Still Confused....
 

We are leaving in 3 weeks for Italy...doing so much research on where to stay and what to see in Tuscany ( which we will be staying 4 nights total...preferably 2 near Florence and 2 perhaps on the sea side) We would like to stay at a B&B...so confusing..we also want to do a wine tasting tour..please help!

Please see http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34816296 - -

...and please <i><b>do</b></i> re-post, mentioning <b>Tuscany</b> in the message header.

See http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34848810 as well.

Best wishes,

Rex

You could very easily spend the entire 4 days in Florence, as there is a great deal to see there. The rest depends on how you intend to travel - If you have a car, then anywhere in Tuscany is easily reachable - but parking can be horrendous. Using Florence as a base, it would be easily possible to do day trips to Siena, Lucca, Pisa, and San Gimignano.

Again, I could be shot for this, but the seaside in Tuscany aint all that great. Two nights near Florence will provide you with two nights of hassle getting into and out of Florence. It would be easier to stay in Florence itself for those two nights.

Then, if you want seaside NEAR Tuscany, you can choose from the Ligurian coastal towns. Closest would be the Cinque Terre, Portovenere or Lerici. Note that I said &quot;closest&quot; and not &quot;close.&quot;

Instead, consider staying in another part of Tuscany. If you are going in the summer and want water, Lago di Trasimeno might be a good choice. This is in the southeastern portion of Tuscany, and also borders Umbria.

For seaside, there are much better choices than Tuscany throughout Italy.

At least make resevations ASAP or your first nights stay or you may find yourself wanding around a strange city trying to find something. B &amp; B's usually have only a few rooms. These are popular areas, and usually booked far in advance.

Do a search on the Board and go to a bookstore and check the travel guides for information o the areas themselves.

I don't mean to sound mean, but why did you wait until the last minute to make these important decisions?


Nina

Hi Z,

&gt;preferably 2 near Florence and 2 perhaps on the sea side) We would like to stay at a B&amp;B...so confusing..we also want to do a wine tasting tour..&lt;

Of course you are confused. You are trying to do mutually exclusive things.

Find a nice hotel in Florence and use it as a base for visiting Tuscany.

What's your hotel budget?

((I))

You say you've been doing research on where to stay in Tuscany. On the outside chance that you haven't used this site, go to venere.com. It's an amazing source of info. My husband and I used it almost exclusively for our two trips to Italy, and the client reviews for the individual properties were right on; we weren't disappointed once. If you go to the site, click on &quot;Florence&quot;, then &quot;areas surrounding Florence&quot;, then B&amp;B's. I put in some dummy dates for about 3 weeks from now and there still seemed ample availibility.
As for wine-tasting, if you do a search on Fodor's for &quot;Fattoria dei Barbi&quot;, you'll probably find my rave reviews of that establishment. More than we could have hoped for.