Where should I drive on next trip, Umbria/Tuscany in Italy or southern France?
 

I just returned from Italy with a girlfriend and loved driving around the hill towns of Umbria. Next year I want to take my husband either back to that area (and perhaps Tuscany, too) or to southern France. While in Umbria, I spoke with an American travel agent who said she and her husband preferred driving in the small towns in France and found them more scenic than Umbria. Could that possibly be true? I am imagining a trip that would be leisurely, and involve staying in charming, relaxing away-from-the-beaten-track villages. But we'd also like to visit towns with scenic beauty, cathedrals/duomos, churches, archaeological finds (like the Italian Etruscan tombs or maybe the French prehistoric caves), and perhaps small art museums. And good food, of course. Would love to have your informed opinions on this. Merci beaucoup/grazie mille :-)
PamR

For me it would likely boil down to whether you prefer speaking and eating Italian or French - - no matter if you are at an elementary level, or advanced or somewhere in between.

It's almost as different as steak and lobster. And both wonderful.

Best wishes,

Rex

Hi Pam,

Do one first and then the other. :)

Rex, I do speak some French and can get around ok. But in Italy, I know the basics and even non-English-speaking Italians are so helpful that I feel it's a wash. And I love the food in both countries.
Ira, I had considered doing both! I think I'd like to focus on one, but perhaps I'll be convinced by people's responses to do both. Hmmm. Have to consider that one!

As an alternative to Tuscany, which has been "discovered" by English-speaking folks for at least 70-80 year now, you might consider the Rieti province. I perceive it to be what Tuscany might have been like in the 1930's.

Pam, your desciption appears to match that of the Dordogne...