Rooster99

My wife and I are celebrating our 10 year wedding anniversary with a 2 week trip to Italy, starting in Venice, then travelling to Florence, then through Tuscany visiting wineries, then to Rome. We’re flying into Venice Oct 10, and out of Rome Oct 24 spending about 3 days in each place. We would prefer not to rent a car, especially when touring the wineries! Any guidance on the best way to travel between these locations, how long we should allow, and especially how to travel through Tuscany, would be much appreciated.

TIA - R.

ellenem

Between Venice and Florence and Florence and Rome, it's easy to take the train. here's a link to the offical website:

http://www.trenitalia.com/en/index.html

You can visit some cities from Florence easily by bus or train, such as Pisa, Siena, and San Gimignano. To visit wineries in the countryside without a car, you might splurge on a private driver. Many here, including me, have had a great time with Luca at hillsandroads.com. He will pick you up in Florence drive you all over--you plan or he will.

http://www.hillsandroads.com/

ira

Hi R,

> We would prefer not to rent a car, especially when touring the wineries!<

How do you expect to get to the wineries?

How are you planning to go from small village to small village in Tuscany?

Bite the bullet and rent a car. Otherwise, you will have to rent a limo.

WebVisionItaly

Ira always has good advice!

Here is some video about the hill towns of Tuscany; San Gimignano, Volterra, Montalcino, Chiusi, with more coming all the time.

http://www.webvisionitaly.com/category.php?id=286

As Ira suggests, in Tuscany get a car and then plan to stay somewhere where you'll be wine tasting.

Were you planning to go wine tasting hopping? Then you will need that Limo Ira suggests ;-)

Note the script in this video, "if you want to enjoy the second bottle then you must get a room."

http://www.webvisionitaly.com/catego...p;ref_item=345

If it were me, I would leave Venice by car stopping in Padua, Ferrara, Bologna on my way to Tuscany. Here's some video about Padua:

http://www.webvisionitaly.com/catego...p;ref_item=393

Do check out the Scovegni Chapel:

http://www.webvisionitaly.com/catego...p;ref_item=397

littlehouse

bookmarking

lupinelady

Your pacing sounds wonderful and i think you can do without a car except for Tuscany. There i would rent a car for a few days to really explore.
The other option is to base in Florence and take day trips via train.
The landscape and back roads are
wonderful and stopping along the way
in villages is what Tuscany is all about. The Cadogan guide on this area is excellent and the Michelin map specifically for Tuscany area is excellent. I work with Serendipity Traveler and research and plan our custom itineraries. If you have the proper resources you will be fine.
Enjoy your celebration!

supertuscan

Sounds like a great trip! I would think about renting a car to see Tuscany, but you won't need (or want) one in the cities. We've rented cars twice in Tuscany and had absolutely no problems. Our last trip we rented from Hertz and took the NeverLost GPS option. It found its way to even the smallest towns and locations.

We found the best way to see the Tuscan wineries is to go on a wine tour with a guide. You will see and learn more, have a designated drive and have special access to wineries. We had a fabulous time with Rebecca Christophersen at tuscan-wine-tours.com. Check her out.

Have a great trip and let me know if you have any other questions.

RKogel

We took a similar trip in July. My wife, 3 kids and two mothers. Because of our size we rented a driver between each city.

Belt Limousine. If not for our mother's we would have likely traveled by car or perhaps train.

Travel within the cities for us was by taxi or guide. All very easy.

Our guide in Rome was great! Not cheap, but well worth it. If you would like her name, let me know. I will have to get it from my wife.

Our hotel in Venice was great. Mid priced. Great location. Clean. Residence Corte Grimani.

One thing we enjoyed on our trip from Florence to Rome was Orvieto. Wished we had spent a quiet night there vs. all nights in the "big" cities.

You will need downtime and the hills of Tuscany will be a great place. Fattoria di Maiano in Fiesole would be a nice place for dinner.