When does the car rental office open?

If you are unwilling to fly, it won't take you any longer or more muscle strain to get a taxi transfer to Rome Termini and catch a fast train to Milan. From there, you can get a taxi transfer to your lakeside hotel.

The issue is not "getting lost". You'll be on the autostrade 80 percent of the time. The issue is (a) having a stressful freeway drive and (b) spending rather large amounts of money to park a car that will be of no use to you in September in Lago di Como for 3 days.

If you really hate the thought of dragging a big suitcase from a taxi cab through a train station and onto a train, and vice versa, then rent a car -- but don't imagine a GPS is going to keep your blood pressure down. It's a hard drive to take in one day from Civitavecchia to Lago di Como -- and I'm no wimp. I live in Liguria, Italy, one of the most challenging areas of Italy in which to drive.

If you've now created extra time to make the drive, spend your first night in Parma. It's a beautiful town with revelatory food, one of Italy's best gems.

Bob - I have been reading about your travels. You have inspired me to re-think the trip. It is a bit overwhelming to try and figure out where to drive leisurely so we can breathe in the country and appreciate it on the short time. We are now doing 4 nights (I know not enough!) through Italy. We are really wanting to get our feet wet by seeing the countryside now to decide where to come back to. We are going to drive from Rome and stay one night in Tuscany, 1 night in Parma and then on to Lake Como.

1) Where do you recommend we stay the 1st night in Tuscany so we can wander around but easy to get in/out of? We will start off from Rome that day around 9a.
2) Night 2 we will stay in Parma and see that area. I already have the hotel.
3) I see from your notes that you prefer a Lake Lugano hotel. I have been to Lugano but it was over 20 years ago. Do you prefer to stay in Lugano over Lake Como for any particular reason? I booked places in Bellagio and Varenna but there seems to be +'s and -'s for both.

FYI...on day 5 we have to be in Milan for our flight home so we our planning on staying night 4 in Milan at the airport.

Good for you!
I would stay in San Quirico at the Palazzo del Capitano. Cute village with real people, and easy access. Perhaps lunch in Pienza just prior, and Montalcino is only :20 west of there.
You could also hit Lucca the next day enroute to Parma--lots of great options. Have fun !

"We are going to drive from Rome...." Or do you mean Civitavecchia? If the latter, rent the car there.

In Tuscany, look in the Montepulciano/Pienza/SanQuirico/Montalcino area. We recently stayed at the La Locanda di San Francesco in Montepulciano and loved it. Fair warning: You may not want to leave after only one night.

http://www.locandasanfrancesco.it/bo...l-tuscany.html

As for Lakes Lugano v. Como, I prefer Como hands down. You'd have to do some research to find out if you'd need to buy a vignette (i.e., pay a tax in advance) to drive the route to/from Lugano.

How early is your flight from Malpensa?

I'm not sure I'm following your changes. Are you spending the night in Rome before getting your 9am start? Or are you still beginning in Civitavecchia?

I want to say that I still don't love your plan to drive, but it is yours and not mine, so I will try to be helpful.

Where are you picking up your rental car? I've picked up rentals in Italy from more locations than I can remember; many of them are creaky and inefficient. I particularly remember a morning rental in Rome, with all the clients with reserved cars waiting outside the locked agency doors on the sidewalk. After a very long wait, a scooter pulled up and a disheveled but gorgeous young girl jumped off the back and unlocked the door. This was a cross cultural experience that I wasn't prepared for but made perfect sense. Then you have to get to the autostrada.

OK, an easy town to get in and out of in Tuscany. Tuscany is big. Do you want a hilltown? Art treasures? Wine? I'm running myriad towns through my head and not many of them seem easy to get in and out of. All of them are closed up tight through the middle of the day. I will leave this one for someone else... or maybe offer the quintessential tourist town, San Gimignano. Why? Because it has lots of parking lots and everyone should see the interior of the Duomo. It is one of my special missions in life to get people inside this incredible building to see frescoes that are breathtaking.

Parma is outside my ken.

Sorry....didn't mean to confuse you all. We are getting off a ship and renting the car Civitavecchia.

We leave Milan at 10:30am and have to be there at 8:30am so not wanting to risk getting lost we decided we would stay in Milan that night.

LOL Jean. I am fully prepared for that! One day we will rent a villa in Tuscany for a week with friends.

Ok following Tuscanlifeedit's and Bob's advice paragraph...Given our time frame and staying in Montepulciano I am assuming we drive up towards Siena, Monteiggioni, S. Gimingnano and then cut across towards to Pisa and Lucca? From Lucca what is the most scenic way to get to Parma or should we just hit a major road and get there so we can see that area?

We cannot give you good advice if you give us bad info.
From that location I would drive up via Grosetto to the MOntalcino area and then to San Quirico.

Is this just the route you plan to drive, or were you expecting to stop and see some/most/all of these towns? That's a lot of driving with very little time for exploring or spontaneity. Unless you get a really early start from Parma you'll have only a few daylight hours to see much (if anything) beyond Bellagio on Lake Como.

FWIW, I'd skip Lake Como and focus the limited time on Tuscany.

I hear you Jean. Here is what we have so far:

Night 1 Locanda San Francisco
Night 2 Villa Olmi in Florence (husband hasn't seen Florence)
Night 3 - We were supposed to go to Parma
Night 4 - Lake Como Hotel du Lac
Night 5 Milan airport hotel

I had originally booked 2 nights at the Hotel du Lac but they are telling me it is a 2 night min. Now I am wondering if I need to cut out Parma or try and find another hotel in Lake Como area. My Italian friend suggested staying in Lake Como since we have a car. It sounds like that is not preferred my most. I think my hubby is really set on going to Lake Como. Maybe we just should stop in Parma for lunch? Maybe we look for a hotel in Mennagio?

There are 3 Hotel Du Lacs in the Lago Como triangle---which is yours? I am guessing Bellagio.

I booked at the Hotel Du Lac in Varenna. I have read on your previous posts that Menaggio is best with the car. But the hotels I am seeing don't look as nice as the Hotel du Lac in Varenna. I don't mind paying up to $300.00 USD for the hotel.

Well, I don't like one-night stays except when absolutely necessary (to be close to the airport for an early flight, for example), so your plan doesn't appeal to me. I would want more than essentially an afternoon and evening in Florence. (Do consider how far your hotel in Florence is from the historical center.) Ditto mid-Lake Como. Ditto Montepulciano.

If I had to choose something to skip in this short itinerary, it would be Lake Como (even though it is one of my favorite places in the world).

But this is your trip. Have you tried the Hotel Florence or Hotel Belvedere in Bellagio?

I know. It is not my ideal time frame either. I suppose I could cut out Parma. Have you been there?

Jean is right---too little time and Varenna adds to the travel time---especially back to MXP. Your problem is time and logistics---I would drop something and Como is the obvious outlier.

Would if I dropped Parma and changed the location in Como to Menaggio? Seems like easier access from everything I have read.

That would help some,but you are still at least 2 hours from Menaggio to MXP.

I'm not charmed by Menaggio. IMO, it doesn't compare to Bellagio or Varenna. Much bigger, car traffic, etc. To me, it only makes sense to stay there if it's for several days and you plan to use the car for exploring the surrounding area.

I can see you're very resistant to dropping Lake Como, but I truly think it's the better plan. Were it my trip, I'd spend two nights in Montepulciano, two nights in/near Florence and the last night IN Milan (not at the airport).

I am discussing this with my husband. Thanks for the advice - I really appreciate it.

I think your real problem is that you are wedded to Lago di Como, and are wedded to driving to it because you are wedded to your large amount of luggage.

If you want Lago di Como, and you want the Hotel du Lac in Varenna, either fly to Milan from Rome and get a car transfer. Your chances of wanting a car in Varenna are something close to zero.

Or take the train and do likewise. If you take the train, you can spend a night or two in Florence, which would break up the trip.

If you feel driving to Varenna would be much more fun and less stressful (?), any place around Parma or Modena would be great for an overnight. Some of Italy's greatest restaurants are around there, and they have overnight accommodations, so you could have a fabulous overnight stay. Ask on the Italy board of the Chowhound website for a recommendation for a one night gastronomic stay between Civitavecchia and Modena. Or stay in Modena or Parma and eat in one of the great restuarants in the town. They are both towns with eye-popping architecture.

If you would now rather go to southern Tuscany by car, it is conveniently close to Civitavecchia. However, you still face the problem of getting to Milan to catch your flight.

Either you face an extremely long day of driving toward Milan to stay the night before your flight near the airport (consider Lodi), or you need to get rid of the car in Tuscany and -- guess what? -- take a train to Milan with all your luggage. There are only a handful of trains from Chiusi that will take you to Milan in less than six hours without a train change. Otherwise, you have to go to Florence to get a train, and very few people find driving into Florence a stress-free experience.

I don't see a way from Civitavechhia to your final flight out of Milan that does involve some stressful travel at some point.

If you can't change your flights (so you can put Lago di Como before your cruise, or fly out of Rome or a more central Italian airport), then it might be best to simply choose a heartfelt desire for your ultimate destination, and put up with the hassle and/or the high cost of getting there to enjoy for an unbroken stretch.

PS: If you really can't change your plane flights and must depart from Milan, then I think it is better to get off the boat and start heading due north. There are more than a dozen lovely routes and places where you would end up well positioned to utlimately fly out of Linate, and if you dearly want Lago di Como, you can get there. Eating the cost of parking a car might be a small price to pay to get what you really want, if that's what you want. But do be aware Italy is overloaded with charm and beauty, so don't imagine a lake is the only breathtaking view to be had.