mama_mia

Well, relatively cheaply…I am in need of some help adjusting an itinerary and accounting for train costs.

This is our 2nd time to Italy. We have done Venice, Italy and Florence, with a week at an Agriturismo in Tuscany. My goal this time was to stay in a small town, preferably one hill town in Tuscany or Umbria, with a day or two on either end for my fly-in city, preferably Rome, for a total of 10-11 days. We fly out of the East coast (probably Philly), so we arrive usually around 11ish with energy enough for sightseeing or travel the first day. The trip is sometime in October.

Plan A. My plan was to fly into Rome, train to Orvieto where we would stay in apt. for a week, rent a car for only 3 days for side trips to Todi, Montepulciano , and maybe Monte Oliveto, train back to Rome, stay 2 or 3 nights before flying out.

However, it looks like I only get one ticket on a premium/saver combo at 75000 miles and a second ticket for $700-900 plus tax and fees. Other expenses would be the train to Orvieto (relatively inexpensive) and the car rental in Orvieto (about $200-250).

Plan B. I could instead get two FF tickets to either Milan or Venice. I prefer Venice.

On the expense side, this means about $250 to purchase some remaining FF miles, train from Venice to Orvieto (I can’t figure out how much this would cost when looking at the Trenitalia site, even when putting in June dates), same deal with Orvieto and 3 day car rental $200-250), and then train back to Venice, 1 or 2 nights and fly out. Is that a sensible itinerary, and how much would the Venice-Orvieto train cost (I am game for second class)?

Plan C. Would it be more economical to rent a car in Venice for the week instead of training to Orvieto? (I might then consider Montepulciano as a base.) The expense would then be $250 for air, plus $300-$500 for car for a week, plus gas. If I did this, my itinerary might be 1 night Venice, get car and travel to Montepulciano or Orvieto, then back to Venice for 1 or 2 nights. With this itinerary, I am tempted to shorten my stay in Tuscany/Umbria and drive to a small town (Bisenti) in Abruzzo where my grandparents are from.

Any thoughts, advice for alternative itinerary, or at least some info on what the train tickets I need would cost?

Thanks.

bobthenavigator

I have a strong suspicion that the available FF seats will dictate your itinerary. I would start there and then react.

JBX

I keyed in an arbitrary date for next month, Venice to Orvieto, and found a direct option (no train changes). 1st class costs 44,50 euros and 2nd class costs 33 euros.

TRAVEL DETAILS
InterCity ("IC&quot
705 Matilde Serao
Lvs 13:23 -- Venezia S. Lucia
Arv 17:56 -- Orvieto

Like Bob said, you probably want to work on getting the airfare first. And the way things are these days, you may want to hurry to use your miles to book. Depending on which carrier, check to see if you can get into one of the smaller cities in Italy using your miles. For instance, Pisa or Florence or Verona or Bologna -- down side is the lack of any non-stop flights; you'll be routed thru London or Paris or another European city before getting to Italy.

SusanP

I agree that bob is right, you might as well find out where you can get your FF tickets first. My only other question is about the week in Orvieto with only three days with a car. Four days seems like a lot for Orvieto, or maybe you're planning to take a couple other daytrips by train?

mama_mia

Thanks for the replies. I will check the smaller cities options for flights. I appreciate the info on the train prices.

I had thought about a bus trip to a small town and maybe a train trip into Rome - but does that start to defeat the purpose of staying in a small hill town? Would I be better in a medium size city? Perugia or Bologna?

Thanks again.

Nonconformist

A plus of staying somewhere like Perugia would be that you could manage without a car, as it's well connected by bus and train to many interesting daytrip destinations. A car does provide more flexibility, of course - there are some places a bit too far off the beaten track to get to by public transport. You could possibly have a look at Passignano sul Trasimeno, where I stayed last summer - it's on the lake, so not a hill town, but it's a pleasant small town, and on the train line from Florence to Perugia/Assisi/Spello.

Jean

The answers to your latest questions depend on your priorities.

Do you want to see as many towns as reasonably possible (and therefore must have a car)?

Is your budget an overriding element? If you need to spend more on air fare and getting to the small town base, would you ditch the car and use public trans?

Are Todi and Montepulciano absolute must-sees? Or would you be happy visiting more accessible towns by public trans?

Depending on your answers to the above, you could consider staying somewhere in/between Perugia and Spoleto.

Bus service from Perugia to Gubbio, Assisi, Deruta, Todi, etc.:

http://www.apmperugia.it/canale.asp?id=23

Bus service from Spoleto is less extensive:

http://www.spoletina.com/new/cittadi...sportopubblico

There is train service between Perugia and Spoleto; regional trains stop at Assisi, Spello, Trevi and others. From Perugia, you can also go by train to Lake Trasimeno and Cortona or to Umbertide and Sansepolcro.