Driving a van in Italy - any stories?
 

Hi - I am going to Italy this August with a party of 9 and I am thinking of renting a VW Caravelle and a car for our party. We will be traveling around Tuscany. I think two cars would be too cramped. Has anyone else rented a van in Italy and lived to tell the story? Any advice would be appreciated!<BR>Joann

Joann---Sure, I rented one just last summer--a Renault 7-seat minivan. There were only 4 of us and lots of luggage, so we piled everything into the rear seats and luggage area. <BR><BR>As for driving, the European vans usually fit on even the smallest roads. We drove on lots of small back-country roads in Italy and Austria last year, with many winding turns and blind curves, and never had a problem. There will always be a few crazy drivers to watch for, but after driving in Europe for 25 years and in American cities for 35 years, I have found any place in Europe, including Italy, to be safer than in America. If you plan to use the minivan mainly on the principal roads or the autostrada, you will have no problem at all. So unless you can't cope with interstate highway traffic in the U.S. or Canada, don't worry about Italy.<BR><BR>By the way, I agree with you that a party of 9 would deserve at least a car and a minivan, if not two minivans. It all depends on the amount of luggage. Good luck. And get a good, detailed highway map that will show you the backroads and country roads if you want to explore more of the out-of-the-way places.

We were a party of 9 adults travelling from Florence to Rome in June 2001 with stops in Colle Val d'Elsa and Porto Santo Stefano on the way, and with a Sunday trip to Anzio/Nettuno before we returned our 9-passenger Fiat Ducato in Rome. We did have adventures, mainly involving trying to drive through tiny medieval streets in the minibus, and also driving in Rome during a major soccer celebration. If you want to read about them, you can probably find them on this forum by searching on the names of the towns above or on &quot;cousins,&quot; which was how I called our group. Like you, I had assumed a group of 9 would need two vehicles and reserved both the minibus and a car through AutoEurope. To our very pleased surprise, it turned out to hold all 9 of us plus nine check-through suitcases and nine carryons! This is because it was quite high, and we were able to pile the suitcases up in the back. Nobody had to sit on one, honest! Fortunately, there was no charge for simply changing our minds at pick-up time, so we got a full refund for the car we didn't need and were on our way, all together. While not roomy and luxurious, the minibus was quite adequate for our trips, none of which was more than 2 or 3 hours at a time. Travelling with 9 required lots of advance planning, but we had a wonderful trip, and I hope you do, too.

I don't recall any particular difficulties with our 9 passenger van in May 2001 (6 of us, Rome to Assisi, then Assisi to Venice), nor in September 2001 either. Florence to Garda, then took it all over the Veneto, including on the ferry across Lake Garda to its western coastline, to Sirmione, Verona (twice), Trento, La Rotonda, Valpolicella area and of course, to Venice. On second thought, I had to be a little bit creative with parking in Verona (eventually found on street parking and just had to walk a few extra blocks).<BR><BR>Best wishes,<BR><BR>Rex<BR>[email protected]<BR>

Rented a huge van in Italy last year drove from Rome to Modena, Sienna, Florence, Venice and Porto Fino. No problems. Getting out of the parking lot in Porto Fino through an alley I kept my eyes closed while my husband drove. Have a great time!

Note to Fibonacci2358 - -

...you probably have a better chance of catching a reply from KarenW - - see http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34779741 - - by attaching your question here (in some ways, I have effectively done that for you now) - - then by starting a new thread.

Hopefully, if she still comes here, she will click on her name - - but probably not <i>search</i> for her name.

Best wishes,

Rex

Thanks Rex