Annej

We are planning a trip to Italy in September, 2013. We were there a few years ago and visited Rome and the Amalfi Coast and did it on our own and had a wonderful time. Even the planning was fun. We took a private car service and everything went well, although ultra expensive. We are thinking of taking a tour because it is easier to travel around, but don't want to be told where and when to go. Can anyone recommend a tour that would just transport us or should we try to do it on our own again. My husband is not happy about getting a car because he doesn't think he would be comfortable driving since we don't understand the language. We want to go to Rome, Florence and Venice with a side trip to Padua. Any suggestions on how we should do this?

mamcalice

A Rome, Florence, Venice trip with a side trip to Padua would be very easy to do on your own. The trains in Italy are great. Fly into Venice and out of Rome and train in between cities.

StCirq

Language is not necessarily a barrier to driving, as long as you know the Italian names of the places you are headed to, plus maybe a half-dozen terms like senso unico and ZTL that you could pick up in less than a day with a glance at an Italian or European road atlas. That said, a trip to three cities where a car would be useless or a liability should not involve driving, as train service is easy and mostly reliable.

This is a simple trip to plan on your own. There is a wealth of information on exactly this trip right here in Fodors, and of course in guidebooks. You'll need to familiarize yourself with distances and train routes (get a good map and read here and elsewhere). No need for private drivers or private tours - you can join walking and other tours in the chosen cities. Suggest you start reading the wealth of information right here on Fodors, then branch out to other resources, and come back when you have a basic itinerary outlines and ask for specifics.

elcon

Hi Annej, I traveled solo to Rome, Flrence and Venice about 3 years ago. The train system is easy to navigate and comfortable to use. I speak very limited Italian and had no trouble finding my way. It is much cheaper than a tour and you will be free to spend your time exactly as you wish. As StCirq said, walking tours are abundant and you can pre plan or join one when you get there. Have fun!

greg

A car for this type of trip has issues, but not the language. The issue are the parking as well as ZTL zone mentioned above where can rack up breathtaking traffic fines in a short time. This type of trip benefits from multi-city air trip, fly-in Venice, fly-out from Rome or vice versa. For most people into Venice and out of Rome is more preferable as airport to city transport is more of a hassle in Venice and combined with very early departures, it is more of a hassle making arrangement to fly out of Venice in the morning. Start collecting empirical data trend on airfares by signing up for fare alerts such as www.kayak.com for all possible airport combinations and dates. The fare alert cannot do multi-city, but you get approximate fare trend by using round trip to Rome on one alert and round trip to Venice on another alert. The multi-city price is similar to these prices.

If you are museum person, there are several in each city you need to reserve ahead.

adrienne

Since you're going to 4 cities you should take the train. It's so easy. A car is a handicap in cities as you'll pay for the rental and for parking while you sightsee. You can join walking tours or hire private guides to take you where you want to go.

bardo1

I concur with both the above.

This trip is <b>very</b> simple and requires no car. Fly into Venice and home from Rome.

You can get some of train tickets ahead of time on-line.

The day trip to Padua is especially simple, either by train (one leaves Venice every 5-10 minutes) or even taxi.

Dennis_Callan

It helps to plan your trip with some research -- reading the guidebooks, of course, and watching travel videos. You can find more than 100 free movies about those cities here: http://www.tourvideos.com/Italy-travel-videos.html GoogleEarth is another great way to visualize what to expect.

pctraveler

I agree with what you have been told, but while my wife and I have made several trips similar to what you are proposing (Florence for a week twice, Amalfi/Rome/Florence/Milan, Florence/CT/Venice, Venice/Bologna/Florence/Rome, Milan/Bellagio/Florence, etc.). While we have done all of our intra-city trips by train, we have on several occasions hired a private driver. You can cover a lot of territory by having someone drive you to different sites on a daily basis. On most of our trips, there has been a few cities that we wanted to see, but I don't really want to get involved with the hassle of trying to park, etc.

We have done day trips from Florence, for example, to the nearby American cemetary, Monteriggioni (don't miss Il Pozzo), Volterra, and San Gimignano. On another trip we had a driver take us to Lucca and Pisa and Siena. From Amalfi, we have had drivers take us to Pompeii and then wait to take us to the Naples train station.

I am not trying to provide a travelog, but we have found it to be enjoyable having someone else take us to the cities we wanted to visit without having to consult maps.

Now you would have to take another tack if you want to see Umbria, etc., and if we ever decide to do that, maybe we will get a car.

charnees

If you are just going to those cities, a car is useless. And an unnecessary expense because you can't drive in the cities for various reasons (Venice is obvious, and the others have those ZTL's which are zones of traffic limitation.).

Annej

Thank you for your replies. The problem with trains is lugging the suitcases. Is that a problem for anyone? Can anyone recommend a good car service or should we decide that when we are there. Thanks again.

HappyTrvlr

Whether or not you carry on your luggage on your flights, pack as if you will. Once you arrive in Italy, moving about will be so much easier with smaller, lighter weight luggage especially in Venice and on the trains. You'll have more room if you book First Class on tne trains. This is a very easy trip to book.

greg

How big are the suitcases? How many of them are you carrying? If you pack them as if you are going on a cruise, you will have problems moving around.

But you don't have to.

Unless you are planning to do activities requiring gears, e.g. climbing, scuba diving, etc, it is possible to reduce your luggage to just a carry-on luggage each. Those with luggage size issues often carry large number of similar outfits (inefficiency) or outfits that they might need once.

adrienne

Suitcases are not a problem for me but I don't overpack. My rule is that I have to be able to lift the bag over my head. Where are you "lugging" these suitcases from and to?

You're going to Venice where there is no vehicle traffic. A car service will not be helpful.

If you're going to use a car service I would book ahead. I've used this company for airport transports.

http://www.limoservicerome.com/

Tesana

to give good advise on OP's question: how many total days are you planning for your holiday? what are you into: wine? culture , art, churches, history,, scenery, food?

you can certainly do the trip without belonging to a tour group. , but i would recommned a hiring a personal tour guide one day in Florence, and possibly Roma and Venezia. but that depends on what you are interested in.

also, you can always fly from FCO to Venice via Alitalia for around 160/p/p flight is about 1hr.
if you are not comfortable with driving, then don't do it is my adivse.

may_may

I agree with the above posts. The headache will be parking a car and figuring out the no car zones in the cities. All cities are very easy to get between by train, and train times are plentiful between those cities. Stay at a centrally located hotel in each city and the sites will be walkable to or by metro. One thing I don't like about tours aside from being herded around and told how long we have at any given place, is that most tourist hotels lack charm or not in good locations. I love to find small, centrally located, local boutique-type hotels to stay.

Annej

thank you all for your replies. I am not good at packing and always take too many clothes and shoes. My husband is a lot better. I am going to try to pack lightly, I know it would make this trip more enjoyable. I am definitely not taking a tour, that is a decision that is positive now, I will be back to get suggestions on hotels as may_may said that are charming, small and centrally located. Thanks again.

azzure

Please take a look at the packages offered by Costco Travel. They arrange your hotel and train transportation between cities (airfare too, if you want it). The hotels are great, and you are free to tour the cities on your own. We did Rome-Florence-Venice-Paris last November.

Annej

Thank you Azzure, I will do that.

suze

On your own. Rome/Venice/Florence is an easy trip to plan.