Johnnlilian

We are in the very beggining of our planning trip to Italy for the Spring 2012. We have 2 children, ages 12 and 10. We are "car travelers" , we drive everywhere, we love the flexibility of stopping anywhere anytime and just enjoy the view/ town if it looks good.

We are thinking 14 day trip to see Rome, Pisa, Florence Or Siena , ( we heard Florence it's just crowded with tourists) Cinque Terre ( is a Must for me) and Venice ( a must for the kids).
How many days should we spend on each town?
Best place to fly to/out based on our itinerary?
We are pretty sure we will rent a car. We think it will be easier since we want to see so many places and since we are 4 maybe 5 people , we heard it's a better deal to rent a car.
But we also heard that at certain places we don't need a car, like CT.
How and what should we pack? I bet the cars are very small there, so maybe we should pack light?
Thank you

nytraveler

First of all, a car is useless in Rome and impossible in Venice. We usually do road trips - but what we do is pick up the car on leaving the first city and drop it on arriving at the last.

In 14 days you should limit yourself to 4 hotels max.

I would check your flight times and either fly into Venice and out of rome - or vice versa. this will save a day lost backtracking and not cost any more.

If you must see Venice ( and arrive there) plan on staying 4 nights. this will give you 3 days there - time enough to enjoy the city and take trips to a couple of the outlying islands - I reco Torcello and Burano.

If you want to drive after that you should probably not stay in Florence due to the pedestrian center where driving is not allowed (and fines are very high). We do stay in florence - but stay in a hotel in the center that arranges a garage and permission to enter the area (but only a few upscale hotels do this). You might stay in Siena (again park outside the walls unless you find a hotel that can make other arrangements - and you can do day trips to Florence, Pisa etc.

Then you could go to CT for 2 days and the spend the rest of your time in rome.

This would give you a good taste of several places, although your time in Tuscany would be limited (you wouldn't get to see a bunch of the hill towns).

Also, be aware that in early spring the CT can be quite chilly - since you are mostly hiking a path facing out onto the sea. So it makes a big difference if you are going in late March or in mid May.

jamikins

I would start in the Cinque Terre (fly into Pisa or Genoa) and spend 3-4 nights, then rent a place in Tuscany and rent a car for a week - you can see Florence by day (or days) trip (dont drive in!!!!!) and the countryside and Pisa, maybe get a place with a pool if you are going in May, and then head to Rome for the remainder of the time flying out of Rome. You wont need a car in Cinque Terre, Rome or Florence.

With 4-5 people you will need a big car to hold the people and luggage. Dont forget to get international drivers licenses for all drivers. It is a requirement in Italy and you can get them for about $15 from AAA.

jamikins

Based on this I would skip Amalfi btw...and you could change Cinque Terre for Venice - or skip Rome and stay North for this trip. I agree 4 places in 2 weeks is good, any more will be a hassle and be too much for that many people including kids. Everything takes longer than you think it will when you are changing locations and you need to factor in losing 1/2 a day to travel when you change locations.

Johnnlilian

Thank you nytraveler and jamikins for the great advices!

I guess the place we would spend most of our time would be Rome, Cinque Terre and Venice, so maybe we can stay in 3 hotels max, and do day trips to Pisa/ Tuscany. I know it can be a hassle to stay in many different hotels.
Or if we fly to Rome we can stop by Pisa and spend half a day there on the way to Cinque? Is that doable?
We also have to reconsider the car rental, it sounds like most cities are not car " friendly" for tourists, it would ruin my trip if I got a ticket or accident.
Thank you

jamikins

Rome, Cinque Terre and Venice would make a nice trip. You cant really do a day trip to Tuscany from any of them though. But perhaps you can do that next time.

Yes, you can stop in Pisa on the way to Cinque Terre - I believe there are left luggage facilities at the Pisa train station.

With those 3 locations there would be no need for a car!

Enjoy!

Mimar

Once you've traveled between the 5 towns in the Cinque Terre, you've pretty much exhausted the local entertainment. I'd think 2 nights there would suffice. Maybe one more if you're getting over jet-lag.

See more thoughts on your other thread.

jamikins

The only reason to stay 3 nights is in case you get bad weather - then you can enjoy the hiking.

nytraveler

Ancient cities typically have ancient centers with large areas that are for pedestrians only (except delivery vehicles and very limited traffic) a a very complication one-way road system and some roads so narrow that you can use only by having the wheels on both sidewalks.

Driving in Rome can be a challenge - esp if you don;t have a good sense of where you are going. Traffic is busy, most intersections have no lights (chicken system) and there is no place to park except expensive garages. I have driven in Rome (not on y first trip) but it was from the rental office out to the highway - NOT around in the city. And I'm used to driving in NYC (and am quite assertive - sometimes scare cab drivers). Without that you would never make any progress in Rome.

Driving in the countryside in fine - esp for visiting Tuscan hill towns - but you usually leave the car in a lot outside the walls and walk or hop some sort of shuttle into the town.

Oh - and for Venice you need to leave the car at the end of the causeway and hope boats from there.

If you want to do this then rent a car. If not - just take trains.

Mimar

Actually there's a large parking garage at the Venice end of the causeway, the Tronchetto, from which you can walk or take a vaporetto or the Alilaguna or a (water) taxi. There are also more expensive garages in the Piazzale Roma.

BTW, you are warned to leave no valuables in your car when you park at the Tronchetto.