Transportation In Italy
 

Hello Everyone!

I'm getting married in June and have booked our honeymoon in Italy (largely with suggestions from this board - THANK YOU). Now I need one more piece of advise. Were traveling from Naples to Rome to Tuscany to Venice. Our plan was to take the train from Naples to Rome. Should we take the train from Rome to say Florence and pick up a rental car there, or should we rent the car in Rome? Same question for Venice...should we drop the car in Florence and train to venice? Also, should we book all trains and rental cars before we leave?

Thank you so much for your help!~
Beth

I have heard that it is cheaper to book online with a rental company before leaving than to wait and do it there. I haven't been to Venice, but I would definitly not want to drive in Rome.

Sorry...that was for car rental...as for trains, we just went to each train station that morning and booked our tickets. That was easy, too. It might be more difficult in June, though. We were there in April and it wasn't that crowded yet.

i would not, personally, waste time or money on a rental car just to get myself from Florence to Venice only to get there so you can immediately turn it in. I would definitely take the train between these two.

Are you flying into Naples or into Rome? If you are going to be in the country for a couple or more days prior to rail travel I would wait and book all the tickets upon arrival.

I would definitely book the rental car in advance.

Just my opinion and others will probably differ.

Oh...I'm sorry we're staying in Chianti while in Tuscany...not Florence. I've heard renting a car is the best way to get around Tuscany....so we'd have the car for the 5 day's in Tuscany.

Hi skiv,

I suggest taking the train from Rome to Orvieto (1hr) or Chiusi (1:30 hr) and picking up the car there.

Drop the car in Venice.

Have a nice visit.

((I))

I've heard that if you book a rental car from abroad it's cheaper, not least because you won't be charged sales tax (IVA as high as 20%). The drive from Rome to Tuscany off the autostrada is a great one and since you're staying in Chianti you can bypass Florence at that stage - certainly do that by car. The drive from Florence to Venice is less interesting (unless you stop in Ravenna and San Apollinare in Classe) but if it adds little or nothing to the cost of your transport then that's one less train ticket to line up for. If the only train is the one taking you from Venice back to Rome, then you could book that in advance on-line since you're not likely to want to change it. For local trains you just pick up the ticket the day before or even right beforehand.

Beth:

Why do you need a car? At the cities you listed a car is a big liability...traffic limited zones, parking hard to find and expensive....

Why not stay with the train /bus / (taxi when you have to) for your whole trip?

If you want to do some side trips a car might be useful but not in the cities.

We recently trainned from venice - florence - rome. Great transportation, very frequent trains between all locations. WE even switched our advance reservation an hour before the train left. I highly recommend that mode of transport in Italy.