Another option that I haven't seen mentioned yet is Prague.

I agree with Tuscany in general but if you have a car, it's easier to stay in a smaller town. FWIW, we stayed near Pienza and spent 3 days driving around to various hilltowns, including Siena (most have carparks on the outskirts of town). Thn we dropped the car and stayed in Florence the last couple nights.

Anonymous wrote:ICYMI: day trips are precisely what cruisers do. The ship docks early in the morning and you don’t need to be back on board until 8pm…and most people hop on trains or hire drivers or boats to take them hours away for the day.

Why base yourself in just one place?

Visit Rome then head to Florence where you can base yourself for a few nights if you like and see Tuscany and San Gimignano and other areas, then head south and base yourself elsewhere for a few nights.

You can explore your base city and do a few day trips. I would never recommend going to Florence and taking day trips the majority of the time. But Florence for the majority of the trip and a day in Siena and another day in Montepulciano sprinkled in there? Absolutely.

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of moving hotels every few days. I've done it, because that's what we had to do with our itinerary, but it's not my first choice. I much prefer to have a home base for the entire trip. If I can manage two weeks of vacation, sure I'll spend a week in city A and a week in city B. But I can only pull that off every 5 years or so.

Sorry - N to Orvieto from Rome ^