I'm just making initial plans for our first trip to Italy in September 2007: Venice, Florence & Tuscany. While in the countryside, my husband & I would like to stay in a village and use it as a homebase to tour the area by car. We especially like the convenience of returning to a hotel at the end of our day, parking the car, and walking to a local restaurant for our evening meal. Any recommendations for villages to stay in and also, hotels/B&B's in each place?

hi,

Due to a mishap last week, I ended up at a farmhouse in the Siena/Chianti-- in a little hamlet (aka: Borgo) named San Sano. It had a great restaurant next door, but was about 15km from downtown Siena.... it may not be what you're looking for, but it was beautiful (how lucky we were that our initial hotel had lost our reservation!)

Check it out: http://www.sansanohotel.it/

Sorry I can't help with Florence or Venice.

2010 & Brink,

Here's another high recommendation for Residence San Sano! We stayed there a few years ago for 4 nights and voted it our most perfect place of the 3 week trip. The family run trattoria in the village is excellent, as is dinner (by res) at the hotel. Yes, brink, you were lucky!

I would recommend the tiny village and the inn IF you are going to be mainly touring Chianti/Siena.

However, if you are also going to try visiting San Gimignano, Voltera and some of the southern Tuscan hilltowns, it's a lot of long, windy roads.

If you are trying to visit the Montepulciano/Pienza/Montalcino area, I would recommend staying in one of those towns. I stayed in Montalcino at Il Giglio for 3 nights last year and loved it! Traveling solo, I wanted to be able to stroll the town and walk to restaurants at night. Montalcino and the others will fit your requirement.

Buon viaggio!

Recently returned from a two week trip to Italy, one week spent in Montalcino. It was a beautiful little town, perfectly situated to explore the most beautiful (IMHO) area of Tuscany and it was exactly as you require, i.e. return at the end of the day, park your car and walk to several wonderful restaurant options for dinner. While I cannot particularly recommend the hotel we stayed (hotel dei Capitani), there are many others, such as Il Giglio mentioned before, and Palazzina Cesira right across the street from it, which may be better. If you want to splurge on cost, check out Vecchia Oliviera.

In Firenze, we stayed for the fourth time, in Hotel Casci and highly recommend it. Check out the reviews on tripadvisor and do a search also on this board for great reviews.

2010

How about a nice agritourismo near Pienza? Pienza is a delightful town right in the center of the nicest part of southern Tuscany, Val d'Orcia. I recommend the B&B le Traverse. I've stayed there more than once and have sent friends there several times. It's not inside town, but since you have a car, the 2 minute drive to Pienza should be no problem.
It's not cheap but it's really a 5 star B&B. Here's the URL:
http://www.nautilus-mp.com/tuscany/a...rse/index.html

bookmarking

You have just described the experience at www.palazzodelcapitano.com in cute San Quirico. The best location to explore south Tuscany and authentic Tuscan village life.

Thanks for all your wonderful suggestions! You've given me a great start!

In Venice, check out LA CALCINA, which is a small 3-star hotel located on an old shipping canal. The hotel has a beautiful roof garden which you can reserve at certain hours for individual use, as well as a very good restaurant. It is an easy walk from San Marco.

In Florence, my daughter and friends just returned from a fabulous stay at TOURIST HOUSE GHIBERTI, a B&B just around the corner from The Duomo, and they are still raving about it!

we just returned from 3 weeks in italy... wow... what a wonderful trip! we stayed at perfect places all though Italy... We toured the Tuscany area while staying in a very nice room (with bath) in San Gimignano... the room was above a very nice restaurant and the window opened up to one of the side streets with a deli and other shops... the room was also right inside the Town walls so dragging our luggage was NO problem as my husband was able to park right at the entrance while we loaded/unloaded... best of all, the room was less than 60E a night! i think this was my favorite place that we stayed... other places we stayed were venice (another nice place), cinqueterra-monterossa, rome, sorrento (oh-another favorite hotel!), and back to rome... The name of the hotel in San Gimignano is Locanda Il Pino

In Florence, I would recommend Hotel Corona. It is in a great location - right outside is the San Lorenzo market, it is right near Santa Maria Novella, and 10 minute walk to the Duomo, the Arno, and lots more. If you are looking to spend a little more money, I would also recommend Hotel Mona Lisa. They have the friendliest staff who will organize a lot for you and again, is in a prime location.