Mike

Hello,

we are looking to travel to the Tuscany region in July 2006 and are
exploring travel ideas. We are looking for a trip that will let us
stay in small villages/local areas, and see and local areas.

We have thought about home exchange, or trying to find a small intimate
tour group. Any suggestions, experiences, or ideas are appreciated,
Thanks,

Mike

R@L

"Mike" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected] oups.com...
    > Hello,
    > we are looking to travel to the Tuscany region in July 2006 and are
    > exploring travel ideas. We are looking for a trip that will let us
    > stay in small villages/local areas, and see and local areas.
    > We have thought about home exchange, or trying to find a small intimate
    > tour group. Any suggestions, experiences, or ideas are appreciated,
    > Thanks,
    > Mike

Tuscany is best explored by car. Rent some centrally located house of make
use of farm holidays (agriturismi).
For a regio it is rather large and you may not see all in one trip.
Get up early to see small cities and towns since after noon all is closed
and the best time for sightseeing since the roads are empty.

Have fun.

Ronald
www.netspresso.com

Claim Guy

"Mike" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected] oups.com...
    > Hello,
    > we are looking to travel to the Tuscany region in July 2006 and are
    > exploring travel ideas. We are looking for a trip that will let us
    > stay in small villages/local areas, and see and local areas.
    > We have thought about home exchange, or trying to find a small intimate
    > tour group. Any suggestions, experiences, or ideas are appreciated,
    > Thanks,
    > Mike


Mike;

I think a lot of people are going to respond and recommend that you find
some place central to situate yourself and then explore the area on your
own. Tuscany was made for cruising around with a car, not as part of a tour.
It sounds like you really want to get a feel for the place and that is best
done at your own place and following the advice of locals to back up your
own research.

I don't think that Italians are that much into the home exchange concept -
they are certainly into the villa/agriturismo concept so that might your
best bet.

Try Goggling "Tuscany" with "agriturismo" and see if that is to your liking.

Roger

"R@L" <[email protected]> wrote...
> we are looking to travel to the Tuscany region in July 2006 and
    > are exploring travel ideas. We are looking for a trip that will let
    > us stay in small villages/local areas, and see and local areas.

2006 is a bit far off. I'm currently planning a visit for this June.
Check out www.tuscany.net. We plan to rent a car in Florence
and head for a hilltown for a few nights. [R]

Ken Blake

In news:[email protected],
Claim Guy <[email protected]> typed:

    > "Mike" <[email protected]> wrote in message
    > news:[email protected] oups.com...
    >> Hello,
    >> we are looking to travel to the Tuscany region in July 2006
    >> and are
    >> exploring travel ideas. We are looking for a trip that will
    >> let us
    >> stay in small villages/local areas, and see and local areas.
    >> We have thought about home exchange, or trying to find a small
    >> intimate tour group. Any suggestions, experiences, or ideas
    >> are
    >> appreciated, Thanks,
    >> Mike
    > Mike;
    > I think a lot of people are going to respond and recommend that
    > you
    > find some place central to situate yourself and then explore
    > the area
    > on your own. Tuscany was made for cruising around with a car,
    > not as
    > part of a tour.


I think Tuscany was made well before cars were invented. ;-)

But I agree with you--stay away from tours, and if you want to
visit small towns, it's much more convenient with a car..

My personal preference, though is not to stay in a central place
and use it as a base, but to move around from place to place,
staying in a different town every night or two. That's mostly
because I will want to have dinner in different towns each
evening, and having drunk wine with my dinner, I don't want to
have to drive back to that central place.

--
Ken Blake
Please reply to the newsgroup

Mimi

"Mike" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected] oups.com...
    > Hello,
    > we are looking to travel to the Tuscany region in July 2006 and are
    > exploring travel ideas. We are looking for a trip that will let us
    > stay in small villages/local areas, and see and local areas.
    > We have thought about home exchange, or trying to find a small intimate
    > tour group. Any suggestions, experiences, or ideas are appreciated,
    > Thanks,

Lots of villas to rent in Tuscany. That would be costlier then an home
exchange,
probably cheaper than a small tour group. Find one in a nice-sized town,
rent a
car and go.

You might also look into Umbria. It's a little cheaper than Tuscany and more
rural.
Interesting towns are Assisi, Perugia, Gubbio, Spello, Spoleto, Orvieto,
Todi, Deruta, etc.

Marianne

Neil Gillis

"Mike" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected] oups.com...
    > Hello,
    > we are looking to travel to the Tuscany region in July 2006 and are
    > exploring travel ideas. We are looking for a trip that will let us
    > stay in small villages/local areas, and see and local areas.
    > We have thought about home exchange, or trying to find a small intimate
    > tour group. Any suggestions, experiences, or ideas are appreciated,
    > Thanks,
    > Mike

With plenty of time to plan looking at slowtrav.com will provide you
with loads of information on staying in Italy.

Neil

B Vaughan

On Mon, 17 Jan 2005 15:14:35 -0800, "Mimi" <[email protected]>
wrote:

    >You might also look into Umbria. It's a little cheaper than Tuscany and more
    >rural.
    >Interesting towns are Assisi, Perugia, Gubbio, Spello, Spoleto, Orvieto,
    >Todi, Deruta, etc.

Umbria is also a lot less crowded in July than Tuscany. I also should
put in a plug for my region, Le Marche, which is also rural and
beautiful and the least crowded of the three. Some interesting cities
are Urbino, Ascoli Piceno and Fano, and there are so many lovely
little hill towns that I wouldn't know where to start, except to say
that I live in one of them, Corinaldo. Lodging and restaurants are a
bit sparser than the other two regions, because tourism hasn't really
hit Le Marche yet, but you can certainly eat very well there. In fact,
Le Marche is known among Italians for its good food, partly based on
seafood from the Adriatic and partly on the rural specialities of its
mountains.


--
Barbara Vaughan
My email address is my first initial followed by my surname at libero dot it
I answer travel questions only in the newsgroup

Luca Logi

Ken Blake <[email protected]> wrote:

    > >Tuscany was made for cruising around with a car,
    > > not as part of a tour.
    >
    > I think Tuscany was made well before cars were invented. ;-)


A real problem is that most country roads In Tuscany still follow the
routes traced centuries ago. The recently built highways are fast
enough, but country roads are endlessly windy and seem to climb every
hill and get down. While there is no sensible alternative to touring on
a car (train services are limited to few itineraries, and bus service
may be sparse), driving in Tuscany may be tiring (even if the passengers
are exposed to very fine landscapes).


--
Luca Logi - Firenze - Italy e-mail: [email protected]
Home page: http://www.angelfire.com/ar/archivarius
(musicologia pratica)

Frank Clarke

On Mon, 17 Jan 2005 13:42:23 -0700, "Ken Blake"
<[email protected]> wrote:
<[email protected]>

    >But I agree with you--stay away from tours, and if you want to
    >visit small towns, it's much more convenient with a car..

...but when you get to someplace interesting, take a guided tour of that place.


(change Arabic number to Roman numeral to email)

Ken Blake

In news:[email protected],
Frank Clarke <[email protected]> typed:

    > On Mon, 17 Jan 2005 13:42:23 -0700, "Ken Blake"
    > <[email protected]> wrote:
    > <[email protected]>
    >>But I agree with you--stay away from tours, and if you want to
    >>visit small towns, it's much more convenient with a car..
    > ...but when you get to someplace interesting, take a guided
    > tour of
    > that place.


Each to his own. That wouldn't be *my* choice. I'd prefer to read
about it in a guide book, and view it myself, at my own pace. I
hate guided tours.

--
Ken Blake
Please reply to the newsgroup