Florence, Tuscany, Amalfi Itinerary help please!
 

Hello Friends,

My husband and I are planning a trip to Italy for May 1-15. We are planning on flying into Florence, and leaving from Rome. I have several questions that I would really appreciate your feedback on. I should mention that I will be 4 months pregnant at the time.

We're spending two nights in Florence (we've both been there), and then would like to rent a car and head to Tuscany for 6 nights.

1) Can we rent an automatic car? Where is the best place to rent a car to avoid ZTL- downtown florence? We would like to rent ahead of time, anyone have a good link to share? TIA

2) We are planning on using two bases in Tuscany, one in Lucca (3 nights) to visit Lucca, Pisa, Montecanti-terme and the coast, and the other perhaps in Chianti or Siena? Any recommendations on which one is better? We are heading back to Florence after Tuscany.

Our plan is to then take a train from Florence to Naples.

3)From there, what is the best way to get to Sorrento? Can we possibly rent a private transfer ahead of time to stop and tour in pompei on the way? Anyone have a link for that?

4) From Sorrento, we'd like to see different parts of Amalfi. Anyone have any tours they would recommend?

Thanks so much for your feedback!

Orly

Since you already have the car why not just drive to Sorrento?
You could stop in Pompeii if leave early enough and then drop the car in Sorrento.

try autoeurope.com for car rentals...

Thanks. I heard the trip to Sorrento can be dangerous...or that we could end up in a lot of traffic. Is that true?

FYI, Pisa, Montecatini Terme and Lucca all have ZTLs, so make sure you know how you're going to get around them. If these are the only places you want to explore from your Lucca base, you might consider doing your exploring by train and taxi and then picking up the car as you're leaving the area. You could rent the car at the Pisa airport which you can reach from Lucca by train.

Siena also has a ZTL. Keep that in mind as you select your hotel. We've stayed at the Palazzo Ravizza which is inside the ZTL. You can enter the zone briefly to check in and drop or retrieve luggage, and the hotel will report your vehicle info to the police. The Palazzo Ravizza parking lot has easy ingress/egress but be warned that you'll encounter lots of traffic departing and returning to Siena each day.

Where did you want to explore from the second base? If you're staying in the area north of Siena (from Volterra, east to San Gimignano and through Chianti), Chianti would work well. But if you're more interested in southern Tuscany (Montepulciano, Pienza, San Quirico, Montalcino or Orvieto in Umbria), Chianti might be a little far for back-to-back-to-back driving days. My one-way driving limit is about an hour, but that's your call. If you'll be tiring easily, you might not think longer times in the car are a bad idea.

I would keep the car and drive to Sorrento, but I'd leave hanging the idea of a stop at Pompeii. It's 4.5-5 hours of driving from, say, Siena to Pompeii and another 45 minutes to an hour from Pompeii to Sorrento. If you feel up for stopping when you get there, then stop. If not, just keep going and visit Pompeii another day by train. An hour or two at Pompeii would only give you time to see a few sights within the entire excavation area. The first time we visited, we spent an entire day and didn't see everything.

Dangerous how? Like too many cliffs? From the map online, it doesn't look bad.

Thank you for your replies. Our new plan is to rent an automatic car in Florence, still stay in Lucca for 3 days, but then stay at Castello del Serre, a castle about 20 minutes away from Siena for another 3 nights. Rather than going back to Florence, we will keep the rental, drive straight to Sorrento (no stop in Pompeii), and then to Rome for our flight out. Any suggestions for what to do once in Sorrento. We have four days there. TIA!

With four days, you could easily drive to Pompeii - the maps says about 40 minutes from Sorrento.

And a very adventurous drive to Positano isn't that far either.

The drive is easy---Sorrento is not on the Amalfi coast.

Getting to Sorrento is a main road - not a small cliff road.

From Sorrento you can easily visit Pompeii by car, Naples by car or local train, drive down the coast (we found it fun - but it was May and not too crowded) and take a ferry or hydrofoil to Capri for the day.

1. You are most likely to get an automatic at the airport. You can also avoid Florence ZTL by picking up at the airport.

>>>Can we possibly rent a private transfer ahead of time to stop and tour in pompei on the way? Anyone have a link for that?<<<

The City of Naples has set fees for taxis, but the ones I see for Pompeii are round trip Naples/Pompeii with two hour stop in Naples. Not sure what rate would be to stop two hours and then on to somewhere on the coast. Private drivers prices are similar. They don't charge much more than the taxi set fees. You are supposed to ask for set fees before entering the taxi and get a slip with the price (there are regular metered fares also).

http://www.portal.gesac.it/portal/pa...E_TAXI-agg.pdf

If you take the train to Naples, you can change to the train (downstairs in the train station - local Circumvesuviana train) to Pompeii if you don't want to hire a driver. The Pompeii Scavi train station is just across the street from the entrance to the ruins. There is free luggage storage at the entrance.