carolsc

We will have a car for the Tuscany leg of our trip and plan to drop the car in Venice (Piazzale Roma). It appears to be about a 3.5 -4 hour drive from Lucca. Two questions:

1.What is the "best" route to take (scenic preferable but don't want to spend more than 5 hours en route) ? Or should we just 'hurry and arrive' in order to take advantage of being in Venice earlier in the day ?

2. Is there a place to gas up near the Piazzale Roma in order to return the car with a full tank ?

Thank you.
carolsc

zeppole

You don't say what time of year you are doing this, but in my view it is better to arrive in Venice later in the day, after the masses of daytrippers have left. You do want to arrive before it gets dark, however, so you will have an easier time finding your hotel.

You also want to time your arrival so that you are not hanging around waiting for your car rental office to re-open. It is likely to be shut between 1-4pm, so unless you get up at the crack of dawn and drive like a bat out of hell on the autostrade, the earliest you can arrive in Venice with a full tank of gas is very close to 1pm -- so I think you should time your arrival for 4pm-5pm.

It seems to me that if you don't want to spend more than 5 hours on the road, and want to fill your tank before arriving, you don't have time for any scenic detours. You appear not to even want to stop to eat lunch.

Were it me, I would leave Lucca in the late morning and take a route via Bologna. Once I was just north of Bologna, and well before Ferrara (hopefully before noon!) around, I would get off the autostrade at the exit for a small town, and go looking for a restaurant. There are a large number of agriturismi and restaurants around there. You won't have trouble finding any.

Here is an example, but there are others. Do a google search for agriturismi near Bologna, and just make sure whichever ones you pick are open your travel day for lunch:

http://www.fattoriacorteroeli.it/

Anyway, after lunch, I would drive on to Venice, with the idea of arriving by 5pm.

Michael

Go to www.viamichelin.com and enter your departure town and your destination. You can then specify the Michelin recommendation, or the quickest route, or the scenic one.

carolsc

Thank you Zeppole for your thoughts. We will either leave very early (sleeping until 6 or 7 AM is sleeping in for us!) or plan to leave later and get to Venice after 4:00. Might depend on the weather as well.

carolsc

carolsc

Forgot to add...is there a gas station close to Piazzale Roma?

qwovadis

When we did this with tigercarrentals.com we drove to sirmione.com perfect overnite the pearl of Lake Garda then drove
another couple of hours to Venice the next day.
Hotel Eden for us Lake View Suite 120 euro with an awesome breakfast right on the Lake views to die for. booking.com
viamichelin.com for route planning.

Happy Trails!

qwovadis

We gassed up at a discount on the autostrada
prior to turning the car in. Gas costs very high
in cities similar to the US..

mclasslady

We just did this trip yesterday. We traveled the autostrade every time possible. There are beautiful views of the mountains along the way and many opportunities to exit for lunch. We have found that if you are not familier with the Italian road signs, it always takes longer than expected. We did make a couple of stops, one in Florence and the other at the Ferrari museum. I would say take the autostade and plan a stop or two. But do not linger too long or your trip will pass the 5 hour limit.