scarll

A friend and I are traveling to Poppi for a week of cooking classes in a Villa. We fly into Florence. I would like some imput on the best way to travel from Florence to Poppi. We had planned on renting a car at the Florence Airport and driving to Poppi. On our return, we will spend one night in Florence since our flight is very early in the morning on Sunday. We are thinking we should return our rental to the airport on Saturday to avoid the cost of one additional rental day and parking in Florence. If we do this, we would need to take the bus back in to Florence, luggage in tow, and get to our hotel. The other idea was to take the train to Arezzo on our arrival in Florence, rent a car there , and drive to Poppi. This would allow us some "down time" after the long flight befrore having to drive in Italy. My friend has offered to drive, but wants an automatic transmission, which is next to impossibe to find in Arezzo, and costly if you can find it. We do not have our hotel reservations yet for September 25, and are trying to determine where we could stay in Florence depending on how we will travel. I am at a total loss as to what would be the best course of travel for us. Obviously, we would like the least "hassle" in this whole transaction, but cannot determine what that would be. Any advise would be appreciated. THANK YOU!

Jean

There are train and bus services between Arezzo and Poppi on Trasporto Ferroviario Toscana. You'll want to print out the timetables for easier viewing and have a dictionary and map at hand to understand the footnotes and routes.

http://www.trasportoferroviariotosca...vizi_orari.asp

I don't like to drive immediately after landing, so I'd get to Florence and take a Trenitalia train to Arezzo and then a TFT train to Poppi. It looks like you can do a fair amount of exploring on the TFT train route, so I guess whether you "need" to rent a car depends on where you want to go.

If you want hotel recommendations for your night in Florence, tell us your budget.

charnees

My notion is that you should spend the night in Florence when you arrive, and rent your car in town, drive directly out and up to Poppi the next day. it's a lovely drive through the forest, but best not done the arrival day. do the same thing in reverse. Turn your car in in Florence, spend the night, fly out the next day. if you get your car the day after you arrive, then you won't have to extend the rental on your retrun.

Jean

I forgot to add that I'd ask the people at the Poppi villa about the idea I've put forth in case there's some glitch that's not apparent.

Jean

Well, guess what. If you search Florence to Poppi on Trenitalia, they figure out the connections to TFT for you!

http://www.ferroviedellostato.it/homepage_en.html

scarll

Unfortunately we arrive the morning we are to check in to the cooking school, so no chance of spending the first night in Florence. The villa is not in Poppi, but about 2-3 miles outside, so no way to get from the villa into town for a bus. I think our budget for the one night in Florence would be around 100-150 Euro.

Jean

Would the Villa provide transport to/from the train station or do they expect everyone who stays with them to have a car? I suspect the former, but ask them.

zoecat

I suggest renting the car at the airport upon arrival and driving to Poppi. You will want the car for exploring during your week.

I have rented at the airport and returned at the airport many times. It is easy to get on the A1 heading south. After turning right to leave the airport, follow signs to A1 Roma direction. You will pick up a toll ticket right before getting on the A1. When you return the car, there are gas stations to fill up right after you get off of the A1 at the airport exit.

After returning the car at the airport, you can take the bus (buy your ticket on the bus from the driver) into Florence and then a taxi to your hotel. It is pretty straight forward and easy. Or, better yet, take a taxi from the airport directly to your hotel. This will cost you around 25 euro.

You have thousands of hotel options in Florence for your night prior to departure. I recommend having your hotel arrange for your morning taxi to the airport. Arriving at the aiport 1 to 1.5 hours prior to departure will be enough.

Here is a list of hotels/b&b's that should be within your budget-

http://www.davidhotel.it/
http://www.proconsolo.com/
http://www.florencegrandtour.com/index.php
http://www.rentinginitaly.com/villa/bbpiazza/
http://www.touristhouseghiberti.com/eng/01-home.html
http://www.residenzailvillino.com/index.cfm
http://www.hotelporcellino.eu/
http://www.hotelcestelli.com/
http://www.hotelbalcony.com/en/rooms.htm
http://www.hotelsantacroce.it/12,12.html
http://www.sanlorenzohotel.it/rooms.php
http://www.bbrepubblica.com/index.html
http://www.ilsalottodifirenze.it/en/index.php
http://aflorencebedandbreakfast.com/index.html

This one is rated #1 on Trip Advisor and is very nice-
http://www.hoteldavanzati.it/

zoecat

I forgot to add-

I have rented a car and driven from the Florence airport at least 5 times. I haven't experienced problems with jetlag during the drives. Be sure to not drink much if any alcohol on the plane and drink plenty of water. Pick up a bottle of water at the airport to drink while driving. Flying dehydrates you, so drinking plenty of water will be important.

I rent through autoeurope.com or kemwel.com. Since you need an automatic, renting at the airport (as you have found) is your best option.

scarll

Great suggestions for hotels/B&B's Thanks so much. Also, thank you for your comments on car rental.

dbely

It sounds like you will be attending the same cooking school my sisterin law and I are attending..... Our class starts Sat, the 28..... We are taking the option of taking the train to Arezzo and stay there then take the train to Poppi we found a Hotel Hotel LaRentino for $133.56.......the train station is a football field away......hope you have a great time!

raincitygirl

dbely, are you going to Casa Ombuto? I was there last year at the end of September with two friends, it was fantastic. We absolutely loved it and would go back in a heartbeat.

I hope your chef will be Paola, she is really great.

dbely

Yes!!!!! I am so happy to hear you loved it! We aren't sure what to expect, but are really up for the adventure............did you see the need for a rental car?,,,,or did they keep you pretty busy. We thought we would play it by ear and if need one, we will get one.

raincitygirl

We did not have a rental car, we had a car and driver take us to Poppi from Florence (one of the friends and I had two nights there before the school, and the other friend and I had one night there at the end) and he came and picked us up at the end of the week.

I think we were the only ones without a car there. We got a ride down into Poppi one day with Lauretta and a taxi back, we toured the castle and walked around, had coffee, it's a small place so not too much to see.
There are a lot of nice places to go walking near the property, plus the pool is beautiful although it was really too chilly last year to use it, we plunged in once after the hot tub and came right out again. We did have them heat up the hot tub for us a couple of times and it was lovely.

We were fine without the car really, you are pretty busy in the afternoon cooking and in the morning we would go for walks or just relax by the pool.
It really depends on you and what you want to do, the property is quite remote, but we enjoyed that as it was relaxing.
The full day excursion they take you on was amazing, a real highlight of the trip.

On our free day we hired a guide to take us to Cortona and to the Bugatti linen mill in Angiari in her car which was a great day out, although Cortona is awfully touristy and not a place I'd go back to. The villa organized the guide for us and she was really great.
In hindsight we should have spent the day in Arezzo, I liked it a lot.

The other people there who had cars said in hindsight they probably didn't really need them as they really only used them to get to and from the villa and on that one free day.

Tell Paola "hi" from her friend "Paolina" from Vancouver.

dbely

Thank you so much for the information, I will give Paola your message.........it is quite interesting that your names are so similar! I hope you are enjoying your new cooking skills as much as we hope to!

raincitygirl

Yes, I am enjoying my new cooking skills, I learned a lot, it is really fantastic. My family is especially enjoying it!
My name is actually Paula so the same as hers, just different spelling and pronunciation, but she called me Paolina once and I wasn't too keen on it so it became a bit of a joke between us.

I hope you and your sister in law enjoy it as much as we did.

dbely

This is our first time to Italy, so we are trying to be prepared.......was the money exchange issue a problem, did you use cash, or credit card or exchange some money to euros prior to traveling.......I guess my question is, will I need euros immediately after getting off the plane for taxi's ect or do they accept credit cards or even american money........thank you for all of your help!

raincitygirl

dbely, sorry, I am away and this is my first chance to hit the cafe with the free wi-fi.

The money exchange is not a problem. I like to have some euro with me so I have cash for the taxi etc so I don't need to find an ATM right away. So I usually get 100 or 200 euro before I leave home. Sometimes I have it left over from the last trip. Do you have a currency exchange place where you live? Or your bank should be able to get you some. Where I live the currency exchange gives a better rate than my bank.

Once you are there you can use your ATM card to get cash. Check with your bank to see if they are affiliated with any Italian banks. This would save you the transaction fee your bank (not the Italian bank) will charge you for using an ATM that is not theirs. Then of course you will pay the exchange rate as the euro is worth more than the American dollar. On that note, no, don't try to use your American currency in Italy.

I mainly use credit cards to pay for hotels and large purchases and cash for everything else. Some smaller restaurants in Italy take cash only.
You should let your bank and credit card company know where and when you are going so their fraud dept doesn't put a hold on your cards.

Are you flying into Florence? Are you only going to Casa Ombuto or are you going other places as well?

Will you be taking the train to Arezzo from Florence?

If I can help you further I am happy to.

dbely

We are taking the train from Florence to Arezzo. Yhis trip, we are sticking pretty close to Casa Ombuto, hopefully some sit seeing close by, we plan to spend 1 full day in Arezzo and another full day in Florence..........1st time to Italy.

Thank you for all of your information, enjoy your current trip!

hollywoodsc

I'd definitely check with the school regarding transport. It seems a bit silly to rent a car that will sit there all week.
Ask the school if they'll put you in contact with anyone else coming in the same time. Perhaps you could share a ride to the property?