Staying in Tuscany-fly home (Montreal) out of Florence or Rome?
 

First off, I am ever so grateful for all the advice in these forums. Have helped so much with trip planning for our first trip to Italy in June 2017 (I like to plan ahead). I do have a couple last questions...

Travelling from Positano to Tuscany (Bucine) - better to rent vehicle in Salerno and drive or train somewhere North and pick up rental car there?

Travelling home from Tuscany to Montreal - easier to fly out of Florence or Rome and where would be best place to drop off rental car?

Thanks!

In terms of flights, it is possible to fly direct from Rome to Montreal. To me it makes little sense to go via Florence is this is a relatively small airport, so you are going to need to change flights somewhere.

In terms of transport, it is about 460km between Salerno and Bucine. Driving will probably take over 5 hours. If you get a decent deal on a fast train, then you can go Salerno -> Arezzo in about the same time (change at Florence) but presumably much less stress.

You might try out of Pisa, there are more flights than Florence.
If you can get a direct flight from Rome to Montreal at a competitive price I would go with that myself. You may get a good flight BA Pisa to London >>Montreal

Trains to Arezzo take about 6 hours. Avis and budget share an office right across the street from the station. Arezzo to the Termini station in Rome takes around 3.

I think it is categorically better to fly direct to your home airport than to fly from a regional airport and make the connection elsewhere.

In order to make a [invented example] 11 AM flight out of CDG, you are going to have to be at the regional airport at an ungodly early hour. Think flying home from Venice. Ugh.

If you fly out of Rome at 11 AM, you can arrive the day or evening before and get to the airport for checkin at 9, a civilized hour.

Re Trains from Salerno to Arezzo. As with most Italian railway jornies, it is a balance between speed and cost.

Looking at next week, you can make the journey in 5 hours. Salerno to Florence on the Frecciarossa takes just over 3.5 hours, 20 minutes to change and then another hour to Arezzo - the cheapest fare at the moment is around €60. At a guess your petrol and tolls driving from Salerno will cost more than that.

Looking as far ahead as june this year, you can do the Salerno -> Rome -> Arezzo journey on slower trains (total time 5:46) for €18

With Arezzo - Rome airport taking 3-3.5 hours by train, for less than €25, I'd be inclined to use this as well, and both pick up and drop off the car at Arezzo.

Excellent tips. This was just what I was looking for. Arezzo sounds like a great plan!!