Looking at Travel to Italy, arriving in Rome 8 days in late Sept.
My brave husband is ok to drive.
Any issues acquiring a rental?
Looking for some easy sightseeing, hiking.
Prefer to stay in smaller quaint town-what about Val DOrcia?
I appreciate all recommendations.
Thank you,
Beverly H

I see Rome is far from Tuscany.
Looking for what makes sense for as direct as possible from US.

Rome is not terribly far from Tuscany by train or car, so it really just depends on the best flight options for your location and budget. Tuscany has two airports: Florence and Pisa.

For a car rental, you need an IDP from AAA ($20). You need to familiarize yourself with parking regulations and ZTL. Otherwise, driving in rural Tuscany is a breeze.

Val d'Orcia would be a fine choice, but there are tons of good options in Tuscany.
https://www.discovertuscany.com/valdorcia/
Val d'Orcia - UNESCO World Heritage Sites - Travel ideas

Val d'Orcia would be a great base. See attached

Stu Dudley

The Val d'Orcia area is, generally, halfway between the airports in Pisa and Rome. If you can fly into Florence without connections, it is the closest to the Val d'Orcia. Almost anywhere else in Tuscany besides the Val d'Orcia would be closer to Pisa/Florence.

There are "smaller quaint towns" throughout Tuscany. If you have just a week, you want to chose a location that is central to the sightseeing you want to do so as not to spend hours in the car every day driving to and fro. Or, pick a lodging situation that appeals to you, and then figure out what sightseeing you could do within a reasonable distance. For me, my limit is about an hour's driving from the lodging location.

This is a good website for Tuscany day hike info:

https://www.komoot.com/guide/769/hiking-in-tuscany

There are also some nice hikes in Umbria if you wanted to split your nights between two locations:

https://www.komoot.com/discover/Umbr...&distance=16.1

A car rental pickup at an airport shouldn't be a problem, but you will need an International Driver's Permit (available thru AAA) and need to learn all about ZTLs (zona traffico limitato) that exist in nearly every Italian city and town.

https://www.italybeyondtheobvious.co...with-ztl-zones

Many Thanks for Valuable Info.
Flights are tricky to discern. Im looking for least amount of connections form Charlotte, NC.
Thought Charlotte had a direct to Rome, but dont see it now. If not, then Florence makes more sense.

Florence is a tiny airport and there are no non-stop flights from the US. FLR is the smallest airport I think I've ever been to - it doesn't even have a taxiway beside the runway...
The car rental center is a very short shuttle bus ride away, or if you are starting yoru stay in Florence you can take tram, bus, or taxi for the ~15min ride into the city.

You can get connecting flights from various European hubs. We've connected on Lufthansa via either Munich or Frankfurt.

Pisa is a larger airport and may have non-stop flights from the US, and more connection options in Europe.

Thanks for your insights, can be overwhelming.

Looking at Flights best from Charlotte to go thru Rome since only 1 stop either in ATL or JFK on Delta

If your preference is Delta you could also look at one-stop on Delta code-share or SkyTeam partner through Paris....

That could be Delta or AirFrance metal CLT or JFK to Paris, then connecting on AirFrance metal...

Personally I'd stay away from Alitalia give their upcoming changes. They are going out of business mid October) to be superceded by another, smaller new airline....
I would not want to have any dependency on Alitalia if this were my trip...

CLT being an AA hub your non-AA / OneWorld options non-stop to Europe may be limited.

Valuable ZTL info.
Now I know why we received $250 fine on last trip.

Personally Id stay away form AA.

Oh how I love the Val d'Orcia. I love all of Italy and love Tuscany, which is beautiful, but to me, one of the most gorgeous areas is the Val d'orcia. Many on this Forum have posted driving itineraries for the Val d-Orcia, I bet if you searched you would find some. Happy and safe travels.

Thanks for Alitalia insights.
Skipping to United.

Be sure to read Stu Dudley's files on Tuscany.

Others know this area better than I, but when going to Italy we (on west coast USA) try to go direct from SFO to any European hub and then to area of interest. For us it's often KLM/Air France as they have a direct flight to Amsterdam/Paris and we go from there. On United/partners it might be to Frankfurt and then to Italy from there. With 8 days I'd be tempted to fly into Florence, enjoy the city a couple of days, then pick up a car for touring.

You may know it already but rome2rio website is great to plan getting around. A caution about rental cars -- some problems with supply these days due to pandemic.