best drving route, Rome to Chianti
 

At the end of May I'm flying to Rome, renting a car, and driving to Radda in Chianti. Any advice about the best route to take? The plane gets in around 7:30 in the morning, and we're planning on driving a few hours, overnighting, and finishing the trip the next day. My first thought is to stop at Orvieto - I've been there before and am very fond of it - but driving along the coast looks like an option too; is it a nice drive, and is there an attractive place to spend the night along the way? If we do go the inland route, how does the drive on A1 compare to the smaller roads? (Significant differences in travel time and scenery?) Any input would be a big help.

If you think you would like to see Orvieto, I would highly recommend it!

If your flight is long and you will be a little jet lagged, make it easy on yourself and just train to Orvieto. Spend the rest of the day, there's lots to see. Have a lovely evening and dinner at one of the great restaurants, then pick up your car when you are ready to drive up to Chianti.

buon viaggio!

Hi Dayle

Is this a direct train from Rome to Orvieto or do we need to change. My husband and I will be doing just that - Flying into Rome and spending 4 nights there and then we thought of catching a train to Orvieto and spending a night there before we venture further doing Umbria and Tuscany. There have been many suggestions to rather catch a trian from Rome than drive out of Rome to Orvieto. Do you need to book a seat on these trains?

Thanks for any help

To provide MHO on the various questions:

1. if you pick the car up at the airport, then driving is no real hassle (assuming you aren't jet lagged!). Just follow the signs to Firenze along the ring road and up the A1 (assuming you are taking this route) and pop off when you get to Orvieto. This is about 1.5hrs driving, depending mostly on the ring road traffic. Trying to take an alternate inland route would probably be quite difficult, all roads lead to the A1

2. I dont know the coastal routes. My experience is that some of the country roads can be pretty, but windy and slow; plus you can get stuck behind a truck for a long time without being able to overtake (due to windiness). The A1 is not pretty but its fast. As the driver you dont really get to see much of the view anyway!

3. if you wanted somewhere else to stay, with a bit of additional driving (another 30-40min or so), you could stay in Todi for a night. Get off the A1 at Orvieto and follow a fairly twisty road to Todi. However, you would need to backtrack to get onto the A1 again to continue your trip to Chianti (but, for the person going to Umbria, its not really out of the way at all, you get on the Umbrian state highway about 5min from Todi).

4. The train Rome to Orvieto is pretty frequent and takes about 1 hr. No need to book but if you are worred just get the ticket a few days before (actually, often that is easier in case you turn up and discover a huge queue and miss the train. Remember to punch the ticket in the yellow machine!). Its worth catching, I think, rather than driving because it gets you to Orvieto quicker than driving anyway and it avoids Rome (which actually isnt that bad because you almost always just take main roads from the car pick up out to the ring road, but you need a good map reader/navigator). However, you need to check that your car hire place allows pick up in Orvieto. You could pick up in Terni or Perugia if Orvieto is no good (taking train to those places), but they are a fair distance from Orvieto so you would have a bit of a drive if you decided to visit - probably leave it for another day (Todi is not on the train line).

Note, also, that auto cars are less common in Italy and usually only collectable from the larger cities - I tried to get one in Terni and there weren't any available. It seems to depend on whether someone else has dropped one off in the region. Plus in the smaller places (which, as I found, includes cities such as Bologna) the hire car offices shut over lunch for several hours. So if you are intending to pick up any time between 12-3, check the opening hours carefully. This is not an issue in Rome.

Finally - you can pick up cars in Florence and its pretty easy to drive out of the city (the car hire companies are outside the centre of the city, of course). So thats another train option if Florence is closer to your destination.