Day trips from Montepulciano
Oct 4th, 2005, 05:03 PM
#41
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Just remember that Montepulciano is a small town. You could get your fill of "soaking" in a couple of hours - especially if it's a Sunday, Monday, holiday, and/or if it's cold & rainy (likely in Oct & Nov). I've been there (San Quirico) on many cold & rainy days in Oct. - not much to see & do in town & we usually head out to a monestary, abbey, or to Siena.
Take Budman's advice and consider a manual diesel. Both my wife & I were raised on automatics. When we frist started traveling in Europe, we had no trouble learning how to drive a manual - just make sure you know how to get it into reverse before you leave the rental lot. Subtract all your taxi, bus, and train ticket prices, and put a value on that entire day you will be spending on multiple trains & busses getting from Montepulciano to Spello - a price of a rental might come down quite a bit. I have only taken two "local" trains in Tuscany. One was 45 mins late and the other was on time. Do you have any back-up plans for your day from Montepulciano to Spello if the first train is late and you miss the second train or bus? Also, before you leave for Italy, you should make sure you can even rent a car for 1-2 days without paying a 5-7 day price.
Stu Dudley
Take Budman's advice and consider a manual diesel. Both my wife & I were raised on automatics. When we frist started traveling in Europe, we had no trouble learning how to drive a manual - just make sure you know how to get it into reverse before you leave the rental lot. Subtract all your taxi, bus, and train ticket prices, and put a value on that entire day you will be spending on multiple trains & busses getting from Montepulciano to Spello - a price of a rental might come down quite a bit. I have only taken two "local" trains in Tuscany. One was 45 mins late and the other was on time. Do you have any back-up plans for your day from Montepulciano to Spello if the first train is late and you miss the second train or bus? Also, before you leave for Italy, you should make sure you can even rent a car for 1-2 days without paying a 5-7 day price.
Stu Dudley
Oct 4th, 2005, 05:22 PM
#42
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We've had good luck most places renting a car for a single day locally. Doing it ahead with someone is likely to entail a 3 day minimum and pretty ghastly prices. When there was a short train strike the day we were to go from Chiusi to Nice -- we went to the Avis station there then and they were going to rent us the next car that came in for one day with a drop off in Milan -- for about 60 euro. Only problem is, none came in -- and then the strike was over and we were on our way on the train.
Oct 4th, 2005, 05:47 PM
#43
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Loving the 'car-no car' debate... honestly, I'd say I'm a non-city-going American and am MUCH more comfortable with a car! That's how the majority of our country lives... (I only have a car for 4 of my 16 days... not that I HAVE to have one).
Back to the advice... Italia -be certian to quote on other sites. I used novacarhire.com and got a much better rate than Autoeurope. I called Autoeurope and told them and within two hours they had done a 'beat rate' and called me back. VERY worthwhile and seems like something they do often. Try it...
Trav (10 days till Switz/Italia, but who's counting
)
Back to the advice... Italia -be certian to quote on other sites. I used novacarhire.com and got a much better rate than Autoeurope. I called Autoeurope and told them and within two hours they had done a 'beat rate' and called me back. VERY worthwhile and seems like something they do often. Try it...
Trav (10 days till Switz/Italia, but who's counting
)
Oct 5th, 2005, 08:51 AM
#44
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Patrick
I don't quite follow your last post about getting an on-the-spot 1 day car rental. You said that you've had good luck landing a 1 day rental, but the example you described does not sound like a successful rental to me. You got a good price on a car that they didn't have - you ended up taking the train.
Italia will only be in Montepulciano for 5 days - so I think her time should be spent very efficiently. I'm just guessing, but I assume Patrick called the Chiusi office to inquire about a 1 day car rental and got the good price with no car quote. Then what did you do the remainder of that day - hang around close to public transportation in Montalcino all day till you got the call on your cell phone that a car was available? And then hope a bus left for Chiusi soon? If no bus, you might have to find a xaxi, which are pretty scarce in that area. It sounds like the day would be pretty much killed by trying to wait for a car to become available. I've been to the Avis rental office (now a Hertz office) in Chiusi - it's not really in Chiusi, it's at the train station a bit south of town (there may be another office in town, per someone else's post). The lot where they store cars is smaller than my back yard - this is a real dinky location. I don't think there is room for more than about 10 cars, and I suspect that most cars in that lot are reserved for booked rentals in the next few days. Sounds pretty "iffy" to me - please elaborate for Italia's benefit.
Stu Dudley
I don't quite follow your last post about getting an on-the-spot 1 day car rental. You said that you've had good luck landing a 1 day rental, but the example you described does not sound like a successful rental to me. You got a good price on a car that they didn't have - you ended up taking the train.
Italia will only be in Montepulciano for 5 days - so I think her time should be spent very efficiently. I'm just guessing, but I assume Patrick called the Chiusi office to inquire about a 1 day car rental and got the good price with no car quote. Then what did you do the remainder of that day - hang around close to public transportation in Montalcino all day till you got the call on your cell phone that a car was available? And then hope a bus left for Chiusi soon? If no bus, you might have to find a xaxi, which are pretty scarce in that area. It sounds like the day would be pretty much killed by trying to wait for a car to become available. I've been to the Avis rental office (now a Hertz office) in Chiusi - it's not really in Chiusi, it's at the train station a bit south of town (there may be another office in town, per someone else's post). The lot where they store cars is smaller than my back yard - this is a real dinky location. I don't think there is room for more than about 10 cars, and I suspect that most cars in that lot are reserved for booked rentals in the next few days. Sounds pretty "iffy" to me - please elaborate for Italia's benefit.
Stu Dudley
Oct 5th, 2005, 09:16 AM
#45
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>>Italia will only be in Montepulciano for 5 days - so I think her time should be spent very efficiently.<<
Bearing this in mind, I'd suggest that this idea be dropped >>We may rent a car for the drive to Norcia to be able to drive beyond Norcia to see the Piano Grande.<< It's practically an all-day jaunt, very pretty, but given the time of year, the car rental issue, etc - I think the time could be better spent elsewhere...
Bearing this in mind, I'd suggest that this idea be dropped >>We may rent a car for the drive to Norcia to be able to drive beyond Norcia to see the Piano Grande.<< It's practically an all-day jaunt, very pretty, but given the time of year, the car rental issue, etc - I think the time could be better spent elsewhere...
Oct 9th, 2005, 07:08 AM
#46
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Thanks everyone for such great advice. Ok, after several discussions, we have bitten the bullet and reserved a car for our five day stay in Montepulciano - a manual (which means that my husband gets to do the driving and I'll be the navigator - scary thought)! With the cold,rainy, unpredictable weather, I'm sure that we will be glad to be able to jump in the car if we need to go somewhere vs. waiting on a bus. If it were the summer, being without a car would probably be a more pleasurable experience with the ability to take day hikes from town.
Now, we're having fun planning some day trips to spots that we could not have imagined going to before (like Pitigliano/Sorano/Sovana).
Stu, your trip report with day trips through the area will go into the suitcase so that we will have it handy when we arrive! I have already ordered and received very quickly, the ICI - Toscana map from Trek Tools that looks to be very detailed!
We leave in two weeks - any last minute tips or advice?
Budman - we're going to try the Vino de Tavola routine and see what happens!
Thanks again everyone for helping us plan our trip!
Now, we're having fun planning some day trips to spots that we could not have imagined going to before (like Pitigliano/Sorano/Sovana).
Stu, your trip report with day trips through the area will go into the suitcase so that we will have it handy when we arrive! I have already ordered and received very quickly, the ICI - Toscana map from Trek Tools that looks to be very detailed!
We leave in two weeks - any last minute tips or advice?
Budman - we're going to try the Vino de Tavola routine and see what happens!
Thanks again everyone for helping us plan our trip!
Oct 9th, 2005, 02:06 PM
#47
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Stu, I guess my post was confusing about the car. My mention of having good luck with one day rental cars was not about being in Montepulciano, but various places throughout Europe. Trying to book a one day in advance from Auto Europe or anyone else seems very expensive, but locally finding one and renting a day or two before has been successful for us. I was not talking about going to a car rental agency and needing one that minute, but booking one a day or two before.
The incident at Chiusi was most unusual. We arrived to take the train to Milan, then to Menton -- we even already had our tickets. But when we got to the train station there was an unannounced train strike. That's when we checked across the street with another couple about getting a car to drive to Milan. No, it didn't pan out, because others had beaten us to the available cars since no trains had been going for several hours. My only point was that cars were due in, and they quoted us a good rate -- but no, the trains started running so we didn't need one anyway. They expected several in before noon, but by that time we were gone. This is not something I was suggesting was a normal procedure -- and certainly we don't expect an unannounced train strike every day!!
The incident at Chiusi was most unusual. We arrived to take the train to Milan, then to Menton -- we even already had our tickets. But when we got to the train station there was an unannounced train strike. That's when we checked across the street with another couple about getting a car to drive to Milan. No, it didn't pan out, because others had beaten us to the available cars since no trains had been going for several hours. My only point was that cars were due in, and they quoted us a good rate -- but no, the trains started running so we didn't need one anyway. They expected several in before noon, but by that time we were gone. This is not something I was suggesting was a normal procedure -- and certainly we don't expect an unannounced train strike every day!!
