just returned from venice/florence/rome trip. I highly recommend a day or two in the country of Tuscany. Me and ms. chobby100 did not rent a car and were able to go into the country. We stayed at a place just outside of greve-in-chianti called podere il casello. http://www.tuscany.net/casello/ among other websites. We wanted a place accesible by bus and nice and low key. This was it. the place is very very nice and we only paid 120 euros including b-fast. the best place by far we stayed in Italy. It has recently been completely renovated. It has about 10 rooms. It's about 1km from Greve (the bus goes by often). Greve is a very nice tuscany postcard town. We went to this large wine cellar place where we did wine tastings. At podere they have a very nice pool and it surrounded by olive grives and many vineyards. they have a real nice pool as well. They had a wonderful prix fixe sinner for 15 euros each (including water and wine). If not greve check out radda or siena