Hey all,
I'm new to this and I was wondering if I could get some help.
My husband and I are going to be traveling to Italy in Late July.
Ideally, this is what I would like to do:
Land in FCO airport pick up car and drive straight to tuscany area or to florence citycentre stay 2 days and go by car from there to venice.
We are debating whether to take the train from rome to florence and then pick up the car there and explore tuscany for the day and leave on day 3 to venice. Or should we just take the car from the airport and drive past rome to Tuscany area and then go to venice.

I was told not to drive through rome to tuscany because of the crazy traffic in the summer, but my husband thinks this is the most easy way to get there. Do I take the train to florence or take the car in rome to florence? Our flight gets in at lunch time, I want to have plently fo time to get to tthe florence area. Any info would be great
Thanks

First of all, driving in Rome isn't any worse than some places in the US (don't let anybody kid you) BUT BUT BUT..in this case if you want simply to go from Rome to Florence and not divert anywhere between teh two then taking the train is a lot simpler IMO and unless you want to explore Tuscany on your own while basing yourselves in Florence you won't need/want a car IN Florence and believe me, a car in Venice is worthless..you end up parking it.

Now, back to that driving in Italy...on the TRAIN you don;t have to worry about crazy drivers, being jet lagged, listening to your husband swearing about the crazy drivers, etc.

You WILL need to get youselves to the main Rome train station (Termini) if you want the fastest services between Rome and Florence..you can get from the airport by train and change or take a taxi to Termini and go from there. If you opt for rail FCO-termini you can buy all your train tickets for the entire trip Rome-Florence and Florence-Venice at once.

You don't want a car in Florence. You can't have a car in Venice. Your trip, as described, is only a few days. You're not seeing Rome at all? Two days in Tuscany?

What's the overall plan here? As described, it doesn't seem to make much sense.

You will neither need nor want a car in the city center of Florence. Chances are non-zero you'd drive into a ZTL (restricted traffic zone) and face a ~90-100 euro fine you'd get in the mail a few mo after your trip. Some people report receiving multiple fines for repeat offenders.

It doesn't make sense to me to get a car at FCO simply to drop it off upon arrival in Florence. So to me your options are:

1. Train from FCO to Rome to Florence upon arrival, pick up a car when you're ready to leave Florence/explore Tuscany, then drop off car upon arrival in Venice - that's what I would recommend

2. Get car at FCO and explore Tuscany for a few days, drop off car at Florence, then train Florence to Venice.

From FCO to Tuscany/Florence you wouldn't actually drive through Rome, but rather take the ring road AROUND Rome. Traffic can be bad at rush hours, but mid day you should be just fine.

Given the limited amount of time, I would simply do Rome, Florence and Venice and travel by train.

IF you're doing a road tip - that is stopping on the way to FLorence, seeing Tuscan towns from Florence, seeing other places onthe way to Venice - then a car makes sense. But, if you're just going for the airport to Florence and Florence to Venice then a train makes much more sense.

I don;t think driving is particularly difficult (don;t understand people who are overfaced) - but it's not smart to do a long drive getting off a plane with no sleep and jetlagged - and it doesn;t make sense to have a car sitting (at rental of $100 per day and parking of $40 per day - for multiple days when you don;t need it.

Wow, Thanks for the reponses.
We are going to spend about 3 weeks in Italy: A general idea of how it's going to look is: land in Rome and go directly to-Florence -venice to pescare-Calabria-Sicily-Naples & Amalfi Coast-Rome

I'm going to be a little clearer with my itineary in terms of time spend at teach location:

Day 1,2,3We arrive in Rome in the afternoon. I want to bypass Rome and go directly to the florence area to spend 2 days there.
(1 full day in the city of flornece and then was thinking of getting a car rental the next day to explore a day trip to see a bit of Tuscany and leave from there to drive to Venice.

Day 4, 5,
Either take the car to Venice and park it or return it. Stay two nights in Venice. Or the debate I guess is to ditch the car in florence and take the train right to Venice.


Day 6-Need A car
Would like to drive down from Venice to Pescare stay the night in Pescare. (Not sure how long of a drive that would be?


Day 7 & 8 Travel by car to Consenza Calabria,...(I think the drive from Pescare is 8 hours but not even sure.We will be staying
2 days

Day 9, 10, 11,12
Drive the car to Sicly and spend 3 days. (This is where I'm wondering if I should drop the car off in Polermo or keep it from when we travel to Naples-Sorrento & Amalfi Coast.

Day 13,14, 15,
We take a ferry from Sicily to naples with car. Take car and drive to Sorrento and leave the car in parking in Sorrent so we can travel to the coast by bus/ferry. (Either that or just get rid of the car when we port in Naples...not sure.

Day 16: IF we kept the car, Pick up car from Sorrento and take the car back to Rome if opted to keep it. Or get back to naples by ferry and take train from naples to rome. Then stay 3 days and 2 nights in rome.

So All in all I guess my dilema
1. Is the plan ok?
2. What areas do I for sure keep a car or worth or not worth keeping the car?
3. Are my driving times ok? Or am I underestimating times in terms of traveling by car in my itineary?


This will be our first time in ITaly and we like a little adventure, but at the same time.. we don't want to be stressed out! Thanks for the first bunch of posts, I'd love more feedback to further inform my final decisions

I find your itinerary much too ambitious. With three weeks I would stick to Rome, then drive around Umbria and Tuscany, leave the car in Florence and then take the train to Venice. If you insist on driving more, take a small tour of the lake region (Lake Como, Lago di Garda, Maggiore).

To whet your appetite:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mksfca/...7623039746640/

Michael is right. you are much too ambitious. We go to Italy for 3 weeks at a time, and stay one week in each lodging and tour from there. We do rent a car for part of the trip, but only when we are not staying in a city, because of the traffic, ZTLs, and parking problems. Plus, the streets in towns are not clearly marked and the names often change after a few blocks, many are very narrow (one car-width with cars parked solidly along each side) You can easily get lost and it's hard to get directions if you don't speak any Italian. Italians LOVE to give directions but they may not be accurate -- someone on SlowTravel.com said, "Ask 10 Italians for directions and you will get 10 different ones. And then you and DH will get into a fight from the tension. Here are some other considerations:

1. Every time you move you lose at least 1/2 day or more in packing, checking out, getting to the new destination, checking in, getting your bearings. It can be more than 1/2 day for some of your trip.

2. You are starting down in Rome, then going way up north and the WAY down south and then to sicily and back!! Too far, too much back-tracking, IMO. Better to start in Venice and work your way down the peninsula. Fly home from Rome.

3. Is there some compelling reason to go to Pescara, Sicily and Calabria? If not, drop them from this trip.

4. Tuscany is a large area, and you can't tour it in one day. At most you can see maybe two towns and the country in between. You could stay a few days in Tuscany and train into Florence for a day, if you want. If you cut out Calabria and Sicily, you will have more time to do this.

5. This is your first trip. Believe me and others on this board: you WILL go back!! then next time you can pick up some of the stuff you left out of this trip. We will be going for about our 15th time since the mid-1980s!

P.S. Another good reason to cut out Calabria and Sicily: It will be beastly hot at the end of july -- beastly!! It will be very hot all over Italy, but down south is the worst.

Wow. The car is the least of your problems; it's your itinerary that needs work. It makes no sense - you're zigzagging all over the place and trying to cram twice as much stuff, at least, into your time frame as you actually have time for. You need to drop a number of places from this list - I'd recommend you begin by forgetting about Pescara, Sicily, and Calabria.

I agee--not a good plan.

Overnight parking in most cities will cost about 30-35€ per day.

I agree with the others. Your itinerary doesn't make sense.

If this is your first trip to Europe, I don't think you understand how tired you will be upon arrival after an overnight flight. Arriving so late into Rome (most flights from the US arrive 7 or 8 am), it would be late afternoon before you would make it to Florence (wait for luggage, stand in rental car line, get lost, etc.).

If you have not booked flights yet, you need to book into Venice and out of Naples or Rome to avoid so much road time/backtracking.

Have you already booked your flights roundtrip to Rome? If not, you might explore booking flights using the "multi-city" option, flying in to Venice and then home from Rome (or a city in Sicily). This would save a lot of travel time and you might narrow you itinerary to better suit your interests.

I wonder whether you've investigated the cost of renting a car for +/- 18 days. I'm guessing it will be something close to $100 a day (with 2 drivers, nav and insurance). kybourbon has pointed out the high overnight parking fees in most places. There are also highway tolls and high fuel costs which, according to the Viamichelin route calculator, will double your rental cost (before the add-ons).

http://www.viamichelin.com/

Thanks for the info,
We both have family roots in Sicily and Calabria so we do want to visit in those two areas. Yes we already booked our flight into Rome FCO so that is not going to change.
I know Venice is suppose to amazing...and I've heard a lot about Tuscany.
If I decide to cut Venice and just explore Florence by train and spend 4 days in the tuscany area ...is there a train that connects Florence to Calabria?
Does that make a difference or does it still seem crazy! I'm starting to think the car rental may be the best for Sicily and Calabria..
What do you think?

Yes you can take the train from Florence to Calabria. It's 8 to 11 hours depending on the train. You are spending so much time traveling. Honestly, I would center on either the north or south of Italy. Yes, you have two weeks, but with your schedule you aren't going to enjoy it.

As for taking cars to Sicily or anywhere there is a ferry involved, you have to make sure your rental car company allows the car on a ferry. Many don't. If you have a problem with the car or an accident and they know you took a ferry, it could be a big problem.

<<Does that make a difference or does it still seem crazy!>>

Still totally crazy.

Agree you are trying to see way too much - and not allowing time for getting from one place to another. I've been to europe more than 70 times - many of them road trips - and we would never attempt this much territory and this many stops. Sicily will take a whike to get to (and will be hot as hell) and really requires a week to itself. Rome needs a minimum of 3 days (4 nights) to see the very basics, florence 2 days (3 nights) plus more time for Tuscany - preferably a week and Venice 3 days (4 nights).

I would first rework the itinerary, then decide on car or train. If you're going to make a lot of stops at smaller towns then a long-term car rental - or lease may make sense But do realize that except for places in the country you typically need to put your car in a garage overnight and it will cost about $40 per night. (Or pick hotels with parking - usually more upscale.)

Just take in the southern part of Italy and drop anything north of Rome if roots are important to you. Car rental should be less than $100 per day. Check out Economy Rentals which turns out to be cheaper than Autoeurope or Kemwel with no deductible if the pick-up and drop-off location is the same.