gopack

My husband and I will be going on a 5 night cruise in early June that leaves from Nice and ends in Rome. We would like to do something for about 3 days before the cruise starts, preferably in Italy since we toured Provence by car 2 years ago and stayed in the Nice area at that time. After the cruise, we plan on staying in Rome for 4 days and flying back to Dallas from there.

One idea is to tour Tuscany by car. Is that awfully similar to touring Provence? Or are there just so many more things to do like wineries, etc.? Is that easily done if we fly into Rome?

We were looking at staying on Lake Como for the precruise but getting there just seems somewhat complicated for the time we have.

Any other ideas for a 3 or 4 day precruise trip if we were to fly into Rome, keeping in mind that we have to get to Nice for the cruise?? Thanks for your help!

Ginny

ira

Hi g,

> going on a 5 night cruise in early June that leaves from Nice and ends in Rome. We would like to do something for about 3 days before the cruise starts, preferably in Italy .....<

Check into Genoa, Portofino, Santa Margherita Liguria, the Cinque Terre.

Will you be going to Nice by car or train?

gopack

ira,

Our cruise starts in Nice, goes to St. Tropez, Portofino, Livorno, Elba Island and ends in Rome. So some of those ideas you mentioned, we will see on the cruise. So I was thinking of driving around Tuscany for 2 or 3 days before the cruise and then either taking a train or flying over to Nice to get to the ship.

How does this plan sound so far? We fly into and out of Rome from Dallas (flying on American airlines) .

Once we land at Rome's airport, we either rent a car and drive up to Tuscany, or we fly up to Pisa or Siena and then rent a car. Which would be faster? I am thinking of staying 3 nights in the Chianti area or close to that area. (At least that is what I am thinking so far. I need to do some more research.)

We tour around for 2 or 3 days and then we need to get to Nice. Should we fly from Pisa or Florence or Siena? Or should we take a train? Any recommendations? How long would the train take?

I am thinking we would hire a tour guide for one day in Tuscany to take us to some wineries, etc. Maybe visit Siena one day. One day see other small villages, We will leave Florence for a future trip as we will be staying in Rome for 4 days after the cruise. That will be enough city time for us.

Thanks for any recomendations as far as trains, planes and automobiles.

Dukey

You want to start off IN Italy and then go over to Nice for the cruise BACK to Italy?

OK...but my first inclination was to advise doing the Italian touring part AFTER the cruise...but

Assuming you cannot fly into Milan which would be a bit easier in terms of getting to Lake Como...if you do fly into Rome I would take the train elsewhere to rent the car (Siena doesn't really have an airport).

If you decide to drive over to Nice you may be lloking at a hefty drop charge to leave the car in another country.

The train to Nice is going to take several hours but THAT depends on where in Italy you finally decide to leave from.

Keep the questions coming...

ira

Hi Go,

>How does this plan sound so far?

Quite truthfully, not the way I would visit Italy.

However, I think that it would be a lot easier on you if you flew into Nice the day before the cruise and spent your extra time in Italy afterward.

You could choose to fly out of Florence FLR, Pisa PSA or Rome.

If you really have to fly RT Rome, I suggest visiting the Cinque Terre for a couple of nights and taking the train to Nice.

The 10:40 train from La Spezia will get you to Nice at 16:01.

You won't need a car.

gopack

I realize that this plan of going to Italy for a few days, then taking a cruise out of Nice, and then doing Rome afterward is a little strange.

We originally were planning on doing the cruise first and then seeing Italy afterward. But due to some scheduling conflicts, we cannot stay after the cruise for more than 4 or 5 days and we will spend that time in Rome. We do have some time available precruise, so we want to do something then as well.

Ira, I will take a look at the Cinque Terre area and taking the train to Nice from La Spezia. How are the trains - pretty comfortable? It looks like a good 8 hour ride.


If we still want to see Tuscany, What would be the fastest/easiest way to get from the Rome airport (FCO) up into the Chianti area? Is there a train from FCO that goes up to Siena? Or would it go into Rome and then up to Siena? Would driving a car from FCO be fairly easy and how long would it take? Or should we book a flight up to Pisa or Florence? Just looking for some insight.

Thanks again!

Ginny

ripit

I would do the following:

Day 1 - arrive in Rome. Pick up rental car. Drive to Siena, stopping in one or two (or three) hill towns of Umbria and/or Tuscany on along the way (e.g. Civita, Orvieto, Montepulchiano, Chuisi, Pienza, Montalcino, etc.) Overnight in Siena 2 nights.

Day 2 - Depending on interests, visit hill towns near Siena (e.g. San Gimignano) or drive Chianti Classico wine route.

Day 3 - Drop the car off in the morning in Florence. Spend the day in Florence. Catch the 23:30 Night train to Nice which arrives in Nice around 9:30 the next day.

Alternatively, if you think you may be too jet lagged for the 3+ hr drive from Rome to Siena or if you don't have much interest in stopping at any of the towns along the way, you can catch the Eurostar from to Florence, which takes about 1 hr 40 min. Pick up and drop off the car in Florence.

ira

Hi G,

>It looks like a good 8 hour ride.

It's about 5:30 hr, including change of trains at Genoa.

Check schedules at www.trenitalia.com.

annhig

Hi, go pack -

Ops have been tactfully suggesting that perhaps you shouldn't try to fit in itay before your trip. I'm gonig to be less tactful - spend your time in france!

i cannot believe that in the three days available you couldn't fill your time - how about the camargue, the mountains above Nice, Avignon, Arles the pont du Gard ?? there must be loads of places you haven't seen.

Stu dudley has some great ideas if you click on one of his threads.

Your Italy idea is just too complicated, IMO. Remember the slowtravel motto - "less is more".

[all right, I just made that up!]

gopack

ripit,

Thanks for your suggestions. I do think that driving up to Siena area would be a bit much for us after the long flight so I would prefer to take a train or fly. You suggested we take the Eurostar to Florence but does it leave from Rome (city) or from the Rome airport??

ira,

A 5 1/2 hour train from La Spezia to Nice is not bad at all. I will check into that.

annhig,

We spent about 9 days in the Provence and Luberon areas 2 years ago with a car. We loved it!! Visited Pont du Gard, Arles, St. Paul, Eze, and many other places. We may end up going back to see what we missed, since it would be the easiest thing to do. I just want to check out my options for now. (BTW, we used Stu's Provence travelogues as a guide. He is great!)

Thanks everyone for your help.

Ginny

ripit

Ginny,

The Eurostar leaves from Roma Termini (city station), however the local train runs between the airport and Termini regularly and takes about 1/2 hr.

gopack

ripit,

Thanks for the info on the train from Rome to Florence.

I was just looking a map again, and maybe it isn't that big of a deal for us to drive up toward Siena from the airport (FCO). Instead of taking the major highway, I would probably just drive up along the coast and then cut over toward Siena a little way up. (I don't have the map in front of me.)

How long would it take to get to Siena without stopping? (I am sure we would stop along the way but I am just curious how long the drive would be.) And how are the roads that go along the coastline north of Civitavecchia?? Are they fairly easy to drive on? (Not super narrow like in Ireland?)

Or we could just fly from FCO into Pisa, rent a car there and then head over to Chianti area/Siena.

Thanks for any more input or suggestions!!

Ginny

PS We would probably fly from Pisa into Nice for the cruise if there are some decent flights.