Italy August/Sept
 

Hi there fodorites. I need feedback on a tentative itinery for my 12 day honeymoon to Italy from Aug 24 - Sept 4. We are looking at flying in to Venice from the Netherlands for a brief look around for 2 days. From there, hiring a car and driving around Tuscany/Umbria for 6 days (2/3 days in Florence). Drop off the car somewhere in southern tuscany and train it to Rome for the last 4 days, where we have a confirmed flight back home to Australia on the 5th Sept.

The reason for hiring a car is that I am worried about the time I have chosen for my trip. I understand most italians are on holidays and tourists are a plenty during August so I thought it might be nice to get away for a few days in less crowded areas of Italy, eg. Tuscany/Umbria. Can anyone shed some light on my situation. I consider myself a good driver, however this is my first trip overseas.

The other itinery I have in mind is the standard Venice-Florence-Rome circuit via train. Would this be better considering the time we will be in Italy. We would like to see the famous sites but would also like to get off the beaten track for a while, hence Tuscany/Umbria by car.

Please help!

Good thinking. Why not take the car as far as the outskirts of Rome? Or to the FCO airport if you have trouble finding a drop-off point? Then it's a train into Rome, piece of cake.

WK

I agree with the above it is really necessary to have a car to see Tuscany. You could drop it off in Florence as you don't need a car there and then train to Rome. Also we rented a car with GPS. This was really handy, although getting lost can be fun.

Thanks for that weasel. That is probably a better way of doing it. So how about car travel from Venice to Tuscany/Umbria? Where to first? We would have about 4 days worth of driving.

guinny, I wouldn't describe Tuscany as "less crowded", apart from maybe some places in the south of the region. Umbria, yes, but the greater part of Tuscany is among the most crowded regions of Italy. So if you want to get away from the crowds (between your "crowded" stays in Venice and Florence), you might better stick to Umbria, a region that boasts by far enough to entertain you for the 3/4 days you have. Even less crowded, in fact, not crowded at all, would be the Marche and Abruzzo regions.