6 days in umbria or tuscany,no car
 

my wife and i will be in italy for 14 days in october. we will be in rome for the first 7 days and then umbria or tuscany for the last 6-7 days.can we do it without driving?could we take a train from and back to rome to fly home? any suggestions for seeing these areas by train or bus?
many thanks. these forums are terrific!

You would definitely have more options with a car, because not everywhere you might want to visit is on a train line. However, I would warmly recommend Passignano sul Trasimeno in northern Umbria, not far from the Tuscan border, where I spent a week mostly without a car last summer. You can easily visit Assisi, Perugia, Spello and Arezzo by train; Cortona with a little more trouble; Florence if you're prepared for a longish train journey, etc, and the town itself is very pleasant and the lake pretty.

Your trip sounds lovely but cities are not that close in Tuscany. If you have no car you will need to base yourself, lets say Siena and take cabs or buses. It may be best to rent car from Rome and drop off at your next stop or return airport. We are doing that:

We land in Milan, train to Venice and then to Rome. On our last day in Rome we rent car. (I just rented from Hertz and gave them my hotel location; they gave me closest Hertz office to my Rome hotel for my pick up. The rest of our trip we travel many kilometers so a car is a must. We intend to drop off at airport when we depart for home. Kemwell, who I called first then for type of car my family would need, they hooked me to Hertz. I am saving money by picking it up in city vs. at airport where there are more taxes involved. This savings only works for pickup not dropoff. Here if you need some:

www.kemwel.com, www.novacarhire.com, www.gemut.com and www.auto-europe.co.uk
www.autoeurope.com
AUTOEUROPE [800-223-5555]

Most car rental places give good deals for one week. This will be for your week in Umbria and Tuscany.

Enjoy your trip!

I strongly recommend you rent a car. We've taken the train from Rome and rented in different places in Tuscany and Umbria. Orvieto, Perugia, Spoleto. I know others have rented at Foligno, and several years ago we rented at Orte but I can't confirm that's still possible.

Driving in Tuscany and Umbria is very easy, particularly on the secondary roads. We've stopped in some beautiful spots/towns that are not accessible by public trans.

Yes, you can do it without driving
but i think you would enjoy the region more fully with a car. It is not difficult to navigate. I would train from Rome to Florence and after your stay there rent a car in
Florence from Auto Europe very easy to get out of the city with their location. head south to some hilltowns Montepulciano, Pienza, Montalcino, Greve, etc.
via secondary roads then head north
via hwy and perhaps take in Bellagio and Lake Como etc. Instead of going back to Rome fly out of Milan and leave the car at Malpensa.
La Dolce Vita

Hi remjr38-- This is what I put into another thread last night. If you rent a car for few days while in Tuscany or Ubmbia, a deal is now going on until middle of this week! Read below my post:

Author: ciaodeb
Date: 05/11/2008, 09:16 pm

Both Auto Europe and Kemwell act as booking agents for major car companies.

I just got better deal from Kemwell vs. Auto Europe for our August trip. Halfway through trip we will need a stationwagon for my family and I saved over $300 from Kemwell just for car. I am further saving by picking up in a city (Rome) and returning at Milan's Malpensa airport when we end our trip. Agent said I save on airport taxes on pick up only, not drop off.

Each, however, e-mailed me a voucher so I could lock in price in case it goes up with the weak dollar. Kemwell does not have a deductible as Auto Europe has a $700. With Auto Europe, if you scratch car, they get estimate and take it from the $700 they hold on your credit card.

I also gave the Kemwell agent my hotel address and was given the closest Hertz office for pick up. This agent also e-mailed me the car picture, inside, rear plus she went to Google Map and e-mailed me directions from hotel to office with map!!

Both companies have a deal going on until May 15th where you save a few hundred off car rental.

For your convenience:

Kemwell: 1.800.678.0678

Auto Europe: 1.800.223.5555





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bookmarking

well, it looks like a car rental is the answer! we are thinking of a train to ovieta then renting a car,basing near assisi, and seeing how it works ouy. i am also wondering if we have time to do the cinque terra and take the rail back to rome if we decide to split the time between tuscany and cinque terra.

my apologies for omitting my expression of thanks from my last post. all of the responses were really appreciated! thankyou all.

Well, if you want to split the time with Cinque Terre, then you should perhaps focus more on Tuscany than Umbria.

It's about a 4-hour drive from Assisi to, say, Vernazza. The drive time from, say, Volterra, to Vernazza would be about half that.