Cinzia

My husband and I will be in Lucca for a wedding and want to travel down to Montalcino, Pienza and Montepulciano for a few days. I'm looking for a few recommendations on where to stay and will 2 days be enough to explore. My husband is particularly interested in exploring the well known wineries of the area.

Thank you for your help.

docdan

Hi, of course there will be a chorus of postings saying 2 days only scratches the surface, but it is doable. Pleae see my trip report of a few years ago, listed below. We did two days in Montepulciano (which is the post-cruise part of the report - so you'll want to read the second half of the post) and loved it. I recommend the 1/2 day strada vino montepulciano wine tour. You'll only see two wineries, but they bring out the really good stuff, so it is very mcuh well worth the effort. Staying with Roberto and the Alergio la Terraza was a memorable experience, but other ldoging options are also quite good. You may also with to consider the Villa La Foce (http://www.lafoce.com/) The region immediately to the west of La Foce, the Val d'Orcia, is considered by many to be the absolute msot picturesque in all of Europe, even by people who have traveled to Provenc and the Dordogne. Bon voyage!
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...italy-trip.cfm

zeppole

Many of the best wineries do not accept drop in visitors, but will accept visitors by appointment, so if your husband has specific award-winning wineries in mind, you'd need to check that out in advance. It can be efficient to join a tour group, but then they choose the vintners, and that may not be what your husband has in mind.

Some wineries -- like the famed Castello Banfi -- have lodgings for overnight visitors, so you might consider that.

If you and your husband want to spend the bulk of the time touring wineries, it doesn't leave much time left over to explore all three towns that you mentioned. That's especially true if what your husband has is mind is some of the small producers located well off the main roads, where the driving is slow-going.

Where do you need to be after southern Tuscany? Because an early flight out of Rome would require spending the last night in Rome or near the airport. Ditto if you are departing from Florence or Pisa in the very early morning. To get from Lucca to an accommodations in southern Tuscany will take you between 3-4 hours. So if you are saying 2 nights rather than 2 days, 3 nights, you'll be doing less "exploring" than keeping to a fairly tight schedule if you want to visit wineries and tour 3 towns.

So hard to assess whether 2 days will be enough time for you personally to have a satisfying or a frustrating experience of southern Tuscany.

Cinzia

Thank you for your replies. I have read that most wineries need an appointment and I will look into that. We will leave early from Lucca and take the A1 down to the Montepulciano area. I have read to stay outside of the city because of parking. I definitely want to see the area and the Val d'Orcia. It seemed smarter to me to stay outside of Montepulciano or Pienza. We are leaving from there to drop our car somewhere and take the train to Naples/Sorrento. We're supposed to be there on the 3rd day but it doesn't have any time frame for that day.

zeppole

You should check out the difference in time going down the SS429 as opposed to taking the A1 all the way south. The SS429 is more scenic.

Montepuliciano is ringed with parking lots, so if you want to stay "in town" you can so long as you can easily walk up the inclines from the parking lots to the town.

It's a toss up if you are going to the region to drink wine between staying "in town" so you can eat in town restaurants and walk back to your lodgings after a dinner with wine, or staying at a agriturimso or winery that serves dinner, so you can also just walk back to your lodgings.

Car rental offices tend to be open from 8-12 and 4-7:30 Mon-Fri, and then Saturday mornings only and closed all day Sundays.

Leaving the val d'Orcia, you can drop off a rental car in Chiusi or Orvieto and catch a train to Napoli. If you are headed south on a Sunday, you should be able to find an open car rental office at the Naples airport, and from there either get a taxi to a hotel in the city, or take the airport shuttle bus to the Napoli train station, where you can catch a commuter train to Sorrento.

Just in case you haven't already done this, double check that you can rent a car right in Lucca. You may need to go to Pisa to rent a car. If you do, you may want to pick it up the night before you plan to leave Lucca.

mama_mia

As Zeppole noted, it is easy to park in one of the lots on the edge of Montepulciano and stay in town--might be easier to get a hotel than an agriturismo for only two nights.

There are also wine shops in town that offer tastings. When we were there a few years ago, there was a tourist office that can arrange trips to wineries with drivers; I do not know if they still offer this service. But the wine growers association has a website in English and it mentions their own wineshop with tastings and there is additional info on winegrowers in the area.

http://www.consorziovinonobile.it/10...ILE-WINE-ROUTE

Cinzia

Thank you again. You are all very helpful. We are picking up our car in Pisa and I will definitely look at taking the SS429 down. Do any of you know of a particular hotel you would recommend?

macanimals

If you are seriously interested in visiting wineries and have a few/some in mind, I would highly suggest you locate near them. Southern Tuscany is a large area and locating in Montepulciano would give you access to the Vino Nobile di Montepulciano producers but not the Brunello producers which are in the Montalcino area. Driving time between the two is in the area of 1+ hour and if it is after a day of winery visiting, it can be tedious. A nice drive and scenic for certain but stressed by fatigue and "wine haze" if at the end of a long day.

Check the location of your husband's must sees and make a decision on nighttime location accordingly. We've stayed in both Montepulciano and Montalcino on many occasions and both are great but I've tired of trying to commute between the two. Both have restaurants in town or nearby and both have tasting centers but Montalcino is all about the brunello culture.


Sorry I can't suggest a hotel--we stay in apartments. Good luck.

docdan

http://www.laterrazzadimontepulciano.it/
This particular "albergio" is in the heart of Old Montepulciano and will give you a parking pass for the interior of the city. As metnioned above, the proprietor, Roberto, is not fluent in English, but has a very loyal English speaking repeat stay clientele who love the place, that has found this to be a very good and valueable option. When you get inside the walls of the City, there are signs posted pointing to "albergio la terrazza" which must be followed to find the place.
The Montepulciano enoteccas will arrange for winery tours. This is a good option, however, recognize they will sort of "push" you to see wineries they want you to see. My suggestion is to book a room with Roberto, do what google searches you can, (not easy with many Italian websites not being English friendly) visit a few local enoteccas, then develop a short list of wineries to vist, and see which enoteccas will offer you tours that are close to the short list. Please also visit http://www.stradavinonobile.it/new/ivini.en.php - the tours on this page are really quite good, and the people running the tours are most passionate about their wines.
The advice of macanimals above is sound, however, recognize that _most_ travellers to So. Tuscany will visit Montalcino and the producers of Brunello (nothing wrong with that, mind you) thus, the producers of Vino Nobile di Montepulciano will be somewhat less visited, and you may be able to enjoy more "face time" with the people who work for the vintners in the latter.

zeppole

I've never stayed at Fattoria dei Barbi, but it is the sort of place I would be looking for -- a winery with accommodations and a restaurant. You can book for only 2 nights. You should see if you can find reviews on Tripadvisor.

http://www.fattoriadeibarbi.it/01_en-24-pricelist.html

But if I wanted to be near Montepuliciano, I'd probably book a place like this. I like to have dinner where I sleep:

http://www.booking.com/hotel/it/rela...7d33d72;dcid=1

zeppole

Here's another place I'd consider near Montepulciano, even though it is too new to have reviews. It produces its own wine and olive oil, and has a restaurant on site (I would double check to make sure it is serving dinner year-round). It appears to be in quiet location with wi-fi and air-con. Best of all, the individual rooms have small kitchens, but you can book by the night.


http://www.booking.com/hotel/it/orto...en-gb&ppcref=1

http://www.lortodipanza.it/italiano/prezzi.php

zeppole

Here's a link to the restaurant of the above hotel:

http://www.labottepiena.com/foto.html

carmar

Villa Cicolina outside of Montepulciano is outstanding.

4 couples stayed there last year - 2 of us had rooms in the villa and 2 couples had a small house on the property. They serve a Tuscany dinner (if you make a reservation 24 hrs. in advance) and a great b'fast.

They also make winery reservations for you. We spent 1 day in Siena and another in Montepulciano, Pienza and the winery.

You won't be sorry....

Cinzia

You are all awesome! I'm so grateful for all of this good information. I'm trying to work in a 3rd night so we can better experience this party of Tuscany.

Thank you again!

zoecat

zeppole-

The restaurant link you provided above is not for that hotel. La Botte Piena is a good restaurant though- but it is located in Montefollonico, not at the hotel you linked to.

zeppole

Oh! Thanks for catching that zoecat.

The owners say they run both places. I don't know if guests at the hotel can get a half-board arrangement whereby the can eat at the restaurant, but I guess the restaurant is not onsite, which would be a deal-breaker for me.

http://www.lortodipanza.it/inglese/mangiare.php

Piccolina

bookmarking