First Trip to Italy-2 weeks

Old Feb 9th, 2016, 09:43 AM
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First Trip to Italy-2 weeks

We are planning our first trip to Italy for June 2017 (first 2 weeks) for our 25th anniv. Here is what our itinerary looks like so far (early planning):
Fly out of Montreal-Thursday night
Arrive in Rome-Friday morning
Saturday-Rome (realizing this is not much time)
Sunday- train from Rome to Pompeii then Sorrento?? (thinking this may be a good place to stay for 1 night?)
Monday-4 nights Positano (day trips to Amalfi, Ravello, Path of Gods, boating)
Friday-Head to Tuscany (Bucine Agriturismo)
6 nights Tuscany - (rent a car for day trips to small towns, relax, wine tours)
Thursday-Florence for 3 nights (2 days)
Sunday-fly out of Florence to Montreal

I realize the first half is pretty ambitious. Unsure if we should train or drive from Rome to Pompeii/Sorrento/Positano. DH is very comfortable driving and hotel has parking fairly reasonable. Have heard mixed reviews on driving Amalfi Coast. Thoughts?
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Old Feb 9th, 2016, 09:53 AM
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I've always heard that driving in Italy is a bit of a spectator sport--really not something you want to get involved in. You can be comfortable driving in your home country, but in a foreign country it can be unpredictable and stressful. The rules of the road will be different, maybe even vastly different. So if you can, take the train.

I think you should shave off some time in Tuscany and on the Amalfi coast to have at least three or four nights in Rome. If you've never been to Rome before, it can be very overwhelming. There's just so much to see. With at least three nights you can get a good overview and have time to recover from the jetlag.
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Old Feb 9th, 2016, 10:01 AM
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Did you check Naples flights? I have found them better priced than Rome (flying form US east coast). You may just want a peek at Rome and that's fine, but flying to Naples would solve that exhausting Sunday. Pompeii can take hours if you want. Alternatively, you could arrange a private transfer from Naples train station, to Pompeii, to Positano.
I would not drive on the AC in June--too much traffic. The driver does not really get to enjoy the view.
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Old Feb 9th, 2016, 12:31 PM
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Whatever IceMoon has "heard," thousands and thousands of visitors to Italy have the time of their lives driving in scenic Tuscany, and it is one of the premier destinations in the world for spending 6 days enjoying a slower pace of life, reveling in the beautiful scenery, the villages, the food, the art. Bucine is a wonderful area. (Check out going to Lucignano and see the movie "Certified Copy.") I don't recommend shaving a minute off Tuscany.

If you can fly into Naples, best plan. Otherwise, if you want a peek at Rome, I would still recommend that you skip Sorrento. If you want to see Pompei on the way to Positano, head down their by train, but then have a driver pick you up and take you to Positano at the end of the day.

Since your plans for the Amalfi coast mainly involve hiking and boating, I would not rent a car. Use a driver when you want wheels.
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Old Feb 10th, 2016, 07:49 AM
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Thank you so much for your input. I will look in to flying into Naples...never thought of that. Great advice to skip Sorrento as well, that works better.
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Old Feb 10th, 2016, 08:32 AM
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Sandralist-

What I have "heard" was from people who have lived in Italy themselves and don't recommend for tourists to be driving around, especially if it's their first time in the country. And especially from Rome to Amalfi, which is what the OP was thinking of doing. Now that is my advice and my perspective, no need to be rude and dismissive of other people's opinions.
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Old Feb 10th, 2016, 10:39 AM
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Driving in Italy, which I have done dozens and dozens of times, as have many people who post here on Fodors, is neither stressful nor any more unpredictable than anywhere in the USA or elsewhere in Europe. Driving in INDIA is stressful and unpredictable, not Italy. The rules of the road are hardly unintelligible and barely different from driving in the USA.

And the point about "especially if it's their first time in the country" is especially silly. How many times should you visit Italy before you try driving there? And whenever you do, it will be your first time.

At any rate, the OP doesn't need to rent a car. But there's no need to scare anyone off doing it - no need, at all. Might not be a good first driving-in-Europe experience to drive along the Amalfi Coast for someone from a drive-on-the-left culture, but other than that, it's nothing to be concerned about, especially when it's just something some internet stranger "heard."
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Old Feb 10th, 2016, 11:34 AM
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I've been living in Italy for 18 years, and I don't understand why people shouldn't be encouraged to drive around in rural areas. When traveling from city to city, the train is both faster and cheaper than driving, but it's really hard to enjoy rural Tuscany without a car.

When I first got here, International Drivers' Permit in hand, my husband encouraged me to take the car out every day and drive around from town to town "getting lost". It was a wonderful experience, and I discovered lots of tiny villages that I still remember, but haven't seen since. I went to places my husband had never been, and he's lived his entire life (except for the university years) in our town.

You should familiarize yourself with the international road signs, and their Italian variations, but you have a whole year to do that. You should also familiarize yourself with the limited traffic zones (ZTLs) and how to avoid them. And learn the protocol of parking spaces.

People exaggerate the craziness of Italian drivers. There are some speed maniacs, and people who will overtake with little visibility, and some tailgaters, but there were plenty of these also in central NJ, where I used to live. One thing that is more frequent here is the bad habit of cutting curves. I'm very cautious on curves, because more than once I've found myself almost nose-to-nose with someone who thought the whole road was his.

Where I live, in rural Le Marche, just east of Tuscany, there are more really slow drivers than really fast drivers. Italy has a very long-lived population, and some days it seems as though all the nonagenarians are out on the road. Then there are the farmers who slow down every time they pass a field to see how the crop is coming along. And the people who very rarely get behind a wheel and still haven't figured out how a roundabout works. And the people who stop in the middle of the road to talk to a neighbor. Just be patient, don't drive too fast, don't drive into town centers unless you're absolutely sure that it's permitted. (There are always exceptions for local residents and people making deliveries, so you can't just assume that you're permitted to go where the car in front of you is going.)

It seems as though there isn't much you want to see in Rome. If so, I'd just skip Rome altogether. It would be better than the misery of trying to jam the Sistine Chapel and the Colosseum into a one-day visit. If you're content to just wander around with no "must-sees" on the agenda, then a day in Rome might be fun.
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Old Feb 10th, 2016, 05:00 PM
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StCirq-
Wow. People on this site sure are...um what's the word....obnoxious. Oh yes that's it. Someone says something you don't agree with, and you have to swoop in like a "know it all" and discredit them.
The advice I've received is from visiting Italy myself and knowing people who have lived there. I didn't just "hear" about from surfing the web or something.
If it's someone's first time in Italy, they may already be absorbed by the culture shock. They are not acquainted the language and may not be able to interpret all the signs. They have a lot to see and in little time. I wouldn't bother with driving around. If you're driving around inTuscany, then that's not so bad. But the OP was taking about driving from Rome to the Amalfi coast. You think that's a good idea?
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Old Feb 11th, 2016, 12:41 AM
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Wow - look at everyone having a go and failing to acknowledge the 'drive to the Amalfi Coast' bit of IceMoon's clearly clarified post.

FYI - not 'everyone' is comfortable driving in Italy and - St Cirq - not everyone on these forums comes from the good ol' USA or Canada. Some people arrive from countries where they drive on the left - fancy that. Even a backroad in Tuscany can be worrisome, especially without a centre line and the tendency to drift to the left out of habit and suddenly come face to face with another vehicle.

OP - you won't need a car on the Amalfi Coast. The only time I drive there is November-March as I can't bear the gridlock of the high season. It's also expensive to park unless your hotel has free parking. You can easily get around from Positano using ferries to Amalfi or the bus from the Sponda stop to Amalfi but make sure you leave early as the buses get *packed* as they come from Sorrento and carry lots of day trippers.
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Old Feb 11th, 2016, 02:00 AM
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Internet boards are full of controlling personalities (this board especially), so you can expect a lot of control issues and "projection" when you ask research questions on this board. You also have to be mindful of the trolls.

Make no mistake, driving in Italy for a first-timer will present its share of challenges. A lot depends on where you want to go with your car, your own personal driving experience, and whether you choose manual or automatic transmission and your experience with either. I usually drive alone, and I've been driving in Italy for over thirty years. I still get surprised.

Italian drivers have a reputation for a reason. Whether the reasons are exaggerated or not, they are always evident. Like any local who knows the roads better than you, they drive with an aggressive confidence that you will not have. Many roads are winding, and they're difficult to follow on a map. If you have a good sense of direction (which I do), it's easy to get thrown off course in Italy. Then there's the issue of road signs. Some are easier to follow than others. Some don't exist, especially street names. These days, I've never seen more signage clutter at intersections. There seems to be a road sign for everything, including local businesses, so your eyes can be easily distracted, not knowing what in the world to focus on. Most stuff is color coded or icon coded, but one needs to learn this stuff to feel confident. I feel sorry for the color blind.

In some ways driving in Italy seemed easier twenty or so years ago, pre ZTL and pre GPS. Now, even the small towns of Tuscany have ZTL zones. So if you don't want to invite hefty fines, you need to study the road signs and learn a little Italian.

GPS is great when it works, but it often does not work in Italy, especially on a smart phone. And there's a learning curve to using a GPS in a foreign country. The digital voice will bastardize pronunciations, and typing in the correct destination address can be tricky if not futile.

Don't get me started on the end of the printed map era. The publishing businesses have taken quite a hit, and really good maps are almost impossible to find now. I find the stuff you're left with today unreadable, but I wear reading glasses, which makes viewing a map while driving more difficult. Today, I make my own maps, but to do it well and print at high resolution, you need to know Photoshop.

Other than that, I'm not a fan of one night anywhere, unless you need it to catch a flight home. Good luck with your research.
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Old Feb 11th, 2016, 02:34 AM
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Debguorg has left the building, folks, or at least absented themselves from this squabble.

Now just go and fight amongst yourselves. Many posters on here are full of it .....
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Old Feb 11th, 2016, 10:27 AM
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Nope, just reading and learning. Appreciate all points of view and am grateful to all for sharing their experiences and knowledge. Love the information provided in these forums and looking forward to planning this trip.
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Old Feb 11th, 2016, 11:38 AM
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Italy has a very long-lived population, and some days it seems as though all the nonagenarians are out on the road. Then there are the farmers who slow down every time they pass a field to see how the crop is coming along. And the people who very rarely get behind a wheel and still haven't figured out how a roundabout works. And the people who stop in the middle of the road to talk to a neighbour...>>

sounds like Cornwall, bvl.

interestingly [to me anyway] the experience we had of driving [or in our case not driving] in Cuba perhaps highlights the two different approaches to driving in Italy - the italians we met [and there were quite a few of them] had all hired cars and were happily driving themselves around, whereas all the brits were using buses and taxis. The Italians were supremely confident of their abilities to handle the traffic [surprisingly bad in places] the driving [worse] and the road conditions [atrocious]. The brits, OTOH, were worried about the potholes and the prospect of having an accident in almost equal measure.

debgourg - I've driven plenty of times in Italy [which for me is on the wrong side of the road] and am happily contemplating driving in Siciliy in September. But even I would think twice about driving from Rome to the Amalfi on my second day in Italy - IMO it's not a good idea. Definitely use the train or a car service.

I would also try to rearrange things so you get another night in Rome. I think that you will feel seriously short-changed if you only have the one night - which could be worse than not going there at all!
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