Hi everyone,

My wife and I have begun planning our next trip, two weeks likely to Tuscany and Umbria in September.

We'll likely rent a car and don't mind driving too much. We'd love to stay at no more than four or five hotels / villas and make lots of day trips.

We like driving in the countryside, smaller towns (but wouldn't mind going back to Florence and Pisa), museums, churches - and eating.

Any ideas for nice, centrally located towns?

Mike,

Pienza is pretty central for visiting a lot of southern Tuscany. What part did you want to visit?

Thanks kybourbon. We're not sure yet - we're gathering information.

Pisa and Florence are poor cities to go back to by car due to the ZTL restriction. Pienza and San Quirico, etc. are better choices if you are exploring with a car and want to stay in a town where you can walk back from restaurants after drinking great local wines.

After several trips to both, I find the best locations to be San Quirico for Tuscany and Bevagna for Umbria. Both are small authentic towns with some good food options nearby.

I generally split my trips there into 3/4 segments. I stay in Greve (because I LOVE Podere Torre-agriturismo)for the northern part of Tuscany, near Montalcino for the southern area, and Umbria Bevagna is good. I also have split Umbria into stays in Assisi and Orvieto.

Have you booked flights yet, or know which airports you are likely to use?

If you like to eat seafood, you might find it fun to begin your trip in Pisa, so you can go to Florence by train, but also visit the seaside for a great seafood lunch and see a side of Tuscany most people never think of when they think of "Tuscany." Then take your car and head to wherever in Tuscany and Umbria strikes your fancy. There are outstanding museums and churches in Umbria, so if you enjoy that as opposed to "hitting up cute wine towns and shopping", I would do a scenic loop through southern Tuscany but give more of your time to Umbria. (Umbria also has more interesting food.) Might be easiest if you flew out of Rome (or in and out of Rome if you don't like my idea of staying in Pisa and eating a seafood lunch).

Where people base in Umbria is often governed by whether they (a) can deal with climbing hills and stairs and (b) want to see Spoleto or Gubbio.

If you enjoy museums of painting and frescoes, the important art museum in Perugia is one of Italy's most wonderful. It is absolutely worth the effort to get to it, although some people prefer to park their car in Foligno and take the train in.

Pienza and Bevagna are small, pretty towns. They are both flat and offer a convenient home base. They are towns of some historical interest and good restaurants. We have stayed twice in Pienza & Bevagna.

Agree with 2010. If you choose Bevagna I can recommend apartments and restaurants.

Michael,
This may help http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/tuscany/hs_planning.htm

Thanks everyone. Henry, your blog looks fantastic.

Sandralist, we haven't booked the air yet but it will almost certainly be into Rome (we live in Canada and direct, nonstop flights are a must for us.)

Walking and hills are fine; we draw the line at formal hiking

If you are flying in and out of Rome, I would suggest immediately taking the trains to Orvieto in Umbria upon your arrival in Rome airport. Spend a night or two there to lose your jet lag and see the outstanding town, then rent a car and proceed deeper into Umbria. Personally I would stay on a farm with a restaurant, but if you prefer a town, then Bevagna is flat and Spello and Montefalco are quite steep. I like the wine of Montefalco and its restaurants, so I would stay there so I could drink and not drive. But like I said, Bevagna is flat.

You probably need a second base for whichever part of scenic Tuscany you want to focus on. While flat Pienza is popular, you might want to note it is VERY popular, and gets a lot of tourists, especially in September. Again, I would stay on a farm with a restaurant in the wine country, but there are loads of towns in the scenic areas of the val d'Orcia, le Crete Senesi and the Chianti. Again, some flat like San Quirico, but others steeply hilly. (Parking is always at the bottom of the hill!)

If you finish your trip in Florence, you can now take a train directly from Florence to FCO airport in Rome. That train run both ways, so if you would rather begin your trip in Florence, you can do that, and end your trip in Orvieto (although you would need to spend your last night in Rome that way).

I would reccomend visits to Lucca, Sienna, San Gimignano and the Chianti region to see the typical Tuscan medieval towns and hilly landscapes. To see a different face of the region, I suggest a visit to the Parco Apuane in the provinces of Lucca/ Massa & Carrara to see the rugged marble mountains. Enjoy your trip!

Just a note on the non-stop flight issue: we are also traveling from Canada this August and I originally thought in and out of Rome so that our flights would be non-stop. However, we will be ending our trip in the Tuscany area so are guaranteed a train ride back to Rome with all the concerns about making the flight. Air Canada does a 1 stop (Frankfurt) from Florence to Toronto for about $100 more than Rome round trip. For us, it may be more convenient to end our trip in Florence and not have to rush back to Rome for our flight. Just an idea.

Jackie, just be aware that Frankfort is a notoriously bad airport. I've personally never flown through it, but I've read a steady stream of complaints about it. Make sure you have plenty of time between your flight from Florence and your flight home.

Frankfurt is a very busy airport. All busy airports have more complaints, just because more people pass through them. The people with no particular complaints (like me) don't post about it.

Spello is, in my opinion, one of the prettiest towns in Italy. Assisi is also a very nice town, and just a stone's throw from Spello.

Also, not far from Orvieto, Todi has a beautiful medieval center.

And Sovana, in southern Tuscany, is one of my favorites.

if you have to fly into and out of Rome, then you could get the train up the coast to Viareggio and pick up your car there, if you want to see the north of Tuscany - Lucca for example.

however, you will not want to have a car in Florence so if you want to spend time there, it would make more sense to get the train there, stay as long as you like, and then pick up a car when you leave.

even in 2 weeks, there is a lot to see in Tuscany and Umbria and you will have to be selective - you can't see it all.

We have flown through Frankfurt fairly often over the last 20+ years and have had lots of experiences. We don't find much to complain about and generally enjoy german efficiency when there needs to be adjustments.

We've enjoyed Bevagna and Montefalco in the past and they give access with a car to most all of Umbria. As said above, two weeks for Tuscany and Umbria will give a nice survey and plan on coming back.