Tuscany
 

We are leaving next week for Florence and will have a car for 3 days and would like to visit some of the smaller towns there. I have been to Sienna and Lucca and would like to find some more off the beaten track places if that is possible. I have heard about Orvieto but wonder if that would be a good place to visit.
Any help as always is greatly appreciated.
Kitty

I think Orvieto is definitely worth a visit and also is easy to access with a car. Park in a big free lot at the train station. I also like Pienza and Montepulciano although none of these are really off the beaten path.

Are you going to be staying in Florence and plan to do daytrips from there? Because that's not the best choice. Better to stay in some small town.

For visiting Florence, it's best to stay in the historic center. But it's hard to park there and there's a big ZTL, a zone where only locals can drive. (Search this forum for people getting tickets months later, having been outed by their car rental company -- for a fee that they must pay in addition to the ticket.)

You could take a train from Florence to Arezzo, rent a car there and explore Chianti. Or stay in Pienza or San Quirico d'Orcia and see southern Tuscany, the Tuscany of travel posters. Or go north of Florence into the hills. Or to the coast. There are so many cute hilltowns in Tuscany, but they're mostly discovered.

Orvieto is in Umbria, not Tuscany and at some distance from Florence. (Look up driving distances/times at a mapping site like www.viamichelin.com.)

However, you might enjoy discovering Umbria instead of Tuscany, towns like Assisi, Gubbio, Spello, Todi. Umbria is less traveled. But Orvieto wouldn't make a good base; it's too far to the west (not to speak of being up on top of a mesa).

Since Orvieto is - as Mimar said - in Umbria, not Tuscany, you might reconsider: since each Italian region has such a distinct flavour, I'm always hesitant about mixing several regions on one trip.
Really off-the-beaten track in Tuscany: Braga, Carrara (BIG recommendation!), Pistoia, Massa Marittima, Roccalbegna, Montemerano, Abbadia S. Salvatore, Torri (a tiny village, a big recommendation), Castiglion Fiorentino, Chiusi. Almost off-the-beaten-track (i.e. not totally unknown, but still far less touristy than you'd expect in Tuscany): Pitigliano, Sorano, Sovana (big recommendation), Capalbio, Certaldo, Arezzo (big recommendation), Scarperia. Experienced as surprisingly quiet by myself (it's in the eye of the typhoon, in Val d'Orcia), but said by other Fodorites to be hit by bus tours: Bagno Vignoni (a tiny jewel anyway).

Buy TOP 10 TUSCANY by Reid Bramblett for a good start. Orvieto is nice but too far for what you want. I would stay south of Siena.

kbarshay,
This may give you some ideas http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/tuscany/hs_planning.htm

Henry