Is It Crazy to Drive Out of Rome?
 

would it be too crazy to pick up our rental car when we land in Rome and drive to Foligno or Spoletto where we are looking to spend the night before heading to Le Marche?
What city is easiest in and out of or is taking the train a simpler idea?

From FCO the drive is easy to Umbria.

The real factor is your jet lag condition. I would spend the nite in Orvieto--about 1.5 hours from FCO via the A-12 and Viterbo routing to avoid all of Rome. Look at Locanda Rosati west of Orvieto about 9 km.

If you pick the car up at the airport you are already near the highway and don't have to deal with any traffic in the city of Rome. As Bob said, how do you do with jetlag. My husband is excellent at sleeping on flights to Europe so we don't have a problem that way. On the other hand, I'm not that good at sleeping so I have to navigate and not drive. If neither of you are good at sleeping then I would take the train to Orvieto or wherever, spend the night and pick the car up there.

I've done it and haven't found it crazy at all. As Bob says, the drive is easy from Fiumicino to Umbria. The roads are good and well-marked. But like Ann's husband, I sleep well on long flights. It's a lot more hassle to change trains in Rome before heading north.

What time do you land?

Although I agree it's not a difficult drive from Fiumicino, depending on the arrival time I'd consider taking the train to Spoleto or Foligno and picking up the car there either that day or the next morning. (We don't drive in the dark unless we're familiar with route and destination.) The car rental office in Foligno is near the train station. In Spoleto, it's a short taxi ride away.

If you choose to drive from Fiumicino, I can recommend the Hotel San Luca in Spoleto. It's located at the bottom of the town, just a couple of turns off the main road. We had no trouble finding free parking on the street near the hotel, but they do have garage parking for an overnight fee.

http://www.hotelsanluca.com/index_eng.php

The airport isn;t IN the city and driving from the airport to someplace within an hour or so makes sense. I wouldn;t want to drive much more than that after a semi-sleeping night of not much sleep and jet lag.

If you're going to have a car for most of the trip you probably have the best option of getting the type of car you want at the airport.

"Is It Crazy to Drive Out of Rome?"

In my opinion, yes. Whenever one is fortunate enough to be in Rome, one should stay there.

Drive up to Tarquinia (it's closer than Orvieto or Viterbo from the airport), spend the night there, and then visit the Etruscan museum and tombs before continuing on your way.

Jean: I totally agree with you on not driving at night. We rented a villa in Tuscany and the people we were meeting in Rome were delayed. We didn't get to Tuscany until dark. Try to find this place in the pitch dark, all the twists and turns, no signs marking a little dirt driveway, the house way...way off the road in the vineyard and 4 very tired, hungry people. Believe it or not we found it. I never want to do that again :-)

Thanks all....we arrive at Fiumincino at 9am so plenty of time to drive for an hour or so. We have to be in Le Marche the next day kind of near Urbino.

A few final thoughts:

Sounds like Cornelius has not been to Rome before. IMO, getting to the FCO train, getting tkts AND CANCELLING THEM, finding the tkt office at Termini (unless you had been told you could buy them at FCO, wh no one here has mentioned) getting your connecting train, getting from a train to one's accomodation = way more trouble than grabbing a car and driving off.

Caveats:
Road repairs on the Gran Raccordo Annulare: we have been sorely delayed twice, by the program to refit and expand the GRA. Don't know the state of the project today but in the past the W side of Rome has been most affected.

There are pleasant and non-stressful alternatives to the A 1, for those who do not like motorways. For example, the Via Cassia -- free, 4 lane, almost empty when we have used it to head to S Tuscany. There must be others, heading NE.

As soon as we were out of city traffic we relaxed....

(If cornelius has already made up his mind, these comments may be redundant.)

No we have never been to Rome before and no we have not made up our mind yet but taking the train out of Rome sounds like a hassle to me but just checked car rental prices and $100 more picking up in Rome compared to picking up in Foligno which is on our way. would the price of train tiks and tolls balance out the price?

Tedgale exaggerated the problems taking the train. Upon arrivial at Fiumicino, go to the in-airport train ticket office and buy a ticket to Foligno. You will change trains in Rome's main station, Stazione Termini. Maybe allow a little extra time between trains to find your way to the right track (binario). Here's a link with great detail about traveling by train in Italy: www.slowtrav.com/italy/trains/index.htm

Caveat: there are car rental offices at the Foligno station, but they're not open 24/7 as are airport car rentals.

I also think the train description is a little exaggerated. Driving in a foreign country takes attention and can be stressful too.

I think the comparative costs favor the train (but not by much) unless your group is more than two people in which case driving wins.

Viamichelin estimates 3.60 euros in tolls and 19.27 euros in petrol in addition to your $100 airport pick-up fee. 2nd class on the fastest train option is 29 euros per person; 36 euros in 1st class; 2.5 hour journey. Regional train would take 10-15 minutes longer and cost a little less.

I myself have no problem with taking the train but I am not a neophyte. The things I take for granted, a first time traveller cannot.

I like to get my train tkts in advance on Trenitalia, to save the 15 or 30%. What if you are at FCO with your Leonardo Express ticket in hand and 5 minutes before departure, the train to Rome is cancelled? -- as happened to me just 3 weeks ago at FCO.

You may miss your train at Termini, unless you have allowed a margin for delays. Now, I may know the re-booking policy for the different Trenitalia tkt types but a newbie might not.

What if you get to your Termini train ("reservations mandatory") and find your seat does not EXIST, because your reservation is for Carriage 8 and the train has only 7 carriages? -- as happened to me 2 weeks ago in Rome.

Or if you find there is some unforeseen industrial action/ work stoppage that disrupts national train service, as I also witnessed exactly 2 weeks ago in Florence SMN station?

Riding the train is stress-free, in my experience. Catching the train and making connections between trains is not always stress-free -- at least not for me.

If the OP is coming from the US, he can't buy tickets ahead of time on the Trenitalia web site; American credit cards are not accepted. Plus if you are arriving in Rome after a long flight, the exact arrival time can vary. Delays happen. I'd never buy a ticket for a specific train immediately after such a flight. And if you leave a safe interval, your flight may arrive early and you end up hanging around for a long time.

So I wait to buy my train ticket after I arrive.

Yes, things (strikes, cancellations, breakdowns, once in our case a suicide on the tracks) can happen. That's one of the "charms" of traveling in Italy. But most likely nothing will happen. Plus at Fiumicino and Stazione Termini, there's plenty of help.

So question to put out there. I'm in the same boat where I'm deciding to drive out of the same airport to a destination in Tuscany area or near the city centre of florence. Do I take a train from the airport to florence and then pick up a car in florence or do I just take the car from Rome and drive? Our flight gets in at 12:10pm. Again, it could be delayed too, so how much time would you reccommend it would take to drive from Rome to Florence area? Will it be easy to drive? Or will it be crazy traffic passing Rome to Florence during July?

travelingtoitaly, where is your destination, a Tuscan town or the center of Florence? Big difference. What day of the week? That could also make a difference in the advice.

FYI, it's a 3-4 hour drive from the Fiumicino airport to Florence.

It is crazy enough to drive there...

I would never do it, when I was there I saw car sorpassing on the left and right onto the Big Ring highway around Rome and in the city the traffic is too much.

I don't know how it is Foligno, Spoletto or Marche but if is like Rome is better take a bus. In Milano was different, looks like they were respecting street regulation more than in Rome so maybe is only a Rome problem.