magimay

In August we're doing an around the world trip to visit our daughters who live in London UK and West Yellowstone, Montana. We've factored in 7 days in Italy, arriving Rome 14th August and flying out of Milan 21st August. My husband has always had the urge to drive along the Italian coast road, so the plan is to pick up a rental car on the 15th and head to Milan. I've done hours of research in books and the internet but still have to make final choices. To those of you who obviously know more about Italy than we do, my questions are - which Rome hotel for overnight; which car rental company and where to collect the car; best towns to stop at along the way, bearing in mind that we must fly out of Milan on Tuesday, 21st August. My Rome hotel choice so far is Hotel Bramante, do you agree with this? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you

magimay

It looks as though it might be a good idea to catch a train to Civitavecchia, to collect the rental car from there. Then drop the car off at Cinque Terre and catch a train into Milan from there.

Steve_James

Hi Magi - Yes, that sounds good planning - Civitavecchia is a good starting point.

The car rental drop-off for the Cinque Terre would be La Spezia. The CT villages are just a short train ride from there.

Places to stop en route?

- The Argentario peninsular (- Porto Santo Stefano/ Porto Ercole)

- Castiglione della Pescaia

- Porto Venere

- CT

- Portofino peninsular (- Santa Margherita, Portofino, Camogli, Rapallo)

Hope this helps ...

Steve

bobthenavigator

www.autoeurope.com at FCO
Porto San Stefano
Portovenere
Santa Margherita Ligure

Have fun !

bobthenavigator

Hmmm ! Steve and I posted at the same time---great minds !

magimay

Thank you very much. More questions if I may please - we fly out of Milan Malpensa airport Tuesday 21 August at 12.00pm, so we need to be at the airport early that morning. If we drop the car off in La Spezia,
1. How much time should we allow to see Cinque Terra?
2. How long is the train journey into Milan? and is that from CT or Genoa?
3. Should we pre-book the train trip?
Not sure whether to drop the car on Sat 18 or Sun 19.
4. Would we need to book accommodation in advance in CT or spend the day there and take the train into Milan and overnight there?
I apologise for so many questions, but I figure it's best to seek advice now rather than find ourselves up the creek without a paddle.

bobthenavigator

Stay closer to MXP--which is 30 miles west of Milan.

magimay

Thanks again for your help. I've changed our plans dramatically after considering the logistics of driving on the RHS of the road in busy, fast moving traffic. The whole thing started to lose its appeal. So now we'll have 2 days and 2 nights in Rome, then train to Venice where I've booked us 4 nights at http://www.cagottardi.com/en which comes highly recommended on this site. I think it'll be less stressful and more enjoyable for two very young at heart 60 year olds, don't you? Perhaps we'll do the other trip when we can take more time.