I am working on travel plans for a trip to Italy in May 2013. I am traveling with my best friend. We plan to arrive in Rome, pick up a car and drive straight to Orvieto for the first night. From there we are thinking of basing in Perugia for 3 days to visit Cortona, Arezzo, Spello (whatever the time allows). From Perugia we would drive to Seina for 3 more days to visit some hill towns and the Chianti region. We will return to Rome for the last night since our flight leaves before noon the next day.

I would appreciate your thoughts on the plan so far concerning distances and drive times. We don't mind driving but don't want to spend most of the time in the car. Are the bases we have selected situated for the areas we plan to visit? We have been to the tuscany area once before.

I would really like to hear your hotel recommendations for Perugia and Siena. We generally spend between 100-150 Euros per night.

Would it be cheaper to take the train to Orvieto and rent the car there and do it the next day?

Do you plan to stay outside of Perugia? Driving/parking isn't particularly easy there.

Perugia wouldn't be my choice as a base to explore by car. It can be tricky and time-consuming driving in/out, and you'll definitely have to pay for overnight parking. For what you describe, I'd probably stay in Spello or Assisi and visit Perugia by train rather than car. Spello to Perugia by train takes about 30 minutes and costs 3 euros per person. Assisi is closer, so less time and lower fare.

I'd probably re-order this slightly. Train or drive to Orvieto on arrival. Move on to Siena. Move on to Assisi or Spello. Drop the car in Foligno and train back to Rome.

We did stay in Perugia as a base for that area and really liked it. We stayed at the Etruscan Chochotel - http://www.chocohotel.it/ It was a number of years ago but we found it to be a great place, they had free parking. We drove into the center of Perugia a few times and parked in the parking garage that has an escalator up through the 'old city' to the main level. Here are my photos of Perugia - this first one is of the 'ancient' city between the lower level parking garage and the main level of town. http://www.pbase.com/annforcier/image/145713618

> I would appreciate your thoughts ... so far concerning distances and drive times.

Check:
http://www.viamichelin.com/

and
http://www.viamichelin.com/

Oops! I meant

and:
http://en.mappy.com/

We spent an enjoyable New Year (2006/07) in Perugia, at the very pleasant and very central Hotel La Rosetta - which should fit your budget?

http://eng.larosetta.eu/eng/rates-hotel-perugia.html

Without a car, the rather wet weather meant we didn't venture far, however you might try the reviews on TA for parking experiences etc:

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_R...ia_Umbria.html

Photos here....
http://www.pbase.com/isolaverde/perugia

... or as a slideshow:
http://www.pbase.com/isolaverde/perugia&view=slideshow

Looks like I gave up with the captions - also the last time I bothered to drag my DSLR around!

Peter

May be a little slow to download, but the tourist office has this - which may be of interest...

http://turismo.comune.perugia.it/res...ugia_08_UK.pdf

Far better than anything we had at the time, and those labels may even get finished now?

Peter

with jet lag, I'd take the train to Orvieto, stay there and rent car from the next day. Many cities are not designed for the car so why not go for a really bad one like Siena or San Gim. Leave car outside and enjoy zero traffic at night.