ErikJW

Is this a good idea: rent a car in Rome, do Tuscany sightseeing then load it to overnight ferry to Sardinia?

Where does the boat/ferry to Sardinia depart from? How simple is to get there (departure city) without the car ( in case it is unwise or impossible to bring the car over)?

How comfortable is ferry for overnight travel?
We would need car in Sardinia, so is it better renting it there?

Thanks!

BATUFFOLINA

Yes it is possible to rent a car in Rome and drive it to Sardinia too. If you ask for unlimited mileage you can driva anywhere in Italy, Sardinia included.
Ferries to Sardinia depart from Civitavecchia (the nearest port to Rome) or from Livorno (in Tuscany). There are lines like: MOBY LINES, CORSICA SND SARDINIA FERRIES, TIRRENIA and GRANDI NAVI VELOCI. Check them out in the web. If you are going to Sardinia in the summer, namely from May to September, I advise you to book the tickets ahead of time because it is the favourite italian resort for italians. On the other hand, if you are going now, you can book the ticketa few days prior departure. Depending on the days you want to travel, some companies have some special reduced fares: Tirrenia has the jackpot fare, and so Corsica and Sardinia Ferries. These fares are on certain days only, must be booked some days ahead, depend on the availability of seats and they are NOT refundable if for any reason you cant travel anymore. Plus they are not changeable.
Some ferries travel during the day so it is not necessary to get the couchettes. Moby Lines has very good, large ferry boats with restaurants, shops, bars etc and it usually takes about 4-5 hours to connect to Sardinia (they are fast ferries) and they are pretty good. Tirrenia is the Mother line, it has night lines too and it has couchettes: doubles, quadruples or singles. If you are 3 people you must get a quadruple cabin and you pay half of the not occipied bed. It is their rule. Cabins are 1st class and 2nd class. The trip is usually pretty pleasant because the boats have some entertainments on board (as I mentioned above)....apart from when the sea is rough and that means to swing a little bit and if you are seasick that can riun your trip on board... anyway!
YES I strongly advise to visit Sardinia with a car. The public transports there are not that good, and the car is good to discover points that are not reachable with a bus. YOu can take the car on board of all the lines I have mentioned. You pay per category: if the car is less than 4,01metres long you pay category 1, if it is from 4,01 metres above, you pay category 2 (you pay more).

AP6380

Batuffolina-

Do any of the ferry lines have fast ferries that go to any points further south than Civitavecchia?

BATUFFOLINA

Tirrenia has a line that connects Naples with Palermo but it is not a fast line (it travels in the night). There are also some fast ferries but they run mainly in the Summer, for the sea in winter might be pretty rough. There is a fast line that connects Naples to Palermo, but at the moment I dont recall its name. It usually departs in the early afternoon and arrives in Palermo in the evening, whereas the ferry boat is much slower. Yet one good thing about the line Naples Palermo is that the ferry has only first class cabins and seats so there is some comfort in that.

ErikJW

Batuffolina:
Thanks for the reply. Can I make reservation to the ferries over the internet? We are considering going in early september. I was hoping that vacation spots may be less crowded.

Do you know if it is better to rent a car in Sardinia versus in Rome + ferry across.