My wife & I want to train to C.T. from Florence, Via La Spezia where we want to leave our "main luggage". Upon return to La Spezia we want to rent a car and drive to Piza & Tuscany for a week. Is this a viable travel plan? Are there lockers at the train station in La Spezia? I have found Hertz in La Spezia and plan to drop the car off in Orevito and then train to Rome.

Any comments on this approach are welcomed. I originally planned to take the return train to Piza, but many Fodorites complained about the poor rental car facilities and access.

Thanks, Wayne

Have you checked this route on a map?

To take a train from CT to Florence, you will probably pass through Pisa. Leaving your luggage in La Spezia, you would have to backtrack through a good amount of Tuscany via Pisa, just to turn around and visit the same places you trained past.

Since Florence is in Tuscany and east of Pisa, it would make sense to bring your luggage with you to Florence and pick up your rental car there.

though there is i believe the odd direct LaSpezia-Venice train each day that does not go via Pisa or Florence or Genoa vut via Parma

check www.trenitalia.com to see if still so

The OP never mentioned Venice. After Tuscany, they are headed to Rome.

Oops don't know where i got that! mixing up threads i guess sorry

one wonders why they can't carry all their luggage in the car?

the cost of left luggage in Italy is by every six hours or so then more? maybe a larger car would make more sense

I'm trying to understand if the OP is doing Florence as a day trip--if yes, then it still doesn't make sense to do what the OP describes.

If the OP jsut lans to visit Florence for the day, then bring the luggage along to Florence and check in in the baggage deposit at the train station. Get the luggage at the end of the day before picking up the car (either at a Florence rental office or a Florence airport rental office).

f the OP just plans to visit Florence for the day, . . .

I guess I wasn't clear. We start in Florence and want to go to C.T by train and then get a rental car when finished hiking in C.T for three days. No use having a rental car sit for three days. I thought I could go to C.T via La Spezia (found several trains) then connect to the local train which goes to Levanto through C.T. Am I wrong? The intent was to connect back through La Spezia, pick up main luggage left there while back packing, rent a car and drive to Pisa. Originally I was going to go on from La Spezia to Pisa via train a rent a car in Pisa, until I read on this forum that it was difficult to rent a car at the Pisa station.

Please advise, sorry for the confusion.

Wayne

Check out this page on VirtualTourist:

http://forum.virtualtourist.com/disc...iscussion.html

Some there suggest taking your luggage up to the Cinque Terre - maybe you will be camping there and won't have a hotel to leave it in?

Trains go from La Spezia up through the C.T. about once an hour or so, stopping in all the towns. More trains go through without stopping at them all and stop in Levanto and probably Monterosso. I took a train from Pisa direct to Levanto without a change in La Spezia - there are several of those a day, if for some reason you can choose avoid dropping your luggage in La Spezia.

I assume train station luggage places will allow storage for a week or so?

Wellison,

We just returned from Italy 2 nights ago. I would HIGHLY recommend NOT renting a car from Hertz in La Spezia. We did that exactly and had to taxi (E10) to the office from the train station where we were given a car that was scratched and banged up very badly (so bad, it was like a joke). It was dirty (inside and out) with ashes and smelled like someone was just smoking in it. On top of that, it had bald tires. Since it is a satellite office of Hertz, it was the only car they had. We had to drive to Pisa (luckily it was on the route to Tuscany) to exchange it.

It was quite shocking at the condition of this car. I took photos to send to Hertz. I can understand scratches and a ding or two, but this was unbelievable.

Not only that, this rental location closed at noon on Saturday, so we had to make sure to be at the office by a specified time.

We had excellent service at both La Spezia and Pisa (with the exception that this was the only car offered).

Good luck.

mark