Venice to Siena - where to rent car
 

Any suggestions on how we should get from Venice to an agriturismo about 5 miles outside of Siena where we will base for several days? We want a car in Tuscany, but aren't sure where we should pick it up, i.e. in Venice, Sienna or somewhere inbetween. At this point, we're not planning a stop in Florence. Thanks.

For a similar excursion, we picked up our rental car at Piazzale Roma in Venice. It was about 10:00am and the traffic was no problem at all. After one wrong turn, we made it to the autostrada and then on into Emilia-Romagna on the secondary roads. Wonderful countryside!

Hi L,

Piazzale Roma

So better to rent a car in Venice and drive rather than take the train to Siena (or thereabouts) and rent a car there? Thanks for your input.

If your objective is to end up with a car, I think it's make more sense to skip the middle step of all that's involved with the train - getting to the station, buying tickets, waiting and so on. If it was a more complicated city like Rome or Florence, then I might advise differently - but not necessarily - but Venice is pretty much a straight shot out. And once on the back roads there's so much to ooh! and aah! over. You have the freedom to stop or go back if you want to explore a little more in depth.
Mapquest says the distance is 199 miles, 3 hrs. Unless you have a really tight schedule, that should give you plenty of time to stop along the way.

I second (third) Piazzale Roma. We've dropped and picked up cars there several times. It's very convenient. (That is if the agent doesn't screw up! Last time we ended up with a Jaguar due to a snafu.)

Hi l,

>So better to rent a car in Venice and drive rather than take the train to Siena (or thereabouts) ...

You can't get Venice/Sienna by train without going into Florence.

See www.trenitalia.com for schedules.

((I))

toni - any particular place(s) you recommend to stop?

i agree pick up the car in Piazzale Roma but do not underestimate the driving time . we did this two years ago and took the main roads and i would say it took 5-6 hrs due to road construction, rest stops etc and we took the main highway, the back roads will take much longer lower speed limits, trucks going below the speed limit, road construction, and rest stops so give yourself plenty of time.

Job816,

Just to give you an idea of how long it takes to get from point A (Venice) to, in our case, Point B (Lucca), this was our itinerary on our first trip to Italy during an August. We left Venice with a rental car about 10:00 am, taking secondary roads almost all the way. On S10 we visited Montagnana, our first vision of a walled town - so evocative, then to Mantova for lunch in the English Pub (the best panini ever) - wish now that we had scheduled more time to explore, then south at Parma onto S62 to Cassio, southwest of Parma to visit the ancestral village, passing through Berceto, then A12 ending up in Lucca by late afternoon.

This year we plan to again visit Venice but head to Tuscany then Rome by coming in from the east via Ferrara, Urbino, Assisi, and Perugia, exploring along the way.

If you have never visited Italy, I think the hardest thing to grasp is how relatively small the country is - by comparison to the States. Somewhere, I read that the country is about 600 miles top to toe. That's the distance from Atlanta to DC.

As I mentioned earlier, I wish we had known then what we know now about what's along the way - we would have not missed the chance to see more of Mantova or Berceto. My suggestion, if you're planning to drive, is to get out a map, plot a route and do searches on the internet for the various cities, towns, villages that are on the way. The info is definitely out there; you'll know
what appeals to you.