Driving to Florence
 

We will be leaving San Gimignano early in the morning, headed to Florence. We plan to turn in the car at FCO in late afternoon, take a cab into Florence. Question is, how to spend that day? Not having been to Italy, I would appreciate your suggestions.

Option 1) Plan a stop in the Chianti region, which we will not have seen during our Tuscany stay. Have a nice lunch, drive on to Florence airport.

Option 2) Drive to Fiesole (which looks "near" airport). Lunch in Fiesole, turn in car at Florence airport.

We'll only have 3 nights in Florence, so I don't know if we'll get up to Fiesole other than this.

Opinions please! Thanks. jeanne

It's a hell of a long cab ride from FCO which is the Rome airport to Florence, obviously you mean FLR. Nonetheless, there are lots of great places to stop in Chianti. One of my favorite little towns is Greve and the surrounding area which has spectacular vistas of the area. The area around Regello is another favorite just off the autostrada. There's also a great restaurant in the town of Pena called Il Conto Di Maggio that makes the best pecorino and pear ravioli as well as Val di Chiana steaks.

I hope that you are planning to turn the car into FLR - the airport for Florence -- and not FCO, which is Rome's Leonardo da Vinci Airport.

I'd go for Option 1 and enjoy the Tuscan countryside. Suggest that you leave Fiesole for another time (perhaps another visit). It is a delightful town with wonderful archeological areas, but driving through some small towns in Tuscany would be my first choice.

Either way, you'll have a great afternoon.

Oh, goodness. FLORENCE airport, of course! I hope I drive better than I type!

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm kind of leaning toward the Chianti stop anyway. Someone told me there's an American WWII cemetery near Greve that's very moving. Restaurants sound heavenly!

Perhaps, driving into Florence isn an option.

We were going to drop our car at the airport and take a cab into Florence to catch a train to Venice.

Instead, for no extra charge, we dropped out car off in Florence near the train station.

It would certainly be more convenient. What was it like driving into the center? I guess we could decide on our hotel and then ask them what the nearest car drop-off would be. That would save all that transferring baggage. I might just be brave (foolish?) enough to consider that!