My husband just told me that he has a business trip to London in late May (26-28) and that he would like to vacation in Italy either before London or after - I'm one of those over-planners; usually plan everything a year in advance. Can I do this? I'm reading as fast as I can -

Do you think it will be easier to find accommodations earlier in May or early June? At this late date do you think we will be able to find reasonable accommodations? I would prefer to be in a town rather than the countryside. The area around San Quirico d’Orcia and Montepulciano sound interesting to us. Wouldn't mind renting an apt. for a week but how to find one? Will rent a car.

We have to fly into and out of LHR. Looking into Ryan Air or ?? for a cheap flight to ?? Milan, Florence?? Airline suggestions?

Ronda,

Yes, of course you can do this. And of course you should start apartment searching immediately.

Many people here on Fodors suggest checking the apartment reviews on slowtrav.com. That is one place to start.

You can also do a search here for something like "Montepulciano apartment" or San Quirico apartment, or Pienza, or Montalcino, also being nice places.

And you can post a specific area apartment request here on Fodors, such as "Montepulciano apartment" and those who know of such places will respond (hopefully).

So, there's a start. Suggest venere.com and tripadvisor.com, as having some apartment listings are reviews, too.

Flying: I have not flown out of LHR forever, so I suggest trying something like whichbudget.com. Also easyjet.com. But I am not sure about LHR. I don't think these budget airlines use LHR. Milan, Florence, Pisa: all decent choices for flying.

Good luck!

Ronda, try "googling" Montorio very near Montepulciano. We stayed at the sister property, Villa Poggiano, which was lovely but did not have apartment-type amenities whereas their Montorio property does.

Either late May or early June should be lovely and, hopefully, red poppies would be in full bloom!

Anna Roz

These apartments in Montepulciano are highly recommended on this forum:

http://www.appartamentialpoggiolo.it/

Have a wonderful trip.

Thank you for the tips. Still thinking about it.

We traveled in Italy for 16 days, in early May 2006. It was a perfect time to be there. The weather was mild, the tourists weren't there yet, and the flowers were in bloom. You can definitely do it! I didn't have a lot of advance planning time, but it wasn't difficult to find hotels. Good luck.
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We rented this apartment (near Montalcino) for week and enjoyed it very much...

http://www.larasina.it