ITALY - What area is renting a car a plus - or necessity?
 

In Rome it's easy to get around by walking, bus or train, but what about using one location in Tuscany as a home-base and getting to Sienna, Florence by bus or train for day trips or overnight excursions?

Traveling light is always a challenge for me - and I'll be in italy for 6-wks -from early Sept to mid Oct. I plan on bringing one rolling suitcase and a shoulder bag or backpack for my laptop and other things I need access to. I envy the woman who can take a trip like this with nothing more than a carry-on bag, but I just can't imagine pulling it off!

If I'm willing to spend some extra time getting from place to place - and it seems to me that getting on and off a bus might be easier with luggage? Any thoughts on that?

If I take the train from Rome to Naples, and another train to the Amalfi Coast (thinking Postina) will I still need transportation to get around once I get there- and would this be the leg of the journey to rent a car?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

In Tuscany you really need a car to get around if you are wanting to see a number of towns. (You can get from one place to another by pubic transit - but it can be time-consuming and buses can run rarely (only a couple of itmes a day).

For the Amalfi coast a car is fine as long as it isn;t midsummer and you are staying at a hotel with parking (rare). You cant take the train as far as Naples and switch to a local train from there to Sorrento. After that your choices are bus (slow, mobbed in the summer) or ferry - or getting a cab.

The suitcase I understand totally, every trip I say I am not going to do it this time, and my DH makes an attempt to make me struggle with it all and ends up helping. We are going to Italy in September and I swear this time. As for the car I would want to have one in Tuscany for sure, the other places not so much. We drove to Amalfi and I thought the traveling was not as arduous as lead to believe. Slow going most of the time but it so beautiful I don't think one has too much of a problem with that, unless you are the driver of course. Are you going alone? I would want the car in Tuscany. The rest I think you could get with train. My thoughts (if you are alone) is get the suitcase to the door of the train and you can bet some American or Aussie will heave it up there for you.

i think that solo travel is different in this respect - it's no fun trying to drive and navigate, AND sightseeing at the same time is virtually impossible.

so I would approach it slightly differently, and look at renting an apartment in somewhere like Florence, and using that as a base for making day trips or even over-night trips, to places I wanted to go to.

I say Florence, but anywhere that is a good train hub would be appropriate.

if you like this idea, I'd try to find somewhere within walking distance of the station.

I'm thinking like annhig.

I wouldn't want to be alone and driving.

I would hate having a car in Positano. Instead, I would train to Naples, as suggested, train to Sorrento, and either stay there or continue by boat. You can also train all the way to Salerno, and then continue by boat. And there is a bus from Salerno to Amalfi, where you can then go onward by boat. If you ask me, the key word for the Amalfi Coast is BOAT. I get sick in both the bus and with a driver in this area. Boats are prettier, less crowded, way less sickening and run often.

Just to be sure, I might put this part of the trip earlier, because there will be a better chance of all the boats running all the time in September.

Now for Tuscany: you can base yourself in Florence or Siena if you want to daytrip by public transport. Florence is great for trains and Siena has some good bus service to Rome/Florence.

THEN I would consider drivers or small van tours. If you can save enough by not renting a car, a few days with a driver/guide should be affordable.

Now you really aren't staying at more than four places if you don't have to (and you could swing three with excellent daytrips) so lifting your luggage about becomes slightly less of a problem.

You can also choose accomodations that might be willing to store your things for a day or two, or make use of the left luggage at train stations. Be aware that there can be lines at the checked luggage storage at train stations.

Me, I'd figure out how to do this without a car. I hate to drive, and I really hate to drive alone.

But if you want to drive, and don't mind doing it alone, I would pick Tuscany as my driving area.

Oh, one more thing: a few years ago friends of mine went to Italy for a month. They were in a modern apartment in Rome (Trastevere) and went on ALL their over nighters and day trips from there.

tfl - nice ideas. I particularly like the idea of renting a small apartment as a home base for the whole time, and radiating out from there. how nice to come back to a familiar neighbourhood, a cafe where i am known, a bar where I can slip in and have a drink, a laundrette,...

this would work best if you stayed in your apartment for a week or so getting to know the neighbourhood and your neighbours, before you went away. then it will feel like home when you come back.

and I should say that I like driving, and do a lot of driving by myself. but that is in my home country where I speak the language, recognise place names, know my way around, even if I don't know the town I'm in.

Thanks all! This is very helpful.

I'm traveling alone and really wasn't keen on the idea of driving.

So far my plan is fly from NYC to Venice on Sept 1st, staying a week in Venice (enough time to do some day trips?) then on the 8th taking the train to this vineyard in the Sienna region where I'll be working for 3-weeks (5-hours a day, 6 days a week for room and mealsThey are very flexible and can arrange hours so that I have 2 free days in a row for overnight trips (buses run to Siena, Montepuician, Florence)

I'm 55+ and I've been work on getting in shape for the Vineyard work, like I'm preparing for a marathon! I just hope when my days off come around I'm not to beat to do anything. Wonder if as anti-'tour' as I am, I should consider a Tuscany so I can get a better feel of the region. Would like to extend my trips longer each year, and maybe I can find that perfect home base.

After 1-wk Venice and 3 in Tuscany, it's 1-week in Rome - and then south for warmer weather, since it will be October.


I'm not spending any money of a room or food for the 3-wks at the vineyard, found inexpensive B+Bs in Venice + Rome (under $90 a nite/no tax) so maybe I'm pushing it, with the Amalfi Coast. I have a feeling I'm going to book a place that's isolated on a cliff and be stuck there for the duration.
If anyone knows of a well-located home base town/B+B, I'd love suggestions.

ANY AND ALL SUGGESTIONS APPRECIATED!!!!

hi Urbantalk - good for you.

you should be so fit by the end of the vineyard stay that the hills in the Amalfi will pose no problems.

why not head for Sorrento and stay in the centre? no chance of being isolated then.

however, you might like to think about reversing your Amalfi and Rome stays as things tend to shut down in the Amalfi after the end of September, and if you are in Rome at the end, you will be in the right place for flying home.