Hopefully someone could help me. I've got two dilemna's.

First off, we are leaving Rome and heading towards downtown Siena to pick up our automatic rental car(through autoeurope). But our plan is to stay in Montalcino for 2 nights at Hotel Giglio (they only had 2 nights available). We need another place to stay in Tuscany for a third night. Any suggestions?

Next dilema is whether we should return the car to downtown Siena and take the bus to Florence (our next stop) or should we drive to Florence and drop the car there? My fiance isn't exactly that great of a driver, so I"m a little nervous for him. How crazy are the drivers in Florence?

If anyone has any hotel recommendations for Florence, I'd really appreciate that as well.

Thank you for your help in advance!

Jenny,
We stayed at the Hotel Globus in Florence. It was near the San Lorenzo market and while not glamorous, it was clean, quiet and not expensive. We were originally promised a room with a good view and ended up with a central room (#101) with two views of airshafts but as it turned out, that made it exceptionally quiet. It's within walking distance of everything.

Regarding the car, the hardest part of our trip was driving into Florence and finding the Hertz drop-off and/or our hotel. If I had it to do over again, I'd leave the car in Siena and take the train into Florence. It's not so much that the drivers are crazy but there are many narrow streets you can't drive into, the streets change names frequently, etc. It's a great city to walk in but I'd avoid driving there.

Hi Jenny--
I'm not sure how you are getting to Siena from Rome, but you might want to consider picking the car up in Rome and driving to Siena. We ended up doing that due to a train strike, and we found the drive was quite easy (and beautiful). Our pick up location was near the freeway that circles around Rome (I don't remember the name, sorry). Maybe you could then drop the car off in Siena (get directions first) and spend some time there, or maybe even your extra night. Hotel Giglio is wonderful (they will park your car for you). You could also try a search here or on www.slowtrav.com for other hotel recs in the tuscany region. Have fun! --b

IMO you'd be best off dropping the car off in Florence (but make sure you at least visit Siena). I too am nervous about DH driving, but the road between Siena and Florence is not at all scary. I'd suggest you stay at Hotel Villa Belvedere in Florence as they have free parking and will help you locate the dropoff for the car. Their website is www.villa-belvedere.com.

Thank you all for your suggestions.

Hdm-I'm leaning towards your suggestion of just dropping the car back in Siena and taking the Train.

Btewalt-I'm still doing the "research" portion of getting from Rome to Siena. Any suggestions besides driving ourselves? I think there's a bus or train that we could take. I've been so busy with wedding planning that I haven't gotten all the details yet. But the reason why we chose not to rent the car from Rome was because we heard about the crazy drivers in Rome too. I didn't want the fiance to get stressed out so early in the trip.

Artlover-it's not the road between Siena and Florence that worries me, its what happens once we hit Florence.

I appreciate all your advice in this matter.

Here's my $0.02.

We enjoyed Il Chiostro di Pienza (in Pienza, of course). In the center of town and a block or so from Il Rossellino, a mom and pop restaurant with twelve seats and excellent food and wine.

Pienza is , of course east of Montalcino, and further in the same direction, is Arezzo with car offices across the street from the train station. An hour or so to Florence.

(I've returned a car in Florence once and would rather not do it again.)

I agree about Pienza. We went there more than once and really enjoyed it. I can't remember the name of the place where we had dinner but it was only OK anyway. I do remember shopping for porchetta and pecorino and my husband (the cook in the family) making a fabulous dinner that night. Pienza is small and charming. I know I was supposed to love Siena but I really didn't. It was a very hot day, the place was packed with tourists (including us) and it just wasn't fun. Pienza was calm and sweet by comparison.

Another consideration for you is Montepulciano which is a charming town with a nice shopping street and beautiful church (San Biagio) outside the walls. Montepulciano is on the highest hill in Tuscany and a wonderful drive and view.

Don't worry about driving. Take your time in the hills and just pull into the next lay-by if there's a driver behind you. Don't feel you have to speed up. We found local drivers to be very patient. They'll come up right behind you but will wait for you to move over. The autostrada's a breeze. It's fast but easy to manage.

I don't think Italian drivers are crazy at all -- I think they're good drivers, in fact. You'd have to be a good driver to drive in Rome and live through it!

Jenny--
We had originally planned on taking the train from Rome to Siena and picking up the car in Siena. But, when we went to the travel agency in Rome, we were informed of a train strike and that the train may, or may not leave. So we promptly called autoeurope and changed our pick up location to Rome. We too were nervous about the driving in Rome, but the pick up location was a couple blocks from the autostrada (I think westish from the Vatican) and once we found our way, there were no problems.
BUT, I definately understand your concerns. If you are wanting to make things easiest on yourselves, I'm thinking you should probably just pick up and drop off in Siena. Train to Siena from Rome, and take the direct bus from Siena to Florence. Spend your extra night in Pienza or Montepulciano as previously suggested. Explore Siena after dropping off your car.
Also keep in mind, that if you don't want to buy your train tixs ahead of time, or at the station, that you can go to a travel agency to purchase tixs at no extra charge.

Oh, one more thing: "downtown Siena" is down the hill from Siena. Get good directions, or take a taxi.

Oops..I think we were originally going to pick up our car in Chiusi...

Anyway, you have me remembering our wonderful stay in Montalcino. Please try eating at Trattoria Sciame (a very tiny restaurant) or Grappolo Blu. We had delicious meals at both. There is also a lovely little cafe down the way from the Giglio where we had our breakfast with fresh squeezed OJ. Sigh...

When is your honeymoon?

For your third night in Tuscany, how about staying in San Gimignano? That way you get to see it evening and morning when empty of day trippers. There are several places to stay in SG; we liked our room with a (shared) terrace at the Bel Soggiorno. Just don't try to drive into SG as we did. Park your car outside, preferably in the parking lot nearest the gate.

Driving in Florence is crazy, but if you're only driving in to drop off the car, it should be doable. Villa Belvedere is on the outshirts.

And if you do go and stay overnight in Siena and have a car, I'd suggest either staying out of town at a place that has parking, or if you do stay in town, park outside town and walk in. We stayed in town without a car and I'm glad we didn't have one--driving in the old town itself would really be a challenge.

I liked Pienza, but think Siena has much more to offer.

The suggestion to drop the car off in Arezzo seems great to me. The train to Florence is quick and convenient. Arezzo is a great town, with art treasures by Piero della Francesca that shouldn't be missed. Good food in Arezzo, too. And if you can time for the monthly antiques fair, that is even better.