My husband and I, early 60s, are doing a two month European trip leaving in September. We fly into Prague and plan to take the train to Krakow, Budapest, Sofia area and then over to Croatia, Venice and on to Florence. We plan to be in Tuscany around the 17th or so of October. By that point I will want to just stay in one place for a week, perhaps rent a car, and be in the countryside.

I have found place in Chianti that has good reviews
http://www.romitoriodiserelle.it/

I am thinking of booking it for a week and then heading to Cinque Terre for a couple of nights on our way to Barcelona. We are going to travel around mostly by train/bus but thought that a car may be nice for Tuscany. Any advice on that?

Is Chianti a good place to stay in Tuscany? Has anyone stayed at Romitorio di Serelle?

We were not going to book anything outside of our arrival into Prague an our last few nights before our cruise home from Barcelona. For the most part we will just decide the night before and book accordingly.

I am worried that we may not get a great place in the Tuscany area if we wait, however it is mid October so maybe it is not an issue then.

Thanks for any help on this.

Mid October is a very popular time to be in Tuscany. If you are going to be there for a week or more - I would sure want to book now.

We much prefer the Val d'Orcia around Pienza over Chianti.

Here is something I just posted on Fodors

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...y-171368-2.cfm

Stu Dudley

Thank You Stu. I enjoyed your post. I will do more research and book something in advance as suggested

I like the location of Romitorio di Serelle but have no personal knowledge of the property.

But whether Chianti is a "better" location than the Val d'Orcia depends on what you want to see and do. I think you need to figure that out before you book lodging.

The RdS is within a reasonable drive of most of northern Tuscany (Siena, Volterra, San Gimignano, Lucca, and obviously Chianti) but also isn't too far north for day-trips to popular southern Tuscany destinations like Montalcino, Pienza, San Quirico and Montepulciano. The Val d'Elsa would be greener than the Val d'Orcia at that time of year.

One of the great, classic drives in Italy is the Strada Chiantigiana, SR222 that runs through the heart of Chianti.

http://www.frommers.com/destinations...535010025.html

I agree with Jean---read about the various regions of Tuscany before you decide location. The location about is not bad---also look at Fattoria Tregole just south of Castellina which is much closer to Siena and points south.

The place you linked is pretty isolated. Just to go somewhere for dinner would involve curvy roads in the dark (it will be dark around 6 or so). You might want to rent an apartment closer to a town (or in town) that has several restaurant choices.

Thanks Bob and Jean. I guess that is the problem. I cant decide where to stay. We have decided to rent a car. I think I would like to be fairly close to a small town to get groceries and be around people, but not in the middle of a town.

we are now considering Radda as there is a place there much less expensive.

Thanks Kybourbon, yes that is good advice, thank you.

live42day...Listen to StuDudley on this one. We did Tuscany for a week and once we discovered the Val d'Orcia region we were hooked. Although we stayed South of Chianti and East of Siena, we traveled the long drive to (Val d'Orcia) Montalcino, Pienza and Montepulciano twice. I'd highly recommend Siena which is quite large compared to the rest of the towns mentioned. I was dead set on a week stay in the loveliest of cottages in a very remote location near Rapale. It wasn't the best choice for location. For a week, I'd recommend considering a 4 night stay in the upper region possibly Chianti or Siena and then 3 nights in Val d'Orcia. That would get you the best of all it has to offer without much driving.

And yes...definitely rent a car for your Tuscany stay. We've had horrors with car rental in Italy and don't recommend it if you can train/air/boat, but for Tuscany it's a must. Also...GPS is a must. Although we didn't have it, we relied upon a very detailed Toscana map by the Touring Club Italiano which is a valuable resource for planning!

Thanks very much. I found that Costco car rental uses AVIS in Italy and is really reasonable.

We enjoyed spending the better part of a week at Villa Sant'Andrea on via di Fabbrica, near Tavernelle Val di Pesa: http://www.villas-andrea.it/index.php?lang=en
They have either farmhouses or B&B rooms to choose from. It was easily accessible to the Autostradale FI-SI, placing much of Tuscany within "striking distance" for daytrips.
We were able to visit Siena, Volterra, San Gimignano, Florence, and drive the SS222 and SS429 through Chianti Classico to Castellina, Radda, Greve, etc. If you have a GPS, all the better!
Bellissima!

I have booked our Italy portion of our trip. After much internet searching of logistics of trains etc I have decided on the following. Suggestions welcome.

We will arrive from Croatia and stay two nights in Venice. From there we will take the train to Cinque Terre area, Levanto, where we spend three nights.

We will then take a train to Pisa and pick up a rental car on our way to our place booked in San Quirico D'Orcia for six nights. It looks perfect for us, in a small town. Thanks Stu and everyone for pointing me in that direction, and we dont have to drive back to the middle of nowhere in the dark.

Then we will return the car to Pisa, take the train to Florence where we spend three nights before flying to Barcelona.

Thanks everyone for your help on this. What do you think of the car pick up/drop off in Pisa? Does this make sense?

The drop off makes no sense. Drop it at the airport in Florence and save a ton of time.

You could also get the car at La Spezia as well. It will be a good drive to San Quirico from either.

Agree with Bob. Drop off in Florence (be sure to get GOOD directions. This was the biggest snafu of our trip...for us the return was very difficult to locate in the city. We drove in a circle for an hour).

Warning: DO NOT use the La Spezia rental office. We rented from Hertz and they have a satellite office there. The car was a total joke...dirty & bald tires. We had to go out of our way to the Pisa airport to exchange the car.

I agree that it's a much better idea to place yourselves in a town especially at that time of year when it'll be getting dark relatively early.

I love the IDEA of an agriturismo, but have always been put off by the need either to eat in every night [if they have a restaurant] or to drive and one of us having to forgo wine with the meal [if they don't].

Hi, I guess I assumed it would be a huge drop off fee if I picked up in Pisa and dropped off in Florence. It is only $66 so thanks for that, yes it makes sense to drop it off in Florence in that case.
We are probably going to use AVIS as they seem to have the best rates so far as I can tell.

Thanks again.

Use Autoeuope or Kemwel---both have contracts with Avis, Hertz, and others and will match any other quote.

live42day - the big drop off fees have up to now been associated with cross-border arrangements, though the companies are beginning to get wise to asking for extra whenever you return to somewhere other than the original depot, as you have found.

BTW when we wanted to go from Geneva to amsterdam, it was still worth our while to pay the drop-off fee, and they upgraded us to a much better car when we picked it up.