We will be flying to Italy Sun July 5 (coming from London) and need help with which airline to choose. We are going to be staying in the Tuscany region (not sure yet but probably in the Montepulciano area) and since it's a Sun and we need to rent a car we need to fly into a major city (such as Rome or Florence). Our choices are to fly from LHR to FCO on British Airways and rent a car and drive to the Tuscany region or fly Meridiana Airlines to Florence and rent a car there. We would drop off the car the following Sat in Siena and take a train to Rome where we fly out of back to the U.S. Any advice on which airline to choose (I haven't heard much about Meridiana). Thanks.

Other options include

- Easyjet from Luton, Gatwisk, or Bristol non-stop into Pisa.

- BA London (LHR?) into Pisa

- Ryanair into Pisa (major hub), or Perugia

We flew Meridiana twice last May and both times it was pleasantly uneventful. The staff was courteous and the plane was clean and on time.

Thank you for the info. I think Pisa is too far away. Florence would be better so will have to look into Meridiana.

Does anyone know if it would be bad traffic out of FCO to southern Tuscany on a Sun?

Be careful. A train from Siena to Rome takes you first to Florence, then Florence to Rome. About 4 hours. Check and see if that's the case in July 2009.
You can get a direct train from Tuscany to Rome in Arezzo, Orvieto, and Chiusi. Also be certain the rental car @ the town you choose will be open at the time you want to drop off the car. Even when you do get written confirmation, leave plenty of time for "confusion." {like the time we had arrangements to drop the car in Arezzo at noon and in spite of our printed confirmation, the agency was closed!, with no hole in the door to leave the keys...]
You are thinking of staying in Montepulciano -- you may wish to also investigate Montalcino, home of Brunello
When driving to the Chianti region from the airport, exit the Autostrada, soon after you get on it, at "Firenze/Certosa" and follow the Florence-Siena (Firenze-Siena)Raccordo towards Siena.
Our experiences in Italy in July and August is that there is heavy traffic on the weekends, after all millions of tourist go to Italy then.
Visit the videos on the Tuscany Channel of www.WebVisiontaly.com -- noted author Isabella Dusi will guide you through Montalcino

Thank you Remus on the train info - something we definitely need to check into before booking the car rental. Still trying to decide if the drive from Rome to southern Tuscany would be bad on a Sunday or if we should go with Meridiana Airline to Florence and drive from there.

Ok. If Pisa is too far out of the way then so is FCO. Same distance from either to Montepulciano.

Hi vsd,

For your flight from London to Tuscany, I would take a close look at the Ryanair flight from STN to Perugia first mentioned by J62 - that is by far the closest airport to Montepulciano (under 100 km, about an hour's drive) and traffic should be less of an issue, as you won't be using the A1 north-south axis.

Obviously, Ryanair comes with a host of other "peculiarities", especially with regards to checked luggage allowance and pesky surcharges. Also, the flight only runs 4x weekly and departs at the ungodly hour of 7:30 AM.

Otherwise, I would definitely prefer flying to FLR on Meridiana over BA to FCO. Meridiana is fine in my limited experience (1 flight from FCO to Olbia).

I would avoid Rome and its potential for traffic jams on your outbound leg if possible, unless flights are significantly cheaper - this might be the case with Easyjet to CIA, the other Rome airport, which is actually somewhat closer to Tuscany than FCO. BTW, am not sure why you rejected the Pisa option, it is still slightly closer to Montepulciano than FCO and a lot more manageable. All 3 of these airports are about 200km away from the Montepulciano airport.

Finally, I would not drop the car in Siena and embark on a huge odyssey to reach FCO airport, but rather drive there the night BEFORE the flight, drop the car and spend the night at the airport Hilton - in my experience, transatlantic flights leave rather early in the day and I assume you don't want to miss your flight ;-) If you were planning to drop the car and take a train to Rome proper in order to spend some time there prior to returning to the US, then I would advise doing so in Orvieto rather than Siena.

Hope this helps,
Andre

Andre - thanks for your advice. I will look again at Pisa - I was assuming that it was farther away but guess I was wrong. We actualy want to stay in the Montalcino area. We were going to leave the Tuscany area on Sat July 11 since we can only stay in a villa or agriturismo for one week. We fly out of Rome on Tues July 14 (using frequent flier miles). Our plan is to drop the car off somewhere in Tuscany region so I am looking at Arezzo, Orvieto or Chiusi to drop the car and take the train to Rome and spend a couple of days there. Still trying to decide where to stay in Rome (we will have a 10:30 a.m. flight on 7/14). Thanks for all of your help. I definitely need to look at flights to Pisa and Florence (using Meridian airlines).

vsd,
A couple of minor points. You can train from Siena to Rome by way of Chiusi but if you are staying in Southern Tuscany, Chiusi would be closer to drop the car. Chiusi has Hertz, and Europcar near the train station (about three minute walk) and Avis about a five minute drive.

I can not imagine staying at an airport hotel on the last night with Rome only a half hour away. There are car services and taxi to get you to the airport on time for your flight.

I have a large file of places to go in southern Tuscany. It is too large to post but if you e-mail me I will send it to you.

Henry

Henry - thank you for your information. That makes sense to drop the car off in Chiusi and take the train from there. I will email you to get the info that you have for southern Tuscany. Thanks.

vsd: We have traveled by car from Rome to Southern Tuscany from the airport twice on Saturdays. We took the coastal route from FCO (E80 then E78 in Grosetto), thereby avoiding most of the traffic you might encounter if you go back through the city to pick up the A1. On Saturdays in June we didn't encounter much traffic and things were a bit more interesting than on the main autostrada, while still moving along at a good clip.

If you are in the vicinity of Montepulciano and Montalcino (both of which are places I would highly recommend visiting), you might also venture south to Orvieto, about 25 km south of Montepulciano. It has a duomo whose exterior is so ornately beautiful it seems almost unreal, and there's some lovely art (Signorelli) within. The double spiral well (St. Patrick's well I believe) is also worth a visit, the underground tour is fun, and it's a town that's great for strolling. Hotel Duomo is conveniently located, friendly, and reasonably priced. They also managed to stash our car somewhere in this town of seemingly no parking, and I think that the parking added only 10 euro to our bill.

I would certainly agree with Henry that you should avoid staying at the airport, specifically at the Airport Hilton. We made the mistake of staying there one night before a flight after three weeks touring Italy, and it was so bland (like Italy lite...souless food and decor) that it left us with a letdown after a great trip, even if it was undoubtedly convenient. Unless you're leaving very early, I too would suggest staying in Rome. The Alimandi, a great little hotel near the Vatican, has shuttle service to the airport for five euros per person. Their first shuttle leaves at 7:00 A.M., plenty of time for any flights leaving after 9:30.

Have a great trip!