Travel in Tuscany?

My wife and I are planning to vacation in Italy from October 8th through the 16th. We will be flying into Rome. I am thinking about renting a car and spending a few days seeing the southern area of Tuscany. Can anyone suggest cities to stay in and things to see in the region? Specific recommendations for hotels would be appreciated as well. We are looking for relatively inexpensive lodging as we spend almost no time in our room.

Thanks.

We found Siena to be well located for launching day trips. It wasn't far to Montalcino, as I recall. I can't give you a specific hotel recco, but there are quite a few right outside the city walls.

i really enjoyed the village of san gimignano - as in vernaccia di.......
it is a lovely and unspoiled village.

My wife and I are planning to vacation in Italy from October 8th through the 16th. We will be flying into Rome. I am thinking about renting a car and spending a few days seeing the southern area of Tuscany. Can anyone suggest cities to stay in and things to see in the region? Specific recommendations for hotels would be appreciated as well. We are looking for relatively inexpensive lodging as we spend almost no time in our room.

Thanks.

I will be booking a room at this hotel in Siena as I will be going there in January. Simple but recommended by an Italian friend.

http://www.cannondoro.com/albergosiena_i.htm#

When I went to Montepulciano last summer I stayed at a reasonable 3 star near the entrance of the town. There were buses we took to go visit Pienza, but, if you are going to be in Southern Tuscany and want to stay there, you may want to rent a car so you can drive to the wineries. You would need, however, to make appointments with each - which is what I recommend. The man enoteca at the castle tower of Montalcino is interesting to visit. Siena has the biggest and most important Enoteca of all of Italy - I was there about 10 years ago and will be going again this winter.

Thanks to everyone for the excellent advice. We are now looking at staying in either San Gimigano, which looks to be quite beautiful, or Siena.

Paulo - Do you remember the hotel that you stayed at in Montepulciano? We are thinking about staying there on our first night as we drive up from Rome.

Thanks to everyone for the excellent advice. We are now looking at staying in either San Gimigano, which looks to be quite beautiful, or Siena.

Paulo - Do you remember the hotel that you stayed at in Montepulciano? We are thinking about staying there on our first night as we drive up from Rome.

Yes - Hotel Granducato - 3 stars. Contemporary basic hotel at a good location. Here's the link:

http://www.hotelgranducato.it/hotel.en.php

My wife and I are planning to vacation in Italy from October 8th through the 16th. We will be flying into Rome. I am thinking about renting a car and spending a few days seeing the southern area of Tuscany. Can anyone suggest cities to stay in and things to see in the region? Specific recommendations for hotels would be appreciated as well. We are looking for relatively inexpensive lodging as we spend almost no time in our room.

Thanks.

Sam - I also just ran across the information on a lovely little wine shop I visited while in Montepulciano last year called "Vinoteca Terra Toscana" owned by Barbara Pestarini and Fabio Berardi. I just felt they were incredibly gracious and knowledgeable, and extremely helpful. They are located on Via Ricci, 14a, in town. Here is a link to their website:

http://www.vinoterratoscana.it/main_eng.htm

Also, here is a picture of me doing a tasting with Barbara, when I was there in early August, 2006:

Paulo,

Thanks for all of the excellent information. We will definitely make a stop at the Vinoteca Terra Toscana when we are in Montepulciano. Unfortunately it looks like Grand Ducato is booked up.

A few belated suggestions for anybody planning future trips:

Firenze

For casual lunch with great wines in the marketplace area go to the Casa del Vino, Via del Ariento 16(red). They have a web site at http://www.casadelvino.it . The place is hidden behind the market stalls that line the Via del Ariento, hence the clientele is mainly locals or people who purposely search for it. Gianni is the owner, his father Bruno still makes sandwiches and helps customers to selects wine, and two kind ladies do their best to help cope with the lunchtime crowd. About 10-15 wines available by the glass, and all your eating and drinking is done standing by the bar. Around 13:00 it gets very crowded with the locals, many of whom seem to be regulars, and its a lot of fun to see. The shop is well stocked with Italian wines, and prices are more than fair. Gianni has a large stock of older vintages and interesting wines downstairs in the temperature controlled cellar. Italian spoken very well, English less so, but anyhow very nice people and highly recommended.

Another excellent wine bar and casual restaurant with seating outside at small tables in a nice little square near the center is Le Volpi e l'Uva: Piazza dei Rossi, 1R. Tel: 055 2398132. Specializing in lesser known wineries, sought out by the owner. They (usually) speak some English, and it is a great place to relax. http://www.levolpieluva.com

An excellent “high-end” restaurant that may set you back a bit in the pocket-
Il Cibreo, via dei Macci 118. Tel 2341100. They have a trattoria next door, same name, more casual, no reservations, mostly the same dishes as the more formal restaurant, but at roughly 40-50% of the price.


Rome

A very fine tratorria with extensive and fairly priced wine list- Da Luigi. http://www.trattoriadaluigi.com

Another highly recommended place is Fiaschetteria Beltramme, Via della Croce 39, 00187 Roma. The place is listed as a historical building, the trattoria dates back 160 years, with walls covered with paintings and caricatures left by artists unable to pay their bills, and a table at which Federico Fellini apparently worked on La Dolce Vita. Excellent simple trattoria dishes, fair prices, no phone so no reservations, a great lunch option when you are sick of the fancy shops in the surrounding district...

Sam, Hi....


See also my little article at http://www.stratsplace.com/rogov/ghost_ ... ngelo.html

Best
Rogov

No specific reccomendations, but two general ones

a) Try to find one base location and day trip from there. However with a car you can stretch this easily to a couple of base locations - this avoids the packing/unpacking & checking in / out chores of some of the more ambitious itineries

b) http://www.agriturismo.it is a government run (still?) agency for booking farmstays and prices are generally fair to good. The food is often great

c) http://www.slowtrav.com/italy have reviews of accomodation

There's also Monty Waldin's touring in wine country (Tuscany) which may be of use

regards

Ian

Just a word of advice about picking up a car and driving out of Rome - it's hellish!

I've driven in most major European and Asian cities many times before, but the one time that I had to get into Rome, coming from Siena, I swore off driving in Rome. From then on, if we had to land in Rome, we took the trains or planes to wherever it was in Italy that we planned on going to and rented the car at the destination train station or airport.

Fyi, Florence is only about 1 1/2 hour train away from Rome.

Have fun.

Ramon

I'd very much echo Ramon's comment. Driving in rural Italy is fantastic. Driving in the cities (or even decent size towns) can be stressful. GPS does help, but won't help you adapt to the forceful (albeit IMO skillful) driving in Italian cities. I recall seeing one car turned into a roundabout by the traffic in Naples, with the driver unable to move as the traffic was literally driving all around him!

Train tickets from http://www.trenitalia.com (look for the union jack flag or "EN" for English version). Prices are cheap so I'd recommend travelling 1st class Eurostar and picking the car up at a convenient location.

regards

Ian