We are planing to spend a week in Tuscany (there are 5 adults and 3 kids). Any advise on where to stay and what to see?

Hi Z,

Your question is much too broad for a useful response.

When will you be going? What are your interests? Do you want a villa or hotel?

Give us some thoughts.

We really enjoyed having a villa as our home base when were there this summer (4 adults, 2 children). If you are travelling in the summer, having a pool is also a good idea. We found our villa through www.toscanet.com and also liked www.initaly.com. We rented a car. Without one, many of the places won't be accessible so let people here know if you're not planning on renting a car as they will likely suggest different itineraries and home bases depending on whether or not you have a car. We stayed near San Gimignano. As Ira suggested, let us know your timing and a bit more about what you hope to see and do. The planning will be fun! Tory

We are going in October (11-18th). Villa or farm would be our choice. We will have a car. Seeing places, day trips, wine tasting - anything. I would like to be able to go to Florence for a day (or even twice)

We stayed in a villa about 15 km outside of Florence (a 20 min drive) and used it as a base for visiting hilltowns all over Tuscany. It had a very large pool, huge property, and many common rooms, which was nice since we were not confined to just our rooms (actually we had an apartment: #19). I chose it because of the website (www.villailpoggiale.com) but also because friends recommended NOT staying in a remote location. The roads are very windy in Tuscany and we saw some villas and agriturismos that we wouldn't have dared drive to in the dark. There are a lot choices. I liked the many pictures on www.tuscany.net. Good luck!

Another good site is rentvilla.com

We stayed in a 12th century restored castle about 20 minutes outside of Florence, a great base for touring the area. It had a large pool, beautiful grounds to explore, and was really magical. There were various size apartments available. It's called Castello Montegufoni. But there are many villas, castles and farmhouses to choose from. However, you don't have time to waste, you really need to get something nailed down soon.

Zebra, go to slowtrav.com for all things about renting in Italy and more.

My family is also looking for a place in Tuscany for a week. A friend recommended visiting elfoce.com. She was just there with her two kids, for two weeks, and said it was amazing. Thanks for all the great web sites!

ira, why do you even bother? Your posts are negative and not helpful.

marcym20,
You are kidding, right?

I'm totally kidding. Ira's been everywhere!

We stayed in a villa in Imprunetta. It is a 20 minute bus ride South of Florence. A lovely town on the Chianti Road. Convenient to much of Southern Tuscany.
Gary (Kansas City)

Don't mess with ira, he's my travel hero. I just love his "on-target" advice.

marcym20,
those are fighting words on this forum. We love Ira.

We were just there with our 10 year old son. We found a great Tuscan Farmhouse Apartment on www.tuscany.net. We had a pool, but it was freezing late Sept. early Oct. Some of the places had heated pools that stayed open thru Oct. I would highly recommend that if you have kids. Our son really wanted to swim - our weather was great - but his lips would turn blue within a minute! Our son loved Pisa and going up the tower. Plan to get there early in the day - they give you a ticket to come back later with your "tower time" on it. We had a nice lunch, then went up the tower. Very fun! Another "kid" highlight was going to San Gimignano and seeing the towers and the "torture museum". A place we didn't get to, but is supposed to be neat for kids is the town of Lucca - where you can ride bikes along the top of the wall that surrounds the city. We didn't do many museums or wine tastings because of our son - but we always had wine with lunch & dinner (house wine) and it was incredible and cheap!! Many of the places on Tuscany.net offered mountain bikes, too. Hope this helps! Oops! After reading back, I see that you may already be there! Maybe this will help someone else!!