In the US, we enjoy flying into a location and driving a big circle around and back to the airport to see as many sights as we can. We spent a month in the UK and Ireland doing that last year and other than driving on the wrong side of the road, it worked out great. I have been advised that I should plan on using public transportation in Italy. Is this so? Can I visit Rome and then pick up a car and do my touring of the other cities/countryside possibly going up in Switzerland or should I plan on using the train? How is driving in the other large cities?

If you plan to visit other major cities then you should use the trains. If you plan to visit rural venues then drive.

In Rome, a car would be a hindrance.

For Tuscany, a car would give you flexibility and scenic drives.

You may drive up to Switzerland, but the problem are high fees if you return the car in another country. If you have an open-jaw flight it might make sense to return the car somewhere, cross the border in a train and rent again in the next country.

What is different compared to the U.S.?

In towns, streets and parking lots are narrower,so you will like a smaller car.

Instead of "center" it is "centro" in Italy.

What else? I can't think of something else.

Don't try to drive into the centre of historical towns, as there is bound to be no entry to non-authorised vehicles, called restricted traffic zone (ZTL). If you do, number plate and driver will be photographed automatically, sent to city authorities and a fine will be winding its way to the rental office, who will for a fee provide your details. Increasingly they use local collection agents in many countries to enforce payment.
http://www.bella-toscana.com/traffic...m#.VsT8LY_XKUk

Driving in large cities is a nonsense. Mot large cities have pedestrian centers where no cars are allowed. and if you wander into one by accident the fines (all have cameras) can be very high. Also many (most) hotels in europe - esp in city center, do not have parking so you are going to be paying 40 euros a night for parking, as well as the cost of renting a car you can;t use until you leave the city.

This is not to say that a road trip is a bad idea. We have done many road trips in various parts of europe - including Italy - and loved them. But you need an itinerary that makes sense - a lot of countryside and small towns. If you are seeing just large cities trains make more sense. If you want a mx of both consider renting the car just for the countryside part of the trip. Or make up your mind to paying for a car you are not using and 40 euros per night for parking for several days at a time (that's what we do).

Tuscany is certainly an area where a car is essential, and we could not have done without one as we tried to see all of Palladio's villas in the Veneto.

Some completely walkable towns -- Verona, Vicenza, Padova, Venice, for example -- are so nicely connected by trains that you would be out of your mind to drive between them.

Many people are quite happy to have someone else drive them on the switch-backed highways near the ocean, partly so they can enjoy the view, partly so the blood can return to their knuckles.

Certain portions of Italy have all the charm of I-95 in Northern New Jersey.

So, it depends.

I have paid a ZTL ticket (€50 + about the same to the car rental company) but the real hassle of the car is trying to get through tolls with the wrong kind of credit card, finding and paying for parking, forgetting your carefully memorized road signs when under stress, and coping with with abbreviations on signs ("Bo-Pad" is where you enter the autostrada between Bologna and Padua. Okay)

But back roads in rural Italy are pretty wonderful.

We always took a car in Italy.

We rented a big one (actually more like a bus) when we had someone on a wheelchair accompanying us.
so driving in Rome for example is no real problem - certainly less problematic than Brussels. But parking may be a real problem - in Rome we parked on handicapped places - last I was in Torino I had quite big difficulties finding a parking spot.

It is true about the ZTL but keep your invoices ofyour hotels - normally hotels inside ZTL enter your platenr in the system and this enables you to drive into them without being fined. If you are fined, you'll be fine by giving a copy of your invoice.

As said above, fine can come something like 2 years after the trip... keep them

As for driving the Italians drive correctly, it is an old myth that you can't drive in Italy - but do pay attention to the Vespas.

Italian driver tend to be assertive (not aggressive) but they are generally more competent that US divers (the driving test is MUCH harder) and while they may speed they do follow the tules and and have little patience with people who either dither or clog up the left lanes going the minimum speed.

As long as one is competent and confident - and good at parallel parking ins paces hardly bigger than the car (easy for New Yorkers who do this all the time, can be a problem for people who are used to parking in their driveways of head-in mall/office building parking lots.

If you drive into Switzerland and use the autostrade/motorways you need to buy a sticker for your car which will cost you 40 Swiss Francs even if you are there just for a day. (the sticker is valid for a year - actually from December 1 to January 31 or 14 months)

To get permission to drive to your hotel inside a ZTL, you have to call the hotel in advance and tell them your license plate number. Then you will have permission to drive to the hotel, unload bags and passengers, and leave the ZTL to park the car elsewhere. You won't be able to come and go in the car, but you can return to pick up bags and passengers when you leave. You have to follow a specific route to get to and from the hotel, which the hotel will give you.

At least, this is how it is in Rome and Florence.

If your hotel is outside the ZTL, you just have to be sure that you don't cross a ZTL to get to it. It's rather tricky if you don't know the city well. My husband and I mostly avoid driving in cities we don't know well. Even in a city we know very well, we once strayed into a ZTL because of a detour. Fortunately, when we abjectly apologized, pleading the detour, the policeman let us off with a warning. Another time we accidentally entered a ZTL in Bologna, because we were following a bus, which blocked our view of the sign. We were sure we'd get a ticket in the mail, but the bus must have also blocked our car from the camera. Normally we wouldn't dream of driving in Bologna, but we were taking some furniture to a relative.

Between the parking problem and the risk of tickets, we almost always take the train to cities. Unless you are three or more, it's usually cheaper than driving, and if you're going to a large city, it's certainly faster, because the major cities are connected by high-speed trains that go twice as fast as any car and make very few stops.

Smaller towns also have ZTLs, but it's usually easy to avoid them: just park outside the walls and walk in.

Lots of great answers above. If you *do* end up deciding to rent a car for a month, a short-term lease can be much cheaper. You can pick up and drop off at Rome Fiumicino airport.

Great information here: http://www.reidsitaly.com/planning/g...ar_leases.html

Be sure and get a book that has all the signs that are posted in Italy. There are so many areas that you cannot enter and so many 1 way streets. I can't stress enough the importance of knowing what the signs mean.

Also, don't forget to get your international driving permit. I always get mine from AAA and the cost is around $35.00. You have to have a passport size photo.

I can't imagine driving in Rome or Florence, but the countryside in Tuscany is amazing. We flew into Rome last year and immediately took a train to Florence for 4 days. Great way to get over jet lag IMO. We then rented a car at the Florence airport and spent several days driving around Tuscany before driving back to Rome and dropping the car off at the airport.

If you drop a car off at the Rome airport, be aware that there are several buildings for the different car rental agencies. Try to find out which one has yours before you get there cause if you pass if up, it is very difficult to maneuver your way back! We then took a car into Rome and had a great week there with no hassles.

Sorry, just realized that taking a car into Rome sounded like we drove....I meant a car service to our hotel, not driving a car!

The written Italian driving test is, in theory, very comprehensive, with many more questions than the New Jersey driving test, which I once took. When I took it, the driving instructor had a test-day seating plan for his class, so that the weaker students were seated next to a stronger student, to facilitate copying. The only person who failed was not the worst student, but she was too honest to copy.

I was the first one finished (out of about 30 students) because the rest were all busy exchanging answers, except for the honest student, who was puzzling over the questions. At least in New Jersey, everyone got a different, random, copy of the test (on a monitor).

The road test was a joke. There were no parking challenges, no obstacles to maneuver around, and no unusual situations at all. There were four students and the tester in a car, and we all took turns at the wheel. The tester spent the entire time in the back seat filling out forms, looking up only to tell us where to go next and to tell us to take our turn at the wheel. One kid in my car veered off the road and came within inches of hitting a town wall. He passed the test; the tester didn't even look up.

I've done the driving around in Ireland and Scotland, Italy is a bit different. I'm taking my niece in June (graduation present) and am doing this mixed drive and train itinerary. Fly into Rome, stay 3 nights. Train to Venice for 3 nights. Pick up car in Venice, drive to Lake Garda (gets you that Alps experience without Swiss expenses!), 2 nights near lake (cooking class too), drive to Florence. Staying at Hilton 1 night - 15 minutes out, free shuttle to city center + free parking at the Hilton. Then we drive to Positano - stopping at Vesuvius on the way, Pompeii on the way back. 2 nights in Positano. Then we return the car to Rome Airport, staying at Hilton Airport (disclaimer - I have Hilton points which informed those choices). I've been to Italy several times and lived in Rome 25 years ago - it is a bit short in Florence and Tuscany, but I wanted to hit the lakes and Venice this time.