kacierae

Hello! My fiance and I will be driving from Tuscany (Palazzetto to be exact) to Positano in July. Would love any recommendations on little towns we should stop in for lunch and small wine tasting. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

Jean

That's a nearly 7-hour drive taking the most direct, fastest route, and, in some ways, the most challenging part is at the end. If you detour onto secondary roads to reach charming towns and/or wineries, the drive will only get longer.

Two lunch options that wouldn't be far off the route are Tivoli and Frascati. At Tivoli, you could visit the Villa d'Este with its garden fountains and/or Hadrian's Villa. Frascati is a nice little hill town, and the gardens at Villa Aldobrandini are open to the public.

Do you need the car for Positano?

bobthenavigator

You don't have time for a sit-down lunch.
Get to your destination.

kacierae

Thanks! We don't need the car in Positano, just need to get to Positano. We are staying 1.5 hours outside Florence so by the time we got back to Florence and took the train, down to Naples and then over it Positano, it was over 8 hours. Is there an easier way? We are prepared for a long drive, but wanted to try and enjoy the scenery and small towns as much as possible! Google maps is saying 5.5 hours from Palazzetto to Positano. Is that wrong?

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Rela...40.6278203!3e0

HappyTrvlr

Drop the car off at Naples airport and hire a private driver to take you to Positano. The drive to Naples is all on the Autostrada and not difficult at all.

kacierae

Thanks HappyTrvlr! That's a great idea.

Kathie

Google is consistently wrong on drive times. If it's really a 7 hour drive and google is saying 5.5 hours. that's pretty good for google. In many places in the world, you have to double google's estimates.

bvlenci

If I already had the car, I'd drive all the way to Positano. Dropping the car at Naples airport and hiring a driver will make the trip longer and more expensive. If you're not comfortable with driving on the narrow, twisty coast road, then the airport drop is a good idea.

I'm not convinced that Google Maps is so wrong on travel time, at least in Italy, where I live. We recently took a fairly long drive using Google Navigator, and we got to our destination a little ahead of the estimated arrival time. I just now asked Google Maps for directions to six places we drive to fairly often, and the estimates match our experience very closely.

To get an accurate time estimate, you need to specify a date and time of day. If you're traveling at rush hour, the time estimate will have a pretty wide band.

If I indicate I'll be traveling at 7 AM on Monday morning from Palazzetto to Positano, Google Maps says it will take between 5 hours and 20 minutes, and six hours and 20 minutes.

There are two possible routes shown on Google Maps. One, slightly slower, hugs the coast until you get to Rome, and the other is autostrada all the way. If you hug the coast, there are several coastal towns where you could get a good seafood lunch without going far out of your way.

Another possible stopover north of Rome would be Bracciano, or Anguillara, both on Lake Bracciano. It's a little closer to the coastal route, but not much. It would take about 3 hours to get there, and from 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 to get from there to Positano. If you could arrive at noon and leave at three or four, you'd have time to have lunch and get some lake views, and be in Positano in time for dinner.

Jean

When I click on your Google link, it says the drive is 6 hours (or 6.5 hours if you take the partial coast route). Everyone's experience varies, but I have consistently found Google to underestimate driving times by 5-10 minutes per hour. Over 6 hours, that translates to 30-60 minutes and assumes no stops or detours to smaller towns. And living in a coastal town myself (in Southern California, not Italy), I have to think driving along the coast in July could be rather slow in some spots.

Florence isn't the only place you could catch a train. Look into Grosseto which I believe is closer to where you'll be staying and likely an easier place to turn in a car than Florence.

I'd train to Naples or Salerno and hire a driver.

If you don't need the car in Positano, you'd be paying for the daily rental plus the overnight parking. It adds up if you're staying several days. If you need a car after Positano, you can rent another one in Sorrento or Salerno.

bvlenci

We're certainly not speed demons, and, as I said, the Italian driving time estimates on Google Maps is pretty much spot on based on our experience.

mike1728

We estimate our travel times on European roads via Google Maps, and have to agree with bvlenci, times are always pretty much as indicated. As a matter of fact the times are based on the actual speed limit of the roads and as you will see in Italy (especially on the A-1, which you travel for several hours, drivers exceed the speed limit generously) Not advocating speeding but you enhance your times by simply staying with the traffic.

Drove the Amalfi several times, I think the "horror stories" of driving that road are an overblown myth. I actually enjoyed it, no stress at all. We also took the bus on the Amalfi a few times and that was nerve wracking as you are up higher and look down over the guard rails and the road side cliffs.

I recommend taking the A-1 direct and do not stop until you clear Rome. As suggested, Frascati is a good stop after Rome where you can enjoy a snack and a glass of Frascati.

Also, along the A-1 there are several "Auto Grill's" which are large restaurants/bars/shop areas that have all kinds of fresh Italian foods, snacks, pastries, beer/wines, ect....this is not "fast food" but actually well prepared meals/snacks.