jan

I am struggling with an itinerary for 3 days that we will have at the end of our trip to Italy. We will be leaving Rome, with 3 days to work our way up to Pisa for an early flight out the 4th day. I am trying to cover as much ground as possible without making my family, with kids age 12 and 14, nuts. The kids will only want so much of churches, medieval towns and such. I have a plan to leave Rome early, visit Orvieto, travel over to Assisi, then head up to Lake Trasimeno and Passignano to spend the night. I know we'll arrive end of day, but I thought the lake might be a tranquil spot to have a nice evening. <BR><BR>Next day we will head out towards Siena, stopping in Montepulciano and Montalcino before bedding down in Siena. Third day we work our way up to Pisa, where we spend our last night. <BR><BR>I've gotten a response to a prior post that says; not enough time to do all these things, and that the tower in Pisa we won't get to climb due to getting there midday. I've not been able to find anything to verify that. <BR><BR>I ran these distances through mapquest, and it looked doable. But I've driven Italy before, know the map can be quite deceiving when it comes to distances, and wondered if anyone knew whether mapquest takes that into account. And beyond that, what do you think about this itinerary??

xxx

Total driving times including allowance for parking (stops and destination)<BR>Roma-Orvieto-Assisi-Passignano: 3:30 hours<BR>Passignano-Montepulciano-Montalcino-Siena: 2:45 hours<BR>Siena-Pisa: 1:45 hours

Rex

I use www.mappy.com or www.viamichelin.com and I find them somewhere between accurate and conservative. I use www.mapquest.com for travel withIN the US (and I also find it accurate/conservative for that) - - but early on - - 2 or 3 years ago, it seemed to me that MapQuest was somewhat limited for Europe.<BR><BR>Best wishes,<BR><BR>Rex<BR>

jan

Yes, I find mapquest to be quite conservative for US (or maybe it's just the way I drive!), but I wondered just how computer-generated their drive-time estimates are. <BR><BR>To xxx; did you get your estimates from a map source, or where? I found essentially those times also through mapquest. What I really want to know is, who's been there and actually driven any of those distances. I got, for example, 91km from Orvieto to Assisi, with an estimate drive time of 1hr 17min. Does that sound right?

Rex

I think that the time you list is conservative/accurate. Of course, you have to take all these driving time estiates with a grain of salt. They're like - - you know - - from some arbitrary stop light to some similar point at your destination.<BR><BR>And beware of driving times to or from any city that is not car-friendly - - they seem to over-estimate the time needed actually ON the autostrada - - but under-estimate the time to get to the point withIN the city you're trying to reach.<BR>

jan

I hear you, Rex. I checked these destinations also on both the mappy site and via michelin, and got essentially the same times, so I'm a little more confident now that we ca actually make some decent time, barring the unforeseen, of course!<BR><BR>But now I am, nonetheless, starting to question the wisdom of some if my itinerary. Maybe we drive straight to Assisi from Rome, visit a couple of hours, the head back towards Tuscany, maybe staying the night in Montalcino.<BR>Hmmm?

xxx

I've driven all the route segments listed, eventually in the reverse order. The posted times, however, are not a composition of actual times I've experienced. With no stalls, I drive quite faster in both, Autostrade and roads where surpassing can make a big difference. Once I've got no idea on how fast you drive, how good your "navigation" is, which season/day you'll travel, which roads might eventually be under construction, etc. my time estimates above are really shots in the dark <BR><BR>I've driven between Assisi and Orvieto twice, one hour sharp from Porta San Pietro to the parking lot by Pozzo San Patrizio.

jan

Well, xxx, I feel even more confident now. My husband and I are both pretty good drivers, have driven 4 times in Italy, and have even navigated NYC, LA and, god help me, Boston. We will be there in 3 weeks, mid-March, so I realize rain is a strong possiblity, and though that doesn't slow down my Mario Andretti wanne-be husband, it sure puts a damper on MY speeds. <BR><BR>All good info, everyone. Thank you!

Rex

For what it's worth, on my recent trip to Normandy and Brittany, it seemed to take 50% more time than viamichelin.com had indicated, for virtually every segment.<BR><BR>I can't identify any one specific reason.<BR>

Stephanie P.

Jan:<BR><BR>Try Mapblast.com. I tried quest and wasn't as good. Blast gives you line directions along with a regular map.<BR><BR>

Shanna

Jan, I used to use MapQuest all the time until its directions had me drive into the Mississippi River. Since then, I've avoided it - or at least took the directions with a grain of salt - and always verify them.

Marj

From my experience using mapquest and driving in Italy, I found that their driving time is greater than the actual time. But also keep in mind, at the wrong time of days it could take an hour to get out of Rome. We found Orvieto easy to drive in and out of. We never stopped in Siena because we had limited time and couldn't find our way to the city center. I don't have any experience with any of the other towns you mentioned. In Orvieto, take the kids on the underground orvieto tour.