N. Italy transportation help please.
 

Though I may have run out of time, here's my question. Next month my wife, 9yr old and I are traveling to Italy for 3 weeks. Itinerary is......

Florence 3 nts
Siena 2 nts
Lerici 3nts
Lake Como 3 nts
Vicenza 5nts
Venice 2nts
Bologna 1nt
and then back to Florence.

How should we get around? I dont mind driving if that is the thing to do. Or a combo of train, and and car? Please make suggestions for us. FYI we're only doing carry-ons. Thus not to much luggage.

Thank You!!!

Hmmm..I am not familiar with Lerici. My lonely planet book says you can train to La Spezia and take a short 10km bus ride into Lerici. I know you can train or bus from Florence to Siena...Then train through Milan to Como, Vicenza shld be on the train line and I know you want to train the Venice/Bologna/Florence section. Would only consider a car for the Siena/Lerici portion. Have fun!

Thank you e roz. Guess I have to start figuring out trains. Is this something that I can and should do while stateside? Someone please advise and push me in the right direction on how to do so. Thank You!!!

There a reason you want to stay in Vicenza for 5 nights? I'd stay perhaps 2 while adding 2 nights to Venice and 1 to Bologna. And you can travel to all those places by train (or bus in the case of Lerici and around Lake Como).

Thanks RAR.......Regarding Vicenza and the 5 nights.......we have family there
(actually a bit north of there) that we are staying with during that time. My wife's 1st cousins who I've yet to meet. Should be interesting to say the least.

Question is.....do I need to take care of these train/bus schedules and reservations while still at home? If so....how?

Thank You!

You don't need to make reservations before you get to Italy.

You can book tickets at any station - as well as many travel agencies - in Italy. A couple of days in advance is enough, - or you could book them all in one go.

You can find schedules online if you want them before you go:-
www.trenitalia.it

Hope this helps ...

Steve

I would only worry about reserving a seat in advance on overnight trains. On regular trains during the day I have never found a train to be full (meaning I can't reserve a seat). Only on longer trips (say Milan-Rome) would I really bother with getting the ticket a day in advance.

Thank you ever-so-much! I'll try to find "other" transportation from Siena to Lerici and then train-it from there.

In other words.......I'll not be renting an auto. Wish us luck!

Thanks again!

Good luck. It's really quite easy.. just use the big yellow ticket machines, they are great.

While you will be ok without a car in Florence, Venice, and Bologna, I think that not having one while in Siena, Como, and Vicenza may penalize your trip.

Siena is very nice, but it does not really need more that 1 full day to visit. While there, you should try to visit nearby towns as San Gimignao, Volterra, etc. While it is true that there are buses that you can take, they are not so frequent as you may wish and you may end up waisting a lot of time going from place to place.

Same is true for Como (you cannot really visit the lake without a car) and Vicenza (unless you can borrow one from your family).

Silvia

Before you commit, compare the price of train tickets to rental of a car. And, of course, taxis from depot to hotel.

Look at the smaller size cars. Even the smallest will serve if you hold the line on luggage, as you say you are. You do not have to keep the same car the whole time. Cars can be useless once you reach a destination and very handy in between. Drop the family and bags at the hotel, then go drop the car.

Consider the logistics of bag drags with your nine year old in tow.