all..
If the rental happened to be close enough to one of the more popular cities, we'll go see it on a day trip.. Otherwise, we don't really care that much about sightseeing in Tuscany on this particular trip.

Thanks for the tip bob!
and of course we have a map :)

Sorry, I thought you preferred Chianti.