usvi-on-line
Italy help please!
Italy help please!
Planning a trip to Italy in May. 13 nights total. Arrive Rome, rent car drive to Orvieto, enjoy, eat, sleep for 1 night! We have 4 more nights to explore hill towns. Want to include Montalcino, Pienza, Montepulciano, Siena, San Gimingano and Florence. My question is this, What is the best area to base ourselves out of? We will have a car. Looking at an agriturismo south of montalcino for a 1 or 2 nights. But then where should we go for last 2 or 3 nights in the area? We love doing day trips, so not a problem. Should we stay in Siena or Florence? What would be easier with the car?? After the hill towns we will go to Amalfi coast for 6 nights and Rome 1 night before we flu out of Rome. Any help you can give will be greatly appreciated as I see some of you have been to Italy and have lovely reports. Also any lodging recommendations are also welcome.
Thanks,
Beach 1
Thanks,
Beach 1
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sailorgirl
- Posts: 1644
- Joined: Mon Oct 30, 2006 3:03 pm
Standard operating procedure is no car in Florence - it just is not worth the hassle (I think it is doable though, especially if you stay outside of the center). I would stay perhaps somewhere in the Chianti Classico zone with your car and do your day trips from there (after your couple of nights south of Montalcino).
Then get rid of the car for you day/s in Florence, and take the train back to Naples/Amalfi coast (but that depends on how many of you there are - if it is 4 people a car might be cheaper).
Please check out my sites/blogs for more info - I have a lot of stuff written there, and most of the local sponsors you see on Florence Journal are friends and I would recommend them all.
http://www.florence-journal.com/
http://www.florence-on-line.com/
Place to stay near Gaiole: http://www.borgocasaalvento.com/eng/default.html
Place to stay in Florence: http://palazzouguccioni.com/
Friends restaurant in Florence: http://boccadama.com/
Favorite wine bar: http://www.florence-on-line.com/food-dr ... -luva.html
And keep asking if you have more questions!
Then get rid of the car for you day/s in Florence, and take the train back to Naples/Amalfi coast (but that depends on how many of you there are - if it is 4 people a car might be cheaper).
Please check out my sites/blogs for more info - I have a lot of stuff written there, and most of the local sponsors you see on Florence Journal are friends and I would recommend them all.
http://www.florence-journal.com/
http://www.florence-on-line.com/
Place to stay near Gaiole: http://www.borgocasaalvento.com/eng/default.html
Place to stay in Florence: http://palazzouguccioni.com/
Friends restaurant in Florence: http://boccadama.com/
Favorite wine bar: http://www.florence-on-line.com/food-dr ... -luva.html
And keep asking if you have more questions!
Anthony for Virgin Islands On Line
And if you are looking for a cooking class: http://cordonbleu-it.com/
Anthony for Virgin Islands On Line
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nuendelcapecod
- Posts: 91
- Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2009 9:44 am
- Location: Cape Cod
[color=We went with a tour group, stayed 4 nights in the spa town of Montecatini (hope spelling is right) in a large comfy hotel with the name Montecatini in it. Lovely -- there's also a finicula ride up to Montecatini Alta which is lovely. We bused from there to Florence, San Giamingiano and saw Florence, Sienna on our way to stay in Rome for 3 days. Enjoy! 
We stayed this past May for 3 nights at a wonderful farmhouse B&B/agriturismo just south of Siena called il Canto del Sole in Monteroni d'Arbia (near Cuna), just south of Siena.
Highly recommended – charming hosts, great rooms, good food, beautiful location. It deserves its stellar reviews and ratings on tripadvisor and was a good base for nearby Siena and for exploring the countryside and hill towns south of Siena. http://www.ilcantodelsole.com/inglese/index.asp
Also noteworthy right down the road from this B&B was the restaurant recommended by the innkeepers – the Osteria Il Contedino restaurant adjacent to the Hotel More Di Cuna. Beautiful inside, delicious simple traditional dishes using fresh local ingredients, great "vino della casa", good prices.
Driving between the hill towns of Montalcino, Pienza, and Montelpuciano through the Valley d’Orcia was knock your socks off beautiful – prettier than the California wine country. Then, the drive north between Siena and Florence up through Chianti was also quite stunning. More details and photos here:
http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... 7&start=15
Some tips regarding driving in Italy:
• you WILL be tailgated and you WILL be passed anytime, anywhere - on curves, hills – it doesn’t seem to matter
However, I must say that most of the time the drivers doing the more aggressive passing are pretty skillful at it 
The scooters in and near the cities are much more of a menace 
• Out in the countryside, be prepared to navigate many many traffic circles (known as a “rotary” in Red Sox nation) at most intersections so as you approach your copilot needs to scope out which “spoke” out of the circle the driver will be taking via your GPS and the road signs
• Speaking of the GPS, here is what I did – it’s somewhat tedious, but I brought my own GPS with me, and I purchased the GPS map of Italy on SD memory card that plugs into my GPS (it was about $60, kinda pricy but so was renting the GPS with the car, and who wants to spend any time on vacation being lost?), then I preprogrammed the GPS with the hill towns we wanted to visit using the actual longitude/latitude coordinates rather than the names of places for better accuracy and to eliminate confusion with similar named places or misspellings. I did this by cross referencing online road maps from www.viamichelin.com with the coordinates from google earth.
Being a “map person” with a decent sense of direction this process helped me visualize things better before I got there. I dislike depending entirely on the GPS and not actually knowing where I am or where I am going. In certain situations I will trust my sense of direction over what the GPS is telling me – but that’s me. I also purchased and used the Michelin paper map of Tuscany (Toscana 358) as backup.
Its pretty hilarious the first time you hear the GPS lady describe the roads you are driving on – they can't just say “route 222”, they say something ridiculously long like “la strada de la something-or-other-via-something-else”
When you go to Siena you park in one of the lots just outside the city and take a shuttle bus up into town. In the smaller hill towns there are also lots to park in just outside the city walls to walk into town.
As noted on Anthony’s Florence website and elsewhere, don’t bring your car into Florence – too many nightmare stories of traffic tickets associated with trying to navigate the ZTL, or "Zona Traffico Limitato". We literally dropped the car off at the airport and took a cab into town for our stay in Florence. Florence is very compact and quite walkable, assuming you are reasonably fit.
Highly recommended – charming hosts, great rooms, good food, beautiful location. It deserves its stellar reviews and ratings on tripadvisor and was a good base for nearby Siena and for exploring the countryside and hill towns south of Siena. http://www.ilcantodelsole.com/inglese/index.asp
Also noteworthy right down the road from this B&B was the restaurant recommended by the innkeepers – the Osteria Il Contedino restaurant adjacent to the Hotel More Di Cuna. Beautiful inside, delicious simple traditional dishes using fresh local ingredients, great "vino della casa", good prices.
Driving between the hill towns of Montalcino, Pienza, and Montelpuciano through the Valley d’Orcia was knock your socks off beautiful – prettier than the California wine country. Then, the drive north between Siena and Florence up through Chianti was also quite stunning. More details and photos here:
http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... 7&start=15
Some tips regarding driving in Italy:
• you WILL be tailgated and you WILL be passed anytime, anywhere - on curves, hills – it doesn’t seem to matter
However, I must say that most of the time the drivers doing the more aggressive passing are pretty skillful at it The scooters in and near the cities are much more of a menace • Out in the countryside, be prepared to navigate many many traffic circles (known as a “rotary” in Red Sox nation) at most intersections so as you approach your copilot needs to scope out which “spoke” out of the circle the driver will be taking via your GPS and the road signs
• Speaking of the GPS, here is what I did – it’s somewhat tedious, but I brought my own GPS with me, and I purchased the GPS map of Italy on SD memory card that plugs into my GPS (it was about $60, kinda pricy but so was renting the GPS with the car, and who wants to spend any time on vacation being lost?), then I preprogrammed the GPS with the hill towns we wanted to visit using the actual longitude/latitude coordinates rather than the names of places for better accuracy and to eliminate confusion with similar named places or misspellings. I did this by cross referencing online road maps from www.viamichelin.com with the coordinates from google earth.
Being a “map person” with a decent sense of direction this process helped me visualize things better before I got there. I dislike depending entirely on the GPS and not actually knowing where I am or where I am going
. In certain situations I will trust my sense of direction over what the GPS is telling me – but that’s me. I also purchased and used the Michelin paper map of Tuscany (Toscana 358) as backup. Its pretty hilarious the first time you hear the GPS lady describe the roads you are driving on – they can't just say “route 222”, they say something ridiculously long like “la strada de la something-or-other-via-something-else”
When you go to Siena you park in one of the lots just outside the city and take a shuttle bus up into town. In the smaller hill towns there are also lots to park in just outside the city walls to walk into town.
As noted on Anthony’s Florence website and elsewhere, don’t bring your car into Florence – too many nightmare stories of traffic tickets associated with trying to navigate the ZTL, or "Zona Traffico Limitato". We literally dropped the car off at the airport and took a cab into town for our stay in Florence. Florence is very compact and quite walkable, assuming you are reasonably fit.
When we come to place where the sea and the sky collide
Throw me over the edge and let my spirit glide
Throw me over the edge and let my spirit glide
I am not really that sure but unless you are going to drive on the outskirts, the car would have limited use as you can explore its beauty with just walking around the streets. It is very small you know and you would probably be in the company of a lot of people walking.
Siena or Florence has very small tolerance to cars often with the roads closed so you better think twice about staying there.
Siena or Florence has very small tolerance to cars often with the roads closed so you better think twice about staying there.
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bubblybrenda
- Posts: 549
- Joined: Wed Aug 20, 2008 10:57 pm
- Location: Vancouver, BC
Ok this is my final plan (as of now) Fly into FCO drive to Orvieto, 1 night there. 2 nights Siena in hotel with parking. 2 nights agriturismo south of Montalcino to visit that area including Pienza, Montepulciano. I think that may be enough for that region. SOrry Anthony I don't think we will make it to Florence this time around. I will just have to come back to do the upper tuscany and FLorence and CT!':lol:'
We will then head down to the Amalfi coast and stay there for the remainder of our time with our last day/night in Rome. I think this may work for our first trip to Italy. I hope it does. Still open to ideas, suggestions, fun things you've enjoyed. Thanks a million for your input on and off the board!! Hopefully I can put together a decent trip report for your enjoyment!!
Ciao
We will then head down to the Amalfi coast and stay there for the remainder of our time with our last day/night in Rome. I think this may work for our first trip to Italy. I hope it does. Still open to ideas, suggestions, fun things you've enjoyed. Thanks a million for your input on and off the board!! Hopefully I can put together a decent trip report for your enjoyment!!
Ciao
You cant do everything from Rome north on one trip unless it was one of those "drive by" tours. A Brooklyn Italian friend who has never been was flabbergasted we would go to Italy and NOT go to Rome. He thought it was like going to Yankee Stadium when the Yankees were out of town. We wound up preferring the coastline and countryside.
Make sure to check out Vicki H travel blog and outstanding photography on Almalfi.
http://vicki-h.travellerspoint.com/co/101/
Make sure to check out Vicki H travel blog and outstanding photography on Almalfi.
http://vicki-h.travellerspoint.com/co/101/
When we come to place where the sea and the sky collide
Throw me over the edge and let my spirit glide
Throw me over the edge and let my spirit glide
Wow, you bring back great memories. We rented a hill top farmhouse villa outside of Sansepolcro (east from Florence) 3 years ago for a week, also visited Rome for 3 days.
Favorites:
Cortona (remember the movie Under the Tuscan Sun)
San Gimignano
Siena
Driving through Chianti region is awesome
Rome was significantly nicer than we expected, loved it
Honestly Florence was nice but really crowded for us (sorry Anthony). We parked the car in Arezzo and took the train to Florence, much easier than driving in.
Enjoy, we'd go back in a second!
Favorites:
Cortona (remember the movie Under the Tuscan Sun)
San Gimignano
Siena
Driving through Chianti region is awesome
Rome was significantly nicer than we expected, loved it
Honestly Florence was nice but really crowded for us (sorry Anthony). We parked the car in Arezzo and took the train to Florence, much easier than driving in.
Enjoy, we'd go back in a second!
