Tuscany tops its billing. It is an Arcadian countryside strung with grapevines, shimmering silver with olive trees, and peppered with medieval hilltowns and ancient art-stuffed cities. Tuscany is the birthplace of the Renaissance, Florentine steaks, and Chianti wine- an earthly Eden, a must-see stop on big bus tours and a playground for rich wine snobs. Yet the very richness and variety of its culture ensures there's always a budget alternative to $100 wines and $500 hotel rooms. We're going to enjoy Tuscan feasts for under $15, sample some of Italy's greatest wines for free, admire masterful fourteenth- and fifteenth-century frescoes in churches and cheap civic museums, and stay in rooms with a view for under $50. We'll do that by avoiding familiar Florence and tourist-jammed Pisa (where the newly reopened Leaning Tower costs a ridiculous E15/$13.75 to climb) in favor of four alternative urban wonders just a few kilometers away. Two of our towns are also tourist favorites but hide a budget side: Siena, a Gothic city of brick palazzi and notoriously friendly citizens, famous for turning out major saints, sinful cookies, and colorful Gothic frescoes; and San Gimignano, a "Medieval Manhattan" of more than a dozen stone skyscrapers. Two others are on the brink of discovery, beloved by discriminating travelers but as yet bypassed by the big tour buses: Elegant Lucca with its pretty churches and preference for bicycles over cars, and wine-soaked Montepulciano, where wine tasting is free and Renaissance palaces sit atop a labyrinth of aging cellars. (The room rates we cite below are totals for a double room, and the restaurant prices cover a full meal-pasta, main course, and dessert-with wine, water, and cover charge.)

Lucca

Lucca (just next to Pisa) is a genteel, unjustifiably overlooked city set into plains that wash up against the foothills of the snowcapped Apuan Alps, where Michelangelo mined his marble. The choirs of its Romanesque churches once rang with the young voices of future composers Puccini and Boccherini. Puccini warbled at San Michele in Foro, which rises at the very center of town on the site of Lucca's ancient forum. The church's lofty facade is distinctive of the local Romanesque style, a towering stack of open arcades kneeling on rows of midget, mismatched columns. The stack of thirteenth-century facade arcades on the Duomo di San Martino cathedral hangs above a portico packed with medieval carvings and sculptures. The sacristy (E1.65/$1.50) preserves Lucca's great art treasure, Jacopo della Quercia's masterly early Renaissance tomb of Ilaria Guinigi, a tragic beauty who married the town boss before dying at 26. The cathedral's religious treasure is the Volto Santo, a time-blackened Christ that legend holds was carved by Nicodemus himself (it's probably a thirteenth-century copy of an eighth-century Syrian work).

This ancient town still preserves its Roman street plan, including Piazza Anfiteatro, an oval of medieval buildings grafted onto the remains of an ancient amphitheater within a circuit of massive sixteenth-century brick bastions. The broad ramparts were turned into a narrow city park by Princess Elisa Bacciocchi, Napol,on's sister, whose regency ended Lucca's long centuries as an independent republic. It's now a grand tree-shaded avenue thronged with Luccans strolling or riding their bicycles. Luccans far prefer biking to driving, and you'll find few cars within the walls (rent your own cycle wheels for about E2.20/$2 per hour at the rental outfits on Piazza Santa Maria). At 4:30 p.m., locals line up at the Art Nouveau take-out window of Amadeo Giusti, Via Santa Lucia 18-20, to snack on Lucca's best pizza bianca (white pizza). They then take the snack on their evening passeggiata (after-dinner stroll) along shop-lined Via Fillungo, popping into historic 1846 Antico Caff, di Simo at no. 58 for an espresso or Campari.

Luccan lodging

Lucca's best hotels are all small family-run affairs. Phone ahead to book at the excellent Piccolo Hotel Puccini, run by the wonderfully helpful Paolo, a block from central Piazza San Michele (Via di Poggio 9; 0583-55-421, hotelpuccini.com, E80/$73.45 per double room; breakfast E3.50/$3.20). On a pocket-size piazza off Via Fillungo sits the amiable La Luna, where seventeenth-century frescoes decorate a few of the otherwise contemporary rooms (Corte Compagni 12; 0583-493-634, hotellaluna.com, E99/$90.80 per double; breakfast E10.50/$9.65). Cheapest of the lot, half a block from the Duomo near the city's southern walls, simple little Albergo Diana is divided into a main hotel and a slightly more luxurious, more expensive annex; the staff is sometimes unfriendly (Via Molinetto 11; 0583-492-202, albergodiana.com, E52-E83/$47.75-$76.20 per double room; breakfast ... la carte from E3.50/$3.20). Luccan meals Lucca sports three excellent trattorie serving up inexpensive, heaping portions of Lucchese dishes, including zuppa di farro (emmer wheat soup). Trattoria Da Leo is the old-fashioned lunch spot of choice for locals just off the central Piazza San Michele (Via Tegrimi 1; 0583-492-236, meals around E20/$18.35). The huge Da Giulio packs them in for dinner, making up for a lack of graceful decor with quality cooking and smiling service (Via Conce 45/Piazza San Donato, 0583-55-948, E20/$18.35). Papa runs the single room of homey Da Guido, mamma runs the kitchen, and there's a TV blaring in the corner (Via Cesare Battisti 28; 0583-476-219, E14/$12.85). For a lighter meal in Lucca, head to Pizzeria da Felice for excellent pizza by the slice, local specialty flatbreads cecina (made with chickpeas) and chestnut-flour castagnaccio stuffed with sweet ricotta (Via Buia 12; 0583-494-986, E4.55/$4.20).

Siena

Siena is a city in hilltown clothing. Its Gothic brick palazzi and marble Baroque church facades are splayed along three ridge tops centered along a trio of (usually) car-free boulevards: Shopping drag Via Banchi di Sopra, touristy Via di Citt..., and quiet Via Banchi di Sotto. The three meet just outside Siena's lovely main square, Piazza del Campo, a sloping scallop-shell of herringbone brick where people picnic, nap, and celebrate soccer victories. Anchoring the base is the crenellated thirteenth-century town hall, the Palazzo Pubblico/Museo Civico, well worth the E6.50 ($6) admission to admire its public spaces frescoed with Sienese Gothic masterpieces. These include Simone Martini's courtly, early La Maest... (Madonna in Majesty) and the richly patterned Guidoriccio. Ambrogio Lorenzetti's seminal Allegory of Good and Bad Government and its Effects on the Town and Countryside, which is packed with scenes of fourteenth-century daily life and is perhaps the most important secular painting from medieval Europe, decorates the chamber of the old ruling Council of Nine to remind them of the effects of their government.

The bulky zebra-striped Gothic Duomo (cathedral) is free except from August 23 to October 2, when the stunning patchwork of inlaid and etched marble panels carpeting the floor is uncovered (E5.50/$5.05). On other dates, a few panels are always left visible, and most of the cathedral is free (except the Libreria Piccolomini, an antechamber lushly frescoed by Pinturricchio and his young assistant Raphael; E1.50/$1.40). At the duomo's crossing are a chapel by Baroque master Bernini and a densely carved pulpit by Gothic geniuses Nicola and Giovanni Pisano. The brick vaults under the massive sixteenth-century Medici fortress, once a symbol of Florence's dominance, now host the Enoteca Italica Permanente, a sort of national wine museum where you can sample Italy's best vintages for E1.30-E2.60 ($1.20-$2.40) per glass.

Siena boasts many more sights and museums, but most (save the churches) charge admission. The city offers a multitude of cumulative tickets for various grab-bags of sights; there are many permutations, but the E15 ($13.75) one gets you into pretty much everything.

Sienese sleeps

Amazingly, one of the best hotel deals, Cannon d'Oro, is on the main drag, where its big rooms mix some nice antiques with functional pieces (Via Montanini 28; 0577-44-321, svpm.it, E52-E85/$47.75-$78 per double room; breakfast E6/$5.50). Tiny Hotel Bernini is a home away from home. The nine guest rooms are fitted with a rummage sale of antiques set on patterned tile floors, and are only separated from the family's half of the apartment by a curtain. Nadia will let you onto the roof terrace overlooking St. Catherine's house, and Mauro often serenades guests with his accordion (Via della Sapienza 15; 0577-289-047, albergobernini.com, E82/$73.50 per double; E62/$56.90 without bath; breakfast E6.70/$6.15). A bit institutional but remarkably cheap, Alma Domus is run by nuns who unfortunately insist upon an 11:30 p.m. curfew. The basic rooms lack amenities save A/C in a few, and the phones can only receive calls (though this may change). The best have balconies overlooking the striped Duomo across a wide gully (Via Camporeggio 37; 0577-44-177, E65/$59.65 per double room; breakfast E6/$5.50).