Driving in Italy - April
 

We are flying to Bologna April 20th. We would like to visit Bologna, Florence,Assisi, Rome and the Amalfi coast in 9 days. Is this too much?
We fly back out of Rome.... Could we go from Assisi to Amalfi and then circle back to Rome? Too much?
Can anyone suggest routes or alternative itineraries?

Too much. You would not even have a day in each location by the time you factor in all the travel. Everywhere you listed has ZTL (means you aren't allowed to drive in the center of those towns) except for the coast.

I would drop two places from the list (probably the coast as it's really out of your way).

Are you absolutely wedded to the idea of using a car to get to and from these places? Once you get to them are you planning to spend your time only within them?

Depending on what you plan to see and do IN these places it might very well be much too much to cram into 9 days.

We have driven Bologna, Parma, Tuscany,Rome in 2003 in 7 days. It was great except we did not have enough time in Florence . This time we have specific targets. We want to spend 1 day in Bologna, 2 days in Florence, 1 day in Assisi and 3 in Rome. I looked up the route Bologna to Amalfi and it is about 7 hours
If we skip Amalfi, can we do this at a nice pace?
If Amalfi is a must, do we skip Assisi?

And yes, no day trips. We are concentrating in the places we are visiting. In Amalfi
we were thinking of Positsno

It makes no sense to have a car for Bologna or Florence. Florence is notorious for ZTL tickets and is a very easy train ride from Bologna (37 minutes). If you've been to Bologna before, I think I would just train or bus to Florence upon arrival unless there is something there you just have to see. If so, I would just store my luggage at the Bologna train station, visit your must see and then head on to Florence.

Bologna Florence and Rome make sense for a 9 day trip but a car would be a nuisance in all three cities. Trains are an alien mode of transport for many Americans but they make travel very easy in Italy.

Map it out with travel times. Make a list of what you want to see in each place.

Amalfi Coast: Coast itself, Pompeii, Capri, Positano, Amalfi, Museum in Naples, Herculaneum - 3-5 days right there plus travel to/from.

Rome: Vatican, Sistine chapel, St. Peter's, Colosseum, Palatine, Pantheon, City walk (for Trevi,etc.), Borghese, couple of major churches.

Is this your plan?
Arrive Bologna
Day 1 Arrive Bologna
Day 2 Travel to Florence
Day 3 Florence
Day 4 Travel to Assisi
Day 5 Travel to AC
Day 6 AC - Capri, Positano?
Day 7 Pompeii?
Day 8 travel to Rome
Day 9 Rome or is this departure day?

That plan gives you this:
1 nt Bologna (1/2 day)
2 nts Florence (1 & 1/2 days)
1 nt Assisi (1/2 day)
3 nts AC (2 days)
2 nts Rome (1 & 1/2 days)*
Or is it
1 nt Rome (1/2 day)

Wouldn't work for me, but might for you. How rushed do you want to be?

I agree - I don't see why this should be a driving trip, especially as it's such a fast one, not one where you're lingering to see the countryside between places, but just barreling from one place to another - places where a car is not welcome or easy and could net you some major fines. Take trains. They're easy, cheap, reliable, and fun.

I'm sorry - but if you actually want to see anything you have time to stay in two (2) places. You may do a day trip from one if you want - but your list of destinations would take between 2 and 3 weeks to see even in the most cursory way.

And while we love road trips in europe - and often do them - they really work only if you are staying in and touring the countryside. Driving in major cities is impossible inthe centers (pedestrian only) and a nonsense in the outskirts. Agree to move between whatever places you decide on by train - to save a lot of money and angst. (You don;t want to e getting hundreds of dollars of traffic tickets after you return when you have driven in pedestrian areas by accident.)

Ok, how does this sound:

Day 1-April 20: arrive in Bologna from London.
Day 2-April 21: Bologna
day 3-April 22: train to Florence
day 4-April 23: Florence
Day 5-April 24: Florence
Day 6- April 25: travel to Assisi and spend the night
Day 7- April 26: travel to Rome
Day 8-April 27: Rome
Day 9-April 28: Rome
Day 10: evening flight to London

April 25 is a holiday in Italy, so you might find car rental offices closed if you are planning on renting a car for that leg. Plus you might find traffic jams. My advice? take the trains. If you haven't been to italy since the introduction of high-speed trains, you'll be surprised at how pleasant and efficient they are (although you will need to rely on a regional train to get to Asissi from Florence).

You are likely to see slightly bigger crowds in Assisi on the holiday, plus you might face some restricted access to the major church sites if there are special celebratory masses. Find a way to check ahead.

If you find that April 25 creates a lot of difficulty when it comes to seeing Assisi, consider reversing your trip. That might work best weather wise as well.

Thank you for the heads up!!! Can't reverse because plane tickets are bought but maybe we can take the train to Assisi or drive the 24th in the evening
Not sure how much time to spend in Florence and Rome. We have visited the major sites already, we are looking to soak in more of the language and culture.

Well, I'm not sure how you soak in a language without lessons - but it would have been helpful to know that you have already seen major sights in these places. Naturally a shorter trip can work if you're not trying to stuff 5 days of sights into one day.

I don't see the point of renting a car just to drive Florence-Assisi-Rome, especially if you're contemplating the Florence-Assisi drive in the dark. Renting a car "in" Florence is not a very popular option here. Ditto returning the car in Rome, although you could return the car in Foligno and then train to Rome. Make sure you know the open/closed hours of the Foligno office.

"Not sure how much time to spend in Florence and Rome." Well, if you don't know, we don't know. You need to study some guide books to figure out what you want to see/do that you haven't already seen/done.

Nytraveler : We do speak pretty decent Italian. Sorry if I was not clear that this is noour first visit Italy, hopefully not the last

Jean: we rented a car in bologna and returned it in Rome some years ago. We stayed in Tuscany for a week so having a car was nice. We had no issues except that the car broke and exchanging it was very third world

I used to love this forums but I find people are not very kind anymore but judgmental. Are some of you stressed out?

albatravels, I'm sorry you find some of the responses unkind and judgmental, but I believe everyone is trying to provide the most helpful information possible. I will say, however, that your original post did not include all the relevant information which may have prompted responses you were not expecting.

I can completely understand how you found it nice having a car for a week in Tuscany. But what you're contemplating on this trip ("no day trips") just doesn't seem (to me) to be much improved by having a car. If you disagree, then just disregard my comments.

Hi alba - sorry that you're not getting the sort of response you wanted but other fodorites are not mind-readers. you must have seen the sorts of threads we so often get - first timers who want to see all the major sites in Rome, Venice and florence in 5 days, and don't understand why this can't be done.

so giving us a little more detail can bear dividends with the sorts of replies you get.

That said, I wonder if you would think about not going to Florence this time but going straight from Bologna to Assisi [ which would bring your stay there forward a bit and you could stay longer] and adding in somewhere like Orvieto?

that would give you this:

Day 1-April 20: arrive in Bologna from London.
Day 2-April 21: Bologna
day 3-April 22: train to Assisi
day 4-April 23: Assisi
Day 5-April 24: Train to Orvieto [or wherever - some town in Umbria]
Day 6- April 25: Orvieto
Day 7- April 26: travel to Rome
Day 8-April 27: Rome
Day 9-April 28: Rome
Day 10: evening flight to London

I think alba has nailed the attitude on Fodor's quite well and the rest of you are in denial.

We can only say what we think - otherwise, why bother to respond?