I am going to be traveling to Umbria in October with 9 women. We have rented a Villa for a week. I am wondering what will be the best mode of transportation while we are there. Should we rent cars or rely on local transportation?

SJ - Car hire gives you the freedom and flexibilty to get off the beaten track. If you can share the costs, why not?

If you choose public transport, you can find train timetables on:

www.trenitalia it
www.fcu.it (Perugia-Todi private line)

For buses, these might be useful:

www.spoletina.it (Spoleto area)
www.apm.it (Perugia area)

Hope this helps ...

Steve

Hi SJ,

For 10 of you, I suggest 2 vans.

Try www.novarentacar.com and www.autoeurope.com

I must disagree with Rex on the vans. You need a van in Umbria like a fish needs a bicycle. The secondary roads are narrow and winding, and driving a van into a small town would be difficult as well. I suggest renting two five-passenger cars.

If you plan to share driving responsibilities, be aware that each additional driver may add the equivalent of about 6 USD/day to your rental.

I agree with Betsy. Two cars, just large enough to hold 5 comfortably. This also gives you the option of going separate directions some days.

Ditto on the two cars. 5 of us are meeting in Italy in mid-May and we have 2 cars rented through Autoeurope for our week in Umbria (we are renting two cars because we want maximum flexibility). We are picking them up in Perugia at the station, but there are other pick-up sites available, just check the Autoeurope website.

re: vans. After meeting relatives in Italy on a previous trip and using the van they had rented for driving through Tuscany etc, I would stick to cars. If anyone is prone to carsickness, vans are not the greatest choice.

Where in Umbria are you staying?