Rental villas or hotels in Tuscany and Umbria for 6 (2 couples, 2 singles)
 

Hi, <BR><BR>Looking for recommendations on villa rentals in Tuscany and Umbria. Hoping to spend one week in each location or villa. Six of us will be traveling (2 couples and 2 singles; so ideally a villa would have at least 2 rooms with double/queen/king beds and one room with two twin beds). <BR><BR>Your recommendations on the following items are greatly appreciated:<BR>- hill towns in which to base ourselves (and rationale for choosing that location)<BR>- villa rental services (online or offline) to explore and/or, better yet, <BR>- particular villas in which you yourself have stayed and which you would recommend <BR><BR>Travel would likely occur in September 2003. Our budget for all-in lodging costs (rental, taxes, other related lodging-only expenses) ideally in the $2200-$3200 range per week (could go to $3500).<BR><BR>Similarly, looking for recommendations on charming/historic hotels in hill towns of Tuscany or Umbria (as an alternative to villas). Target budget per room per night: $130-$180. <BR><BR>Many thanks, in advance, for your suggestions.<BR><BR>John H.<BR><BR>

Head on over to http://www.slowtrav.com and check out their rental reviews made by posters to their forum. For the foum, there is a click through or go directly at http://www.slowtalk.com<BR><BR>

John- We used Ilios travel for our villa rental. We were very pleased with their quality service and exceptional villas. www.iliostravel.com<BR>Our villa was Cassa Rossa- incredible!<BR><BR><BR><BR><BR>

Definitely go for the villa rental. I second Cristina's suggestion of checking out www.slowtrav.com. I would come up with a list of towns that the group is interested in visiting and then look for a villa that is centrally located for easy day trips. Good luck and have fun planning.

John, That sounds like a fun trip. I agree--start with slowtrav.com for good advice on how and where to rent. Location is always the key, but also screen by # of baths--can you live with only 2 baths?? Holler if you need help on locations.

Just a thought - depending on your group, cancellations by one two or more can be dicey. My friend started with 4 couples. They all cancelled for various reasons - stock market, last minute illness, etc. He was very glad that he went with several apartments instead at La Sovana. He cancelled one apartment and we joined him at the last minute in the other apartment, and it was very very nice there. The estate is maintained impeccably. <BR>Full kitchen, 2 bedrooms with private baths. Pool, tennis courts, bikes, right off the autostradda at Chiusi. It's halfway between Rome and florence by car/train. Perugia, Assissi, Florence, Siena, montepulciano, are just a few of the places within easy reach. (Rome is 1 hour south). there is a nice little shopping mall with huge supermarket 2 minutes away in Chiusi with ATM etc. http://www.karenbrownusa.com/italy/d...so?RecID=10640 and http://www.lasovana.com/lasovana_ing/default.htm

Thanks for your helpful comments. I have visited slowtrav on occasion and found it a great starting point. Any additional insights on places you have stayed (be they cities, hotels or villas) are welcome.<BR><BR>john h

John, For Umbria, look at these two:<BR>Santa Maria degli Ancilotti--5 miles from Assisi--modern apts. in great setting. We have stayed there.<BR><BR>Malvarina--a rural agriturismo near Spello--good prices and location<BR><BR>Tuscany is too big--you need to decide a location first. I prefer south Tuscany near Val d' Orcia[ Montalcino, Pienza et al]

Excerpted from a recent post.<BR><BR>Author: [email protected] ([email protected])<BR>Date: 10/27/2002, 11:13 pm<BR><BR>Message: Can't imagine that there could be any bargains going as a group of more than 4. Need to rent a vehicle that is going to hold all of these people, and vans aren't that comfortable. Where do you think you are saving money? Certainly not on food, too many problems with splitting a check if people don't order similarly. This will cause lots of hard feelings. Staying in a villa is more expensive than staying in hotels because you have to commit to staying a week. No bargains there and there's no maid service. Think you're going to save on breakfast by cooking in? That's stupid, the cheapest meal of the day is breakfast. This is not a trip for couples, its a trip for singles, widows, and women whose husbands won't travel with them that are too scared to travel alone, and are too annoying to travel with friends. <BR>

Over the past four years, we have rented four different villas from The Parker Company.<BR>Each has been clean, well equipped and reasonably prices.<BR>Their catalog (www.theparkercompany.com) features at least 50 different options for Tuscany/Umbria ranging from modest to hilltop castles.<BR>Good luck.

We just returned from an early October visit to Tuscany. The rental company we used was La Bella Toscana. (They are listed on slowtrav.com. They were very nice to work with and we can't say enough about how pleased we were with our rental (very clean, great location, super owner). They have properties primarily in the area surrounding San Gimignano. We really liked this area as a great base for day trips: about 50 minutes to Florence by car, about 20 minutes to Siena, 10 minutes to San G.

Hi,<BR>I echo the advice to look at slowtrav.com for rentals.<BR>Also, check out anfamtos.com They have a couple of family-run estates. I stayed at one (Sant' Elizabetta) in Sarteano last April. Beautfully converted barn with 4 bedrooms, 3 baths. Screens on windows! Washing machine. Very clean. Estate-made wine available, and olive oil. <BR>Sarteano is in Southern Tuscany, on the border of Umbria. Ideal if you have a car. Here you must have a car--or 2 for such a big group? Near many hilltowns --Montalcino, Pienza, Cortona, Montepulciano and Umbria. Also near the train in Chiusi. <BR>The manager, Berenice, speaks English and willingly corresponded thru e-mail.<BR>Best of luck!<BR>elisabet<BR> <BR>

Many thanks for the replies. Will have to digest and do follow-up research:-).<BR><BR>Again, the names of any particular villas (for 6 people) or hotels that you have stayed in would be great.<BR><BR>john h<BR><BR>

If you are interested, I have a part of villa in Florence.<BR>Can see it looking at www.genie.it/utenti/carlo.nocentini

Our friends Peri and David have a beautiful villa high up in the hills of Tuscany in a beautiful little hillside town called Seggiano. They run a working olive orchard and you get a free bottle included with you stay, which runs about $1000 for the Villa and several hundred less for the Casseta (2-story cottage), where we stayed for our honeymoon. Highly recommended!<BR><BR>http://www.seggiano.co.uk/Holidays.html