Staying in Siena?
 

Four adults are traveling to the Tuscany region in October for 5 nights. We will be using this as home base to tour the Tuscany region. We would like to be able to be centrally located and be able to walk to restaurants, etc. but have peace and quiet as well. Is this possible? Where should we stay? We would like to rent something instead of staying in a hotel. We will not have a car. Thank you for any advice.

Do you mean you want an apartment? I would stay inside the walls if you want to be able to walk to things easily. Are you planning day trips by bus? What's your budget?

Hberry, In Siena I would strongly recommend the PALAZZO RAVIZZA which is often endorsed on this board. As I recall the neighborhood was rather quiet, but the hotel is only a 10 minute walk to the Campo and Duomo. Others here can suggest public transportation options to various Tuscany locales.

We had a car (for which there was parking at the Ravizza) although we soon became frustrated with the driving and hired a driver from COUNTRY TOURS of Siena for a lovely day trip to Pienza and neighboring towns to the south of the city – well worth it!


You may enjoy watching the film MY HOUSE IN UMBRIA which includes the main characters enjoying a day trip to nearby Siena. You will love the city….

@kybourbon, yes we would like an apartment or villa-just not a hotel.We have a medium loose budget-I guess it depends on the place.We would prefer to hire a driver or take a train for public transportation.

You might try searching vrbo.com for apartments. We used the site last year for Rome and were pleased with our accomodations. We will also be in Siena in October staying at the Palazzo Saracini on Via di Citta, which we found on vrbo. Seems to us to be the perfect location.

The site is easy to navigate with prices, # of persons, building and apartment amenities, calendars of availabilty and reviews. I recommend a building with an elevator & don't get too excited about a washer/dryer - from my experience you can wash a handful of clothes, clothes are dried in the same machine and it takes about 1.5 hours. The internet/wifi in our Rome apartment worked perfectly so I'm hoping Siena will be the same. We found our laptop to be invaluable in planning our days and keeping in touch with family back home using Skype.

Enjoy your trip!

BTW, we rely on public transporation as well. Train and bus system in Italy is great. If you haven'y already used the trenitalia.it and sienamobilita.it sites to plot out day trips, I highly recommend them. and if you need help with specifics, just ask. I've spent the last 6 months researching how to get to various cities and Fodorite Kybourbon always comes to my rescue when I get stumped or need more detail.

We stayed in this apartment http://www.vrbo.com/170163 a couple of years ago. The owner, Christina, was extremely nice to deal with. Grocery store close. We enjoyed walking around at night. It was great!

latedaytraveler....great idea...we did the exact last year ....stayed inside the walls of siena at hte pallazzo ravizza....easy to park.. never had a probelm driving around sienna.. great city to come ack to at the end of the day

The bus map for Siena area:
http://www.sienamobilita.it/mappe/Mappa_EXT.pdf

Don't count on busing somewhere on a Sunday and you have to pay attention to return schedules so you don't get stranded somewhere.

Some of these will be apartments, but not all. You can click on the map for locations.
http://www.bed-and-breakfast-in-ital...a&IDRegione=16

There are also some apartments on venere.com.

Alane, so glad you enjoyed the Ravizza. We had rear rooms facing the countryside which looked like the backdrop to a Renaissance painting...

>>>We would prefer to hire a driver or take a train for public transportation.<<<

You can't train much for day trips as the trains don't go to many of the hill towns.

Good advice from Kybourbon - Sunday buses are few and far between. If you're in Siena on October 9th, there's a sagra in Certaldo Alto, the Boccaccesca, if you're looking for something to do. trenitalia.it shows trains to Certaldo on Sundays and a short walk to the funiculare to Certaldo Alto.

Slowtrav.com has a great list of places to stay

jnjfraz - I didn't see any apartment listings in the center of Siena on Slowtrav. Do you have a link?