susoir

On my trip to Italy next month, I will unfortunately have to spend one day (a weekday) doing a long, solo drive from Sulmona, in Abruzzo, to Mondovi, in Piemonte. I'm hoping that the experienced Italy travelers here on Fodors can help me choose the least painful route for this long drive. I drove a rental car in Italy last year, but only Venice-Dolomites-Trento. This will be my first time on the autostrada, so I'd like to minimize the stress as much as possible.

Google maps and ViaMichelin each show two alternate routes. Basically, I can either take the A1 to the A12, passing Rome, Florence, and Genoa, or I can take the A14, passing Pescara, Bologna, and Piacenza, then turning south near Torino. Both mapping sites show the A1/A12 route as the quicker route by about 15 minutes, but I'm guessing those time estimates assume no traffic problems.

I've seen references on this and/or other forums to the A12 as a challenging route for the unitiated, due in part to the abundance of tunnels, but I notice that the A14 from Pescara to Ancona also has its share of tunnels. I'm also concerned about potential traffic jams, since this is going to be a long day of driving even without any major slowdowns.

Any insights from travelers who have done part or all of either of these driving routes would be greatly appreciated.

Grazie!

tizzone

Hi Susio

I was just going to ask a similar thing...how did you go? Which way did you end up going?

I'll be driving Calabria to Cinque Terre, with wife, baby and in-law parents so was thinking of maybe making an overnight stop too.

sandralist

You should definitely make an overnight stop. You should also consider taking the train rather than driving, and even flying to Pisa and picking up a car rental there.

tizzone

Thanks. Yeah, I'm leaning towards Pisa and a train.

In regards to the A1-A12 vs A14 route, I was hoping to get some info on the difference in terms of traffic and road conditions...

sandralist

Coming from Calabria and ending in Pisa you really don't have much choice about which roads you take. The roads being discussed in the original post here are not roads you will be traveling.

Personally, I would do just about anything I could to avoid driving the A3 for any length of time. I don't know where you are staying in Calabria, but would it be possible to drive to Bari or Catania airport, drop off the car there, and fly to Pisa?

Otherwise, I would take the train, although it will be a very long trip, close to 10 hours or more door to door. If you are not staying in Pisa, you could shorten the trip by spending the night in Florence and picking up a car there, or even Orvieto if you want a smaller town and continuing on the next day. I realize that you probably have extra luggage for the baby but maybe an overnight in those places wouldn't be too much hassle if you took taxis and stayed some place comfortable.