lizziecolleen

Hello!

We're spending half of our long-awaited honeymoon in September in Italy. We're arriving in Rome on Monday early evening - and leaving from Venice on Sunday early evening.

I had an itinerary of places I wanted to go, but I'm slightly terrified by all of the stories of traffic fines in Italy.

I won't be driving. My fiance is an excellent, confident driver (he's also a mechanic and has driven in Europe [Greece] in previous vacations and loves it), but I'm scared of the ZTL's and traffic cameras. So much so that I'm considering avoiding the heavy touristy towns all together.

My original plan was Rome to Florence, Florence to Tuscany, and then Tuscany to Venice (returning the rental car on Friday in Venice and leaving Venice Sunday). Spending about 1.5 / 2 days in each city.

Now, I'm thinking we don't bother with a rental in Rome (cab or bus from airport?) until we're leaving Rome, and maybe we just head from Rome to Tuscany and then Venice (skipping Florence) and leaving our car in Venice.

I really didn't have anything that I HAD to see in Italy, I've just been dying to experience the sights, sounds and tastes of Italy in general. It's always held a draw for me.

We're spending the second half of our honeymoon in Greece (my fiance has family there and speaks Greek) so it's much more familiar territory for us than Italy.

Can anyone help with suggestions/comments? Is the driving really that bad and are ZTL's really that hard to avoid?

Thank you for your input

Dukey1

Take the train from the Rome airport into the city. Easy to do and you can buy your tickets once you get there.

I wouldn't skip Florence and in fact i would take the train from Rome to Florence. If you want to explore Tuscany rent the car in Florence and turn it in in Florence and take the train to Venice...the only thing a car will do in Venice is get parked and you do NOT need a car simply to get from A to B in Italy UNLESS there are places you wish to explore BETWEEN A and B.

If you STILL want to skip Florence I would still consider taking the train there and renting the car rather than driving from Rome.

Others may have differing recommendations.

michele_d

A rental car is great to visit the smaller towns in Tuscany. I would pick up the car after my visit to Rome, (you absolutely DO NOT want a car in Rome) stay somewhere in Tuscany for the five days, avoid the larger cities with the car, and return the car before you visit Venice. If you want to visit Florence, park on the outskirts and take public transport in. Driving in Italy is not difficult. We did if for a month and did just fine.

We stayed here in Pienza and loved it. Very relaxing, and the breakfasts are out of this world. It is an older farmhouse that the owners have turned in to individual apartments. Great location.

http://www.fontebertusi.it/eng/holiday-apartments.asp

tuscanlifeedit

ZTLs are hard to avoid in major cities. People get tickets all the time. Florence, IMO, is particularly tricky unless you rent at the airport.

You have some good suggestions above. Don't drive in Rome, Florence or to Venice, unless there is a small town you really want to see between Florence and Venice.

But you really only have a week. A nice trip to Rome, Florence and Venice wouldn't require a car, and a car would be a hindrance.

We have rented a car in Orvieto after training there from Rome, and also in Arezzo. Arezzo was a bit more difficult as the rental place was not at the station. Orvieto was a breeze.

People here also recommend training from Rome to Chiusi and renting there.

Do you really only want a day and a half in each location? How about just Rome and Venice? They are very different experiences.

Lexma90

Like previous posters, I would suggest you visiting Rome, then Florence, then picking up a rental car for time in rural Tuscany, then dropping the car as you arrive in Venice. If you want to visit all of those places. But with the amount of time that you have, I too would suggest that you limit your destinations to two or three of your possibilities. You will be less rushed and be able to enjoy the places you do visit.
And on driving generally, no it isn't that bad and it isn"t that difficult to avoid the ZTLs. On our trips, I do most of the driving and DH is the navigator, and we've had few problems.

msteacher

If I am understanding your original post correctly, you land in Rome Mon evening and plan to be in Venice on Friday. That only leaves you three days (Tues, Wed, Thurs) to cover Rome, Tuscany and Florence, which would be impossible. It will take you about a half day to get from one location to another. If I were you, I'd stay in Rome until Friday, then take the train to Venice. You really don't have time for the other locations.

Jean

I agree with msteacher. You only have 5 full days between your arrival and departure.

"Spending about 1.5 / 2 days in each city." It doesn't work out that way in reality. This is what it would actually turn out to be:

Mon. arr. Rome in the evening
Tues. - see Rome
Wed. - train to Florence (90 mins. plus time to get to/from both train stations, check out and into both hotels)
Thurs. - pick up rental car, drive to Tuscany hotel (Siena or nearby would take about 90 mins.)
Fri. - drive from Tuscany to Venice (from Siena or nearby would take about 4 hours), turn in the car on arrival
Sat. - see Venice
Sun. - see Venice in the morning, get to the airport by late afternoon

But you can spend 1.5 days in the Big Three if you ditch the car and travel by train.

Mon. - arr. Rome in the evening
Tues. - Rome
Wed. - Rome in the morning, train to Florence in the afternoon
Thurs. - Florence
Fri. - Florence in the morning, train to Venice in the afternoon
Sat. - Venice
Sun. - Venice in the morning, get to the airport in the late afternoon

asps

You do not have time to drive. Use trains instead. Rome to Florence is 90 minutes by train plus the time to get to/from station (in real life an half day gets lost in the transfer). By car is four hours (in real life the better part of a day gets lost). With only one week you should better just staying in Rome and then moving to Venice (you decide how many days spending in each). Just skipping a couple of packing/unpacking moves gives you an extra day do sightsee.

asps

BTW, a thing that most people do not realize is that the itinerary Milan-Bologna-Firenze-Roma-Napoli is doubled by a fast railway track. While on autostrada you can top your speed at 130 km/h (that's 80 mph), the train overtakes at 220 km/h (that's 135 mph) and you feel like a snail. And the train has often a straighter path - between Firenze and Bologna it travels in tunnels while you try to overtake trucks on steep inclines. You cannot beat trains on speed, so if you have limited time that is the way to go.

NYCFoodSnob

Some good advice above. All I can add is you risk ruining your honeymoon trip by adding a car (totally unnecessary) to this very tight (way too tight for me) itinerary. Figuring out the one-way streets as you try to park the car safely, every time you want to make a stop, will take up lots of precious time.

1.5 days in each location is a serious waste of money, IMO. A honeymoon should be a relaxing time filled with charm and romance. Running around, trying to pack too much into a too short day, not allowing enough time to soak in some sunshine and savor a great glass of wine is no way to say, "I love you."

If I only had one week, I would pick one place and do without unnecessary stress. At least in one place you stand a chance of actually seeing something. If you're the A.D.D. type who gets bored quickly and can't sit still for five minutes under any circumstances, then I might add a second city.

NYCFoodSnob

On the other hand, if I picked Tuscany for the week, I'd be sure to have a great car. I love driving around Tuscany, and it's impossible to do it justice without a car. You simply have to avoid taking the car into city-centers. You can visit Florence and Siena, and easily spend a whole day in each, and that's just for shopping. You'll need to find parking on the outer edge of each city you visit. You'll need to remember where you parked the car. Then you walk (or taxi) from there. (In Siena, you just walk.)

lizziecolleen

Oh my goodness - you guys are amazing! Thank you so much!

I wondered if I had taken on too many cities - I just really wanted to see as much of Italy as I could in the short time that I had there.

I wish that I had asked here before we booked our airline tickets. As it stands now, we're flying EasyJet into Rome and AirOne out of Venice, but, based on all of your suggestions, maybe we just do Rome and Venice, although I had really wanted to see Tuscany (which I likely would have done on it's own if I had been smart enough to ask here first).

My fiance LOVES to drive and really felt we wouldn't see as much by train as we would be car, is this true or is the scenery by train just as lovely?

Did you find it hard to manouver trains with luggage? I think that's what he's concerned about as we will both have a large suitcase (we're flying into Athens, then to Rome then spending MON - SUN in Italy and then back to Athens for another week).

Thank you all, so much.

jamikins

Rome and Venice are perfect honeymoon ideas! Trains are easy and unless you pack huge heavy luggage are fine.

For this itinerary give up the car idea and book the fast trains to Venice as soon as the are available to save the most money.

If you want to see the countryside you could do a day trip from Rome...if you do some searching there are a couple posts on this...I will try to find them.

It's a mistake to rush around lots of locations trying to see everything - you end up seeing less of where you are and more of the transit route which is not the goal. Start planning your next trip now to include the other areas!

jamikins

Here it is http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...rip-advice.cfm

msteacher

Lizzie... Thanks for checking back in! It's good to know you are slowing down your trip... I think this will make for a much more enjoyable honeymoon. You will have a great time in Venice and Rome. If you wanted to work in a day of driving for your fiancé, perhaps you could do a day trip out of Rome. Others will know more about this than I do, but perhaps take a train to Orvieto, pick up a rental car there and then drive around Umbria for the day? Have a fantastic trip!

NYCFoodSnob

I love to finish my trips to Italy in Venice. My eyes and nose can recover from car/moped fumes in Venice, since they don't have any. Plus, September in Venice can be spectacular (as long as humidity and mosquitoes are under control).

Tuscany is worth a separate visit, maybe for an anniversary. Once you visit Tuscany in nice weather, you'll want to be there for an entire week (if not a lifetime). Typically, people don't get bored with Tuscany. People are known to move there and start a new life. Hollywood makes movies about this.

The car views from the A1 are mostly useless, and Italian highway drivers tend to be insane. After all, you're not driving on the coastline in Lake Como or the Amalfi. A car is only useful from Rome to Venice if you're planning on stopping and visiting cities along the way and spending a night or two or three in each.

The train ride goes so fast, and there's interesting people to watch, so who cares if there's no Amalfi view?

lizziecolleen

Thank you so much for your responses.

We're getting close now (and I made it through the wedding - lol), can you please tell me if I can book train tickets online, and where?

Also - are there any venue links for online tickets you can share? My cousin told me you can avoid lines for some attractions by booking online. Any time I can save is time I can use to see more of the glorious Country.

Many, many thanks. Getting excited!

Jean

You can buy most train tickets in advance on Trenitalia, but you may be too late to take advantage of any discounts.

http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/inde...0080a3e90aRCRD

You can also buy tickets in advance for several attractions, but to be helpful we'd need to know what attractions you're thinking of. Are you now only going to Rome and Venice?

readytotraveltoo

Jean - I had the same question about purchasing a train ticket in Rome to travel to Venice. I looked at that website you mentioned but I am unsure of the station names. Where can I find that?

thanks

Jean

Search from Roma Termini to Venezia S. Lucia.

Once you start typing the first few letters of each station in the box, a small window will open with a short menu of choices. Continue typing or click on the name. Then click on the calendar to pick a departing date (you don't need to select a return date unless you plan to travel round trip). Pick the hour you want the search to start with using the 24-hour clock (1:00p is hour 13, etc.). You can check the "Find the best price" box or not check the box and see all of the departure options.

If you do buy tickets in advance, make sure you know all of the restrictions/penalties for missed trains, changing tickets, etc., before you finalize the purchase.