My fiance and I will be spending 6 nights in Tuscany (following time spent in Venice and Florence). Currently, we have planned to spend 4 nights at Locanda Amarosa and then spend our last 2 nights in San Gimignano before driving back to Florence airport. I am now wondering if we should instead include Umbria (particularly Todi) at the end of our trip and forego San Gimignano. Any advice?

Hi Stacey,<BR><BR>I am not sure it matters. I love Todi, because it is less traveled than SanG. I do not feel you need two days in SanG, but my atention span is short. I loved riding around in Tuscany and Umbria in the car, seeing all the wonderful fields of sunflowers (july) and the vineyards. We would stop for a delighful light lunch, a nice walk and continue on. When you are at Locanda Amarosa will you be traveling to little towns during the day? You can combine San G and Seinne or San G. and Lucca. Whatever you do, you can not go wrong. There are so many wonderful choices. Have a great time.

I would much prefer Assisi and Spello to Todi, and that area is a not hard to access from Sinalunga. You can also see Cortona enroute--why Todi ?

Todi is wonderful, beautiful country side, wonderful town, great food. I also enjoyed Spello. We found Assisi full of tourist, although there is a beautiful drive from Spello to Assisi - a small one lane road through the countryside. Enjoy your trip!

As an alternative you might want to see antother part of Tuscany, the Mount Amiata area is lovely, but it is too far south to allow easy access to Florence when it will be time to leace. An easier alternative is Arezzo and the densely wooded Casentino area or Lucca. All these three areas provide a scenary that is very different from Chianti and the nearby area.

While we will be staying at Locanda Amorosa we will definitely be taking day trips (Siena, Pienza, Montalcino...). If we go to San G we will not be spending our days there - we will travel around. I was just wondering if it would be better to stick to the original plan or choose to include Umbria instead.<BR>Bob - the reason I mentioned Todi is that we would likely stay there and then visit other nearby towns.

We will have 6 days for stops in Tuscany and Umbria after Florence and Siena and before going to Venice. We want to use bus (and/or train) transportation. Can we do this? Suggestions appreciated. We travel on a modest budget.

edith - you can easily do 6 nights in Tuscany and Umbria by public transportation. The bus system is very good. <BR><BR>We traveled from Florence to Siena by bus (2 nights). Went to San Gimignano as a day-trip from Siena by bus.<BR><BR>Then we traveled by bus to Assisi. Did day-trip to Spello and Spoleto by train (really easy - Spello is 7 minutes from Assisi bu train).<BR><BR>Then we traveled by train to Orvieto.<BR><BR>stacy - We loved San Gimi! - it was so cute! In comparison to San Gimi, I did not like Assisi and Spello as much, although we loved Spoleto and Orvieto. You can also visit Siena from San Gimi. Each place has their own flavor and every person has their own Umbrian 'favorites.'

Umbria is more than just Todi. You should see Perugia, Gubbio, Spoleto also.<BR>You could do with 2 days for seeing Florence, followed by 4 days for the Tuscan and Umbrian smaller towns.