Milan ,Malpensa to Portovenere by car, any thoughts?
 

I was going to take a train to La Spezia,then Taxi to Portovenere but as its just the Spouse and I ,I thought it might be fun to hire a convertible (and a beret) and drive there, any thoughts ? Also anyone heard of Hotel Della Baia Le
Grazie in Portovenere. I might post that as a seperate question ! :)

Some car rental agencies won't let you rent for just a day, so unless you are planning to use the car to visit other places, it's not worth the expense.

However, if you want to visit Pisa, Lucca, Portofino, Carrara and other places, it's a lot of fun to have a car in Italy. It is not fun to drive a car to Cinque Terre.

Rather than pay the premium for a convertible, pay it for an automatic transmission. (And berets are for France!)

Last time we were in Italy, I drove a van around for a week and whilst the driving was fun, it will be much more fun with just the two of us !! I can drive almost anything and as we live in a hilly part of the world, twists and turns don't worry me ! We plan to hire it for 6 days and eventually drop it off in Firenze. I may skip the parisian beret fashion statement and go for a Wallabies baseball cap... backwards of course ! ;)

Marko,
If you stay all week long in Portovenere, you can rely on the bus. If you want to sightsee in the region Carrara, Lucca, Pisa, Viareggio,..., then you'll definitely need a car. Portovenere is a very nice little town. You can visit it in half a day and easily "do nothing" for a day or two. You can go to CT by boat or hike along the main coastal trail.

A drive from Milan to Portovenere, then three days there, then we drive to Just south of Siena for a conference ( somewhere called Borgo La Bagnaia), I want a car there to escape as required !!;) We are going to stay just outside of Portovenere at La Grazie.

Just booked a renault megane convertible, have the route planned and we are both looking forward to it !

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