flyme2themoon

question for the Italy experts:

we will be staying at Hilton Garden Inn in Novoli ( in Florence). our hotel is outside the tourist area of florence and is a 15 minute bus ride ( on bus #22 ) from central florence. we will be renting a car for 2 days when we will be driving to small, hillside towns in tuscany. there are 3 locations listed for the rental office 1. via borgo ognissanti 2 ) finiguerra 3) airport. which would be a good location for car pick up and drop off ? we would like to avoid driving in the ztl area, if possible. from the map, it looks like the borgo ognissanti location is very close to the SMN train station but our concern is it might be hard to find and we might end up in a ztl area trying to find the rental office.

re: our choice of hotel, we dont have much flexibility on this one since we are using hilton points for free stay at this hotel.

thanks in advance for your help.

ellenem

No contest, the airport. Your hotel is halfway between the center of Florence and the airport, so just avoid the center entirely and head to the airport.

flyme2themoon

thanks ellenem. just the feedback im looking for. hope you dont mind a follow up question: would it be worth it to rent a garmin gps with the rental car or would good ole paper map of tuscany region be sufficient?

we are planning to drive down the chianti region (on SR 22), go to sienna and san gimigniano on Day 1 and Pisa and Lucca (or maybe Volterra) on Day 2.

Jean

Were you planning to spend very much time in Siena and San Gimignano on Day 1? The driving alone will take about four hours, and visiting most towns involves parking outside and going in by foot/bus/taxi. Stops in the smaller towns in Chianti are pretty easy, but getting to the center of Siena is more time-consuming. You should investigate the parking options before you go. This is when I think GPS might be nice to have, and also if you'd be returning to Novoli in the dark.

On Day 2, IMO you'd be better off taking the train to Pisa and Lucca. You're staying not far from the Rifredi station, and the trains from the main Florence station to Pisa stop there. Nearly every train from both Lucca and Pisa back to Florence stops at Rifredi. Volterra, however, is easiest reached by car.

flyme2themoon

thanks Jean. we would like to spend maybe 4-5 hrs in Siena and about 3-4 hours in San G. we've never been to these 2 towns. we don't mind going by bus to siena, just concerned that it might be more complicated to go to San G by bus the rest of the afternoon and then the buses may not be running by the time we want to head back to florence. unfortunately we only have 2 days to spare for towns outside of florence. we have a total of 5 nights in florence, 3 of of which will be spent in the city doing the major sights.

if we go by train to Pisa ( and indeed i read about the parking situation here as well ) will it be easy enough to go by bus to Lucca? i know volterra is somewhat of a detour but if we can pull it off, we would rather go to Volterra from Pisa. my daughter is a fan of the twilight books and would like to see volterra to follow in the footsteps of the characters in the book.

Jean

Let's do the math. Driving Novoli-Siena-SanGim-Novoli without stopping is 4 hours. Add 4-5 hours seeing Siena, 3-4 hours seeing San Gim and perhaps 1-2 hours seeing a town in Chianti. That's one long day. Not impossible, but awfully long.

I've taken the train between Pisa and Lucca but not the bus. The train takes less than 30 minutes. (BTW, the station closest to the Leaning Tower is Pisa S. Rossore, and you need a timed reservation if you want to climb the Tower.)

But if you wanted to see Pisa and Volterra in the same day, you'd have to drive. It's almost 4.5 hours of driving (nearly 5 hours if you include Lucca). Add a few hours in Pisa (and Lucca?) and a few hours in Volterra, time for the parking/walking issue, and you've got another very long day.

If it were my trip, I'd skip San Gimignano, and I'd see either Pisa/Lucca (by train) or Volterra (by car) but not both or all three.

You need an International Drivers Permit in Italy.

bobthenavigator

Great advice from Jean !

flyme2themoon

thanks for the great advice Jean. my hubby is going to apply for an IDP from AAA. i wondered about this and thought we can get by with his US driver's license and maybe passport but since you mentioned it... garmin and i will be the navigators. glad you pointed out the math behind the aggressive itinenary. i am obviously off with my driving time estimates because it is solely on distances, not taking into account that we will not be driving at 60 mph in many of those tuscan roads.

so here's the revised itinerary:

Day 1 - Pisa and Lucca by train

What is the best way to see both Siena and San G on the same day? we don't mind going either by car or train.

thanks again for the great advice.