Tuscany, Venice, Bologna
 

How does this itinerary sound?
Fly into Milan train to Venice - stay four nights since arrival date you really do not get much done due to jetlag (coming from U.S.). Then rent a car drive to Bologna and stay three nights, drive to Tuscany and stay five or six nights, back to Milan stay over night before flight home

We will be 2 adults, 19 and 17 yr old. We have been to Europe before, Paris, London, Italy
2001 we visited Rome, Venice and visited family in Sicily (I speak Italian)
2011 took a Med cruise visiting France, Malta, Italy, during the stops in Italy we visited Pisa, Rome, Palermo, Naples

Children were little when we visited Venice and they have an interest in seeing it again as they only remember bits of it

Husband is a chef and Bologna has been on his wish list a long time and also interested in visiting Parma and Modena, hence the car while in this area. should we make Bologna city center our home base or stay on the outskirts and visit Bologna. We do like being in a city center and be able to walk to dinner whether it is Bologna or a city nearby

Tuscany - We are thinking of staying near Siena, probably just a little south of the city so that we can visit both the Val d'orcia area and the Chianti region. Will probably do a day trip to Florence. I have been before but no one else has and they have an interest in seeing some of the major sights but we do not want to stay in the city

Hotel / B&B / villa rental - we are open to all options. Most important to us are that the rooms are air conditioned, we will be visting at end of June or sometime in July, and have internet access as I need to check in for work once per day.

I know we will need two rooms or a two bedroom apartment / house, etc
Recommendations for Bologna and Tuscany area?

While I would love to stay in Montepulciano everything I have read seems to say that you have to walk downhill to get to the restaurants and shops meaning that you have to walk back up steep hills to return to your room. I am not sure if husband's knees can handle the steep hills all the time and why we are considering staying elsewhere

Throw into the mix that brother inlaw and sister inlaw may want to join us, they have some mobility issues an hills will be hard on them

Given this information any suggestions on places to stay in Tuscany and Bologna?
Any city recommendations in Tuscany that we should consider?
Trying to narrow down where to stay then we can concentrate on searching for places to stay

Thank you

Oh by the way this is for 2014

Why not fly to Venice?
Why drive to Bologna?

from our area no non stop flights to Venice
We would need a car in Bologna and thought it would be more cost effective to rent it when leaving Venice instead of paying for train fare and also renting a car.

I do not understand either.
Surely, it is easier to connect flights then train from Milan to Venice, and why do you need a car in Bologna?

Right now we are looking at where to stay and base ourselves and if flights / prices for flights etc work better to go into Venice we will consider that option and would prefer it but considering we cannot check on flights for summer 2014 as of yet that is not something I can make a decision on now. When in Bologna we want to visit Parma and Modena and want the freedom of a car and not have to rely o bus transportation

I could be wrong about needing a car to visit Parma and Modena but that is why I am here asking questions

We are going back to bologna in July and staying at the same b&b as last year

http://www.anticaresidenzadazeglio.it/

We decided to use the trains to visit Parma and Modena because its easy and the hubby can drink wine at lunch!

While I respect and thank you for your replies, I know you are very helpful on these boards, giving suggestions instead of saying I don't understand or why would be more helpful

jamikins - I did look at that but cannot figure out how far it is from the city center or if it has air conditioning in the rooms. Can you give me a little more info? Last time we were in Rome it was late June and 90 degrees and very glad to have had AC

They respond promptly if you need to ask questions, but I am almost positive they have AC.

It's about a 5 min walk to the main square, and has parking. It's also close to the ring road so if you do have a car it is easy to get in and out

Agree, that if it's possible, fly into Venice and out of Milano--you'll save a goodly part of your first day. If you can't get a direct flight, I do see your point about Milan. As they say, "6 of one, half-a-dozen of the other" in terms of extra time on the train or waiting for an airplane connection.

The Duomo in Milan is SO amazing, IMHO. There's a good and frequent bus service from the Milan train station to the Airport so you could turn in your car in Milan:

http://www.airportmalpensa.com/airport-bus.html

Train from Venice to Bologna is very straightforward. I've never rented a car; always "trained" so I can't say if renting a car in Bologna is any easier than in Venice. BUT I did see signs in Bologna about odd and even license plates being able to drive in certain areas. I believe those restrictions occur in Florence as well so do keep that in mind. Maybe someone else can give more info.

In Bologna, we stayed at the Sofitel directly across from the train station. About a 15-minute walk from there was Ristorante da Bertino. This was in 2005 so things may have changed, but it was one of our best meals.

From Bologna, we took a train to Ravenna to see the mosaics and they were lovely but we did walk a "fair piece" from station to church areas.

Have a great time.

They respond promptly if you need to ask questions, but I am almost positive they have AC.

It's about a 5 min walk to the main square, and has parking. It's also close to the ring road so if you do have a car it is easy to get in and out

It is easier to train to those towns than to drive. Get your car when you leave Bologna and drive to Tuscany.

Bologna has a large ZTL (no car access) zone and parking may be limited in several zones, so be sure to check with your hotel these details. If you are only visiting cities it may be that train turns out to be more practical than car; car is necessary if you are planning trips to country towns. IMHO Parma and nearby towns look more interesting than Bologna from a chef perspective, but of course I am not a chef and your husband may know better....

We too, are spending time in Bologna this trip.....and will have a car to see the neighboring towns. As far as Tuscany goes, I can't think of a better little town to stay in than Cortona. The restaurants are superb and if you connect with the local Enoteca personnel, you may get invited to some fabulous winemakers dinners......and staying overnight in town precludes driving home after drinking wine. We spent 4 weeks there recently and day tripped to other towns ( Pienza, Montepulciano, Montalcino, Florence, Siena etc ) then spending evenings either in town or cooking in our villa. Very charming town.

FWIW, several recent topics on the Chowhound website indicate that the acclaimed restaurants around Bologna are vastly superior to those in the city. So your car rental seems to make sense.

We stayed 5 nights in Bologna in June 2010 (our kids were 18 and 14 at the time). We rented a car and found it very convenient to do so. We stayed at Hotel Metropolitan. It is well located we walked everywhere - for dinners, etc. They did not have parking but there was a public parking garage just a few blocks away that was very convenient. The food there was fabulous and we did this amazing food tour with Italian Days Food Experience.

We stayed at Fattoria Tregole in Castellina in Chianti when we visited Tuscany. We loved it there and found it an excellent base for visiting that region, but you would need a car to eat anywhere other than the evenings the owner cooked dinner there.

We just were in Venice for 4 nights earlier this month. It was our second trip there. The first time in 2005 we stayed in Locanda Orseolo - really can't be beat for incredible service and wonderful rooms (though a bit small). This time we needed one triple room and they didn't have them and too spendy there to get my son his own room so we stayed in a triple at Hotel ai Reali. Fabulous hotel (not quite as crazy friendly as Locanda Orseolo) but the rooms were so much larger it was worth it. They upgraded us to a Junior Suite which was enormous.

Here are some links to my trip reports which have lots of details and pictures (don't have the most recent trip up quite yet):

Bologna - http://www.fromhometoroam.com/2012/08/bologna-2010/

Tuscany - http://www.fromhometoroam.com/2012/06/tuscany/

Venice(2005)- http://www.fromhometoroam.com/2012/05/venice-2005/