is this town a good base if we want to spend a few days in tuscany. or is their a more central place.

Where will you be going before and after Tuscany?

Also, what other towns do you plan on visiting in Tuscany?

This is a great place! We stayed in a country villa with friends in 2001. Great to spend a day in San Gimignano, Sienna, Florence, and surrounding hill towns.

Lorac[Carol] is asking the right questions--it all depends. The San Gim. area is fine as a base location, but I prefer south of Siena. Look at the Pienza, San Quirico area as well.

Our first trip to Tuscany we stayed right in San Gimignano and liked it a lot, although admittedly driving up into the village and out again through the day tripping crowds is no easy feat. We visited a lot of towns from that location. But this past summer we spent a week in Montepulciano and liked it a lot better as a base. And I honestly think Pienza might be my favorite base of all. I agree with bobthenavigator (why wouldn't I?) that the southern area is somehow "better".

I preferred southern Tuscany--Pienza, Montalcino and the cypress roads. But my husband left his heart in the Chianti country.

I really don't think you can go wrong in either location, it's just a matter of what you want to see and do so that you can pick a location that suits your interests best.

By the way, we happened to really enjoy San Gim. Lovely town, very nice shops and beautiful views. We were there in March and there were a fair amount of tourists, but not to bad at all.

It depends when you travel - it can become quite congested with tour buses and tour groups during popular months.I would not stay there because of this.

You park in a parking lot right outside of S.G., and then you have a very interesting five minute walk into the center of town. The only reason for driving into the town would be to drop off luggage. S.G. is a very small town and totally walkable.

What we have done many times is spend the nights there- it is lovely and not at all crowded then, and then we go sightseeing in the area during the day. That way, we totally miss the crowds and buses.

Pienza is nice but just not as beautiful and interesting, and we found it a little hard to get to.

One place we might stay sometime is the Rocca d'Orcia area.

I'm sure there are many great areas to use for a base in Tuscany.

The town is neither central to the rest of Tuscany nor near major roads. It is also very small and not a place that warrants more than few hours. In short, its not a good base by any criterion.

we decided on spending 2 days in san gim and 2 days in montpulciano. we will not have a car it will probably be hard to get between the two,