Don't speak the language
 

This is our first trip to Italy on our own. We are flying into Rome for 3 days then taking the train to Florence for 2 days. We plan to rent a car in Sienna, then out to Tuscany for 9 days. I'm studying like mad but I'm a little woried about recognizing signage. How difficult is it to navagate in a car

almost all road signage is in international symbolism, not italian.

Yes, but do be aware of the Italian spelling of town names!

If you put in your intended routes at the viamichelin website, it will give you directions, and indicate which signs you should see at various turn offs.

Most road signs throught europe are pictorial rather than words.

Agree you need to know the proper name of towns (we had a very interesting conversation with some people who swore they couldn;t find Vienna when the sign for Wien was right in front of them.)

Also - there are a few signs - such as senso unico - which are self-explanatory - even if you know no Italian at all.

ghadley,
See http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/road_signs/index.htm
for signage.

Ghadley,

no worries about signage...in many instances there isn't any! :)

You WILL get lost...just resign yourself to the fact that it will happen and enjoy the adventure - you never know what you may discover by taking the wrong turn!

Melodie

When renting your car request GPS WE found this invaluable because it told us were to turn off ect. Sometimes when your driving down the Hwy. it was confusing because some of the road and town names were similar but different. The GPS saved us alot of time not having to backtrack from our navigators{my} mistakes. Actually it might have saved our marriage.

You can print this out and take it with you. I think it has just about every imaginable sign. http://www.ideamerge.com/motoeuropa/roadsigns/

This summer I drove in Italy for 10 days and it was really fun but at times very harrowing. I saw very little "North, South, East, West" signage. Instead it was all cities. For example, leaving Siena, we headed towards Bologna. Then from there we went towards Venice. From Venice, it was towards Verona and then Milan. So, you have to have a good map to make sure all the locations are on it.

As for driving, stay in the right lane unless you want to pass someone. Audies, BMWs and Alfa Romeos come screeching down and they don't brake. That is in Spain, though, too.

Don't miss Volterra and San Gimignano in Tuscany.

Siena is in Tuscany, as in Florence, so I assume you mean you will drive to OTHER places in Tuscany.