honeymooninitaly2

There are many sites to gather research on this topic and I have just started this process. I wanted to get some feedback from this forum as well. Here is what we are thinking:
6 people - my soon to be husband and me, my sister and her best friend and my parents. Flying from the east coast... United States. We are hoping to plan this trip for June 2008. This would be my 3rd trip to Italy, my parents 2nd trip and sister's first. My parents would like to do 3 days Amalfi Coast, 3 days Rome and 1 week Tuscany. The rest of the group would like to do 1 week Tuscany and a few days Italian Riviera. What location in Tuscany would you recommend? Is this type of trip possible without being too much? Do you recommend any villas in particular? You probably need to know our budget? We are open in that area as of now...once we see what is out there in the different ranges we can narrow it down. But for arguements sake we'll probably start looking at villas around 5,000 maybe a litte more or a little less. Any advice would be wonderful.
Thank you,
Robyn

cls2paris

Hi - I stayed in this villa. It is not in Tuscany but in Umbria near the border of Tuscany. It is perfect for 6 people. We hired a chef to come in to give us a cooking class one day - we made a wonderful 5 course meal. There is a pool and wonderful views. Exactly what I expected a villa to be like. It is WAY below your suggested budget, $2000 or less per week.

We made many day trips - Siena, Cortona, Montepulciano, Montalcino, Deruta, Orvieto, Assisi and more. Plus took the train to Florence one day.

http://www.ourhouseinumbria.com/our_...bria_2_001.htm

Have a fun trip!

bobthenavigator

Robyn, Perhaps you have, but you need to spend time at slowtrav.com and look at their reviews. Most of the experienced people there prefer south Tuscany and the Val d' Orcia. My advice is to always pick location first--Tuscany is bigger than you know.

SloJan

CLS, we rented that place last year. It was amazing and so well priced. Our only complaint was the road that led to it, but they said that they were working on it!
Cheers,
Jan

cls2paris

SloJan - small world! Some friends stayed there in May and loved it also! They didn't think the road was too bad so the work must have been completed. I would like to go back in the summer to take advantage of the pool.

rfbk50

You might check with www.parkervillas.com. We used them and were very satisfied. They have a catalog of villas with pictures and descriptions in all price ranges. We rented through a travel agent who had the catalog, but I do think you can deal direct with the company.

nminarcik

My family stayed here: http://www.ilborro.it/welcome.htm

My husband, two kids, and myself went to Rome for three nights and then moved on to meet more family members at Il Boro. This was our center for out week in tuscany. It is quite beautiful. We visited Siena, Pisa, Florence and Cortona; and still had time to squeeze in the wedding of my brother and sister-in-law(which was on-site at the church at il boro, with the reception following!).

You can also get a feel for Arezzo, which is a good sized town and the small (but very welcoming) town of S.Giustino Valdarno!

Good Luck!