lschu

I hope to spend one week in Tuscany 6/05 and have been looking into Tuscanynow.com for house rentals. The brochure and info book looks very professional and properties look fabulous. Anyone have any experiences with this agent? I learned about it in Sept. Money magazine travel section. Your thoughts appreciated. L

RichardSpitzer

We stayed in a villa through Tuscanynow two years ago and it was an INCREDIBLE stay!! I talked directly with Simon Ball and asked him to recommend a villa in Tuscany, primarily Lucca, and he said that he had villa that was indeed "special." We stayed at Il Tramito (I think that was the name) in Lucca, up on a hill in the middle of an active olive grove. It had a beautiful pool with an outstanding view of the valley. It was 10 minutes by car to Lucca, a charming, friendly town and we used the villa as a base to go to Florence, Cinque Terre and many of the other Tuscan villages. It was a house for 7 people and it wasn't cheap, around $2400, I think, for a week, but it was a refurbished 18th century house with stone floors and charming rooms (the sink kept getting clogged and it made washing dishes a pain, but small price for such beauty). Tuscany was professional, followed through on what they said they would do, explained everything carefully and fairly and I would not hesitate to use them again.

lschu

Thanks Richard. As I read the brochure, each one looks more inviting than the previous one! Any suggestions on a good central location for easy day trippin' in Tuscany? All thoughts appreciated! L

Weadles

lschu,

Of course location depends on what part of Tuscany you want to see. We based in Radda this August, and found it incredibly convenient to: Florence ( 45 minutes), San Gimignano ( about an hour), and Siena ( 40 minutes).

caroline_edinburgh

We stayed this June in 'Il Giogo' through Tuscanynow. The house was very nicely furnished, in a beautiful setting and the stay went smoothly, but we didn't think the service from Tuscanynow was that great. As an example, we tried to use their advertised facility to provide a cook for a meal one night, but they were very unhelpful, seemed like they didn't care and we never got anywhere.

bobthenavigator

Spend time at slowtrav.com for great rental reviews. Do not let the listings confuse you--look at first hand experiences.

RichardSpitzer

Hi Ischu...
I thought Lucca was a great central location, besides being a lovely walled city that was very low key. If you have a car or if you take the train Lucca was within all the places that we wanted to visit. We did not take the cook option since our daughter was with her and she is the "culinary queen."

keb0503

we used www.tuscanestates.com and found them very helpful and well informed. the only advice with this company is a few of their houses have similar names so you must be exact in your request. we stayed in san casiano dei bagni in the south of tuscany. next time would choose more central location but the house and the housekeeper / cook were wonderful. we still a year later talk about her amazing cooking!

lschu

keb,
Having visited Tuscany, what towns do u feel are more central for day trips?
Thanks, L