Road trip from Barcelona to Rome (1st time in Europe)
 

Hi everyone,

My fiancee and I are planning a road trip from Barcelona to Rome next spring and need a few tips on the itinerary. We plan on leaving Toronto at night on May 19th and returning on June 19th, which leaves us with 31 days in Europe. We prefer driving instead of travelling via train, bus or plane in Europe because it will allow us to visit small towns along the way and canvass the region as we’re considering moving there in the next few years.

We have plenty of experience doing road trips in North/South America, and according to our itinerary, we'd be driving 14 out of the 31 days with an average drive time of 3 hours, which sounds reasonable. We do have a few requirements, including spending at least a day in Verona, a day in San Biagio di Callalta and 2-3 days in Marciano della Chiana as we have family in those cities. I’d also like to spend a day in Monte Carlo to watch the Formula 1 race and stop by Maranello and Imola as I’m a huge auto racing fan. We also squeezed Aix-en-Provence as my fiancee would like to visit the city should we have enough time.

I found other threads on similar trips with several hints, and incorporated some of that into our itinerary. He’s what it currently looks like:

Day 0 - Fly from Toronto to Barcelona overnight
Day 1 - Arrive in Barcelona before noon
Day 2 - Barcelona
Day 3 - Drive to Carcassone (3hr), sleep around Carcassone
Day 4 - Drive to Aix-en-Provence (3hr), sleep in Aix-en-Provence
Day 5 - Aix-en-Provence
Day 6 - Drive to Monte Carlo (2.5hr), sleep in Monte Carlo
Day 7 - Monte Carlo
Day 8 - Drive to Riomaggiore (3.5hr), sleep in Riomaggiore
Day 9 - Riomaggiore (with possible day trips to other towns in Cinque Terre)
Day 10 - Riomaggiore (with possible day trips to other towns in Cinque Terre)
Day 11 - Drive to Verona with a stop in Maranello (3hr), sleep in Verona
Day 12 - Verona
Day 13 - Drive to San Biagio di Callalta (1.5 hr), sleep in San Biagio di Callalta
Day 14 - Drive to Venice (30min), sleep in Venice
Day 15 - Venice
Day 16 - Drive to Imola (3hr), sleep in Imola
Day 17 - Drive to San Marino (1.5hr), sleep in San Marino
Day 18 - Drive to Florence (3hr), sleep in Florence
Day 19 - Florence
Day 20 - Florence
Day 21 - Drive to San Gimignano passing by Pisa (3hr), sleep in San Gimignano
Day 22 - San Gimignano
Day 23 - Drive to Marciano della Chiana passing by Siena (1.5h), sleep in Marciano della Chiana
Day 24 - Marciano della Chiana
Day 25 - Marciano della Chiana
Day 26 - Marciano della Chiana (perhaps a day trip to Arezzo)
Day 27 - Drive to Rome with stops in Orte/Orvieto (3hr), sleep in Rome
Day 28 - Rome
Day 29 - Rome
Day 30 - Rome
Day 31 - Leave to Toronto

From your experience, is this itinerary doable? If necessary, we’re considering removing Carcassone, Riomaggiore or San Gimignano as we feel that we’d be passing by several other unique cities along the way.

Cheers :)

I haven't been to Italy so can't comment on all that, but your first part of your itinerary is technically do-able but not enjoyable.

I gather you don't want to spend any time in Barcelona, it's just the best place for you to start? So the first day is just kind of getting over jet lag, etc.? okay, if you don't want to spend time there and want to concentrate on Italy. I really like Barcelona though so would spend at least 2-3 days there myself.

Second, I wouldn't go to the trouble of going to Carcassonne and then only one overnight in Aix. I'd skip Carcassone and just go to Aix for those 2 days.
Carcassonne is interesting but not enough to disrupt your short time in France like that, as far as I'm concerned.

Have you done road trips like this before? It is pretty hectic since you are moving around so much, but that may be your MO.

The first thing you should to is to speak with someone at Autoeurope using the toll free number and ask about drop-off fees, which can be very high.

Also read this about driving in Italy, restrictions driving into cities:

http://driventoit.blogspot.com.au/

Also your driving times are underestimated. E.g., San Marino to Florence viamichelin estimates 3:45 with only :52 on the autostrada. On secondary roads time estimates can be way off.

You have checked one way drop off fees for the trip?

I think Christina has given you some good advice. You don't need a car in Barcelona so arrange to pick it up before leaving for France.

Do you qualify to move to Europe to work and live in a few years time? I.e. have EU citizenship or have an employer which can offer a transfer and sort out visas for you?

have you thought about the cost of doing a one-way car rental? the drop off fee could be horrendous.

Another point is that you say that you like to explore small towns but you seem to be visiting only big ones, especially before you get to Italy. a way to see more [and spend less time in the car] is to stay in a place for a few days, using it as a hub, before moving on to the next centre. Even when we were young and doing trips like this, we quickly learnt that if you are travelling on every other day you soon get tired. you honestly see a lot more if you try to pack less in.

And what a shame to be visiting Barcelona and the area without really seeing it.

Personally, as you seem to be spending so little time there, I would skip the french bit of the trip entirely, and fly from Barcelona to Venice. you could use the extra days seeing Barcelona. you will not need a car to do that and then you could pick up your car when you leave Venice. Then proceed via Verona, Pisa [aren't you even going to stop to see the Tower? the Campo dei Miracoli is very fine] to the CT, Florence, etc.etc.

i think we were all posting the same thing at the same time - great minds!

Just about all (probably ALL) your drive times are definitely under-estimated. And cars are useless in just about all cities and many towns. Cars are great for some places . . . Provence, Tuscany etc. But a huge pain in Florence, or Venice or Rome.

I'd try to change your plans by taking a train into France, rent a car for a week, then train into Italy and rent another car for a couple of weeks, then finish up w/ Venice and on to Rome by train.

By the way, for reasons included above, you don't want to drive into Rome unless you are staying someplace out of the town center. Consider dumping the car in Orvieto [train to Rome 1:10 as I recall]. The Hotel Picchio near the station stores luggage for a fee. The town itself is the most interesting one in the area.

Any hotel in Italy you need to confirm access and parking.

<<Personally, as you seem to be spending so little time there, I would skip the french bit of the trip entirely, and fly from Barcelona to Venice.>>

That's a pretty good idea, also. I didn't thik of the car rental problem with other countries, so that would solve that. So would going to France by train, then train to Italy.

You could actually do that fairly well as the train from Barcelona goes to Montpellier, I believe, and then you'd transfer to get to Marseille/Aix. There is one direct train from Barcelona to Aix, actually (leaves afternoon 4:17 pm), but it does stop in Perpignan, Narbonne, MOntpellier, Avignon and then to Aix. So I'm sure you could get that same train into France, and get off at Narbonne (7 pm) or Montpellier (8 pm) for a day, then short train to Aix the next. It stops at Perpignan also, first (which is where I went from Barcelona for a few days, then I went to Paris).

Then you'd take the train from Aix to Nice, where you have to get on the train that goes to Italy. They might enjoy Nice for a couple days, also.

Christine, the train is a good idea too!

The problem is that moving on so often, it's hardly worth bothering with. IMHO.

Hi everyone,

Thanks for your awesome tips! That helps a lot as we’re considering our options. I’ll go through a few points and consider a few adjustments based on your feedback. Hopefully in a few days I’ll post a revised schedule incorporating some changes after I go through that with my fiancee.

- Christina:
We thought about starting in Barcelona as we love its unique architecture and would like to experience it live. It would also fit nicely with our west-east itinerary. Based on your feedback though, I am considering spending an additional day there and skipping Carcassone, or perhaps removing Barcelona altogether and leaving it for a future trip as 1 1/2 day there should not be enough. If we keep Barcelona and add an extra day, I’ll look into the train option to Aix-en-Provence, then Nice, although we like the flexibility of the car at least for this initial trip of ours through southern Europe.

RonZ:
I’ll reach out to Autoeurope and get some pricing information. I was able to get a quote with Hertz for around CAD $2000, which sounded reasonable for 25 days (picking it up prior to leaving Barcelona and dropping it off as soon as we arrive in Rome). I planned on dropping the car off as soon as we get to Rome, but dropping the car in Orvieto might work - I’ll look into that. We are also budgeting for gas, but I haven’t included tolls, so I’ll redo the math with them.

hetismij2:
I got a few different quotes for car rental, including drop off fees. They range between CAD $2000 to circa CAD $5000. I found the CAD $2000 quote by Hertz reasonable for 25 days, although I’m a bit concerned there might be additional fees that would get included last minute. I have Italian and my fiancee has Portuguese citizenship, so we would be able to live and work there as long as we find jobs, which would be another discussion altogether.

annhig:
I found some drop off fees to be extremely high, but Hertz quoted me a compact car for 25 days for around CAD $2000 including drop off and additional fees, however, I’m used to having additional fees added last minute here in North America so that would concern me a bit. I’d love to visit and explore small towns, but decided to stay on bigger ones because I don’t know exactly which ones to pick as I’ve never been there. That’s partially why we’d rather drive than take a bus or train - so we can make stops along the way and explore smaller country roads and towns instead or taking major highways all the time. I am considering adding an extra day in Barcelona and perhaps removing Carcassone, so that would give me an additional day in Barcelona. The idea of using some cities as hubs is interesting and I will give it some thought in the coming days. I’ll also consider the idea of skipping the southern French part of the trip, although I’d really want to catch the Formula 1 race in Monaco as we’d be passing by that region during the race and that’s one of my passions. With regards to Pisa, we plan on doing Florence - Pisa - San Gimignano, leaving Florence in the morning, spending the day in Pisa (including seeing the tower) and arriving in San Gimignano in the early evening.

janisj:
I will recalculate drive times, especially as we plan on stopping by small towns along the way. I don’t plan on driving in Rome, Florence or Venice, so I’d probably park the car and take transit while visiting major cities, but it would still be slightly cheaper to keep the car parked during a day or so instead of dropping it off and renting again for the next leg of the trip as weekly/monthly rates are a lot lower than daily rates, unless I take the train during longer legs (1-2 weeks), which I’ll look into.

Overall, thanks a lot for your great responses. We have experience doing road trips in the Americas but have never been to Europe (which is a shame as we both have European background) so any tip helps lots. I will work through some adjustments and reply with an updated schedule in a few days. Cheers :)

ok, here's another idea - based on the fact that you will have the freedom of a car at such a good price throughout [and Hertz should be able to tell you up front if there will be any add ons when you pick it up].

Don't book accommodation in advance.

You are young, there are just two of you, and you will be traveling in June. This doesn't apply in Barcelona, Venice or Rome, but apart from that, you could easily "wing it", which would enable you to stay in smaller places that you like the look of as you go along.

one problem with large cities in Italy [apart from the time and effort it takes to get into and out of them] is the ZTL - the limited traffic zone - where you will get heavily fined should you stray into it. the smaller towns are much easier to get into and out of and if you are not locked into bookings in bigger places you can stay or go as you please.

Hotel sites like booking.com cost you nothing, allow changes very easily, and cancellations with no fee a couple of days ahead. Also notify your bank of your trip and the auto rental deposit.

From your Day 11 forward, see if this order of destinations works for you

!. Leave Riomaggiore and head to Pisa/San Gimignano
2. next, Marciano della Chiana
3. next: Maranello or Imola or San Marino (whichever order you prefer)
4. Drive to Venice, drop off the car -- stay in Venice but see Verona as a day trip by train
5. take the train to Florence (with Arezzo as a day trip by train)
6. Rome ( do an overnight in Orvieto en route if you want)

You mention the Monte Carlo Formula 1 as a must see. Have you looked into logistics and costs? This race in particular is mobbed due to the limited locale and the only person I know who went had to get tickets/space far in advance and at enormous cost.

I've been to the Monaco Gran Prix (twice, many years apart) and while it was easier years ago -- the logistics/experience now - let's just say you can't just drop by if you want to see much or want grandstand seats. The (city/public) parking fills totally hours in advance. And if you take the train in from Nice there are massive queues.

A lot has been covered so far, but I could not see any mention of that to drive in Spain you need an IDP.

Re: Formula 1 in Monaco. I would suggest going for Thursday Practice. I did that this year and it was no problem at all. I stayed in a lovely Airbnb room in the hills above Ventimiglia, and then drove and parked at the Menton Garavan train station and took the train to Monaco.

Here's a link to a short report about my trip: http://www.parisonadime.com/monaco-grand-prix/

And this is where I stayed: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/3959703

I think for the rest of your trip you have just too many stops and you're missing a lot in between. I suggest some longer stops, especially in small towns so that you can use your car to explore instead of just getting from place to place.

If your fiancee wants to see Aix I'd suggest a quick stop, but I was just there last week and 2 hours was enough for me. I'd instead look for a more charming Provencal village, not a biggish city with high-end shops.

If you want to keep Barcelona, I would suggest spending more time there. Otherwise it's just not worth the bother for one day IMO. After Barcelona I'd suggest a stop in the Roses/Cadaques area and a visit to the Salvador Dali house. You could take a train into France and rent a car there, and then head back to Cadaques. Make sure to drive in the hills above these towns, it beautiful.

My next stop would be to see Peyrepertuse - one of the Cathar Castles. http://www.chateau-peyrepertuse.com/

After this I'd pick a Provencal village to visit, with just a short stop in AIx Personally I'd skip Aix.) I just got back from Cotignac and loved it. Here's a link to my blog post about it: http://www.parisonadime.com/blog/201...otignac-france

I also think that $2,000 Can is a LOT to pay for a 25 day car rental. My rental car in Nice - during F1 week was $15 US per day. You can probably save a lot if you pick up and drop off in France and then pick up a new car across the border in Italy.

>>Re: Formula 1 in Monaco. I would suggest going for Thursday Practice.<<

That's a good idea . . .

Just for another opinion/experience.

I have been to Aix twice, first for a day, then for three days. The Cours Mirabeau, wide with huge Plane trees, fountains and magical lighting at night is considered by some to be one of the most beautiful streets in France. It is a wonderful contrast to the warren of narrow streets that make up the old town.

You really must wander those narrow streets to appreciate Aix. The streets are filled with cafes and tables with umbrellas and flower and food stalls, perfect settings for impressionists paintings. Breads are wonderful, but the Moroccan influence will give you some of the best Tajines you have ever tasted.

TL;DR - Thanks for all your help and the number of great responses. We adjusted our scheduled and would like feedback on where to spend an additional day with our current itinerary.


Here's the long version:

After going through all suggestions, we reworked our itinerary and made the following changes:

- Removed Carcassone and Aix-en-Provence. We felt that we wouldn’t have enough time to explore and appreciate them. We’d also like to visit southern France during lavender season, so we’ll leave those for a future trip.

- Removed San Gimignano. Although we’d love to see it, we felt that it would be better to spend additional time in other cities during this trip. We’ll also spend a few days in Tuscany (Marciano) as we have family there, and although no two cities are the same, we felt that we would see similar architecture in the region.

- Replaced Riomaggiore with Monterosso (although we haven't settled 100% on the village we'll stay at Cinque Terre yet - we'd like to see them all).

- Kept San Biagio and Marciano to visit and spend time with family members.

- Added a day in Barcelona, a day in Nice and a day in Venice to better enjoy our time there. The extra day in Nice will also allow us to do a day trip by bus to the Monaco Grand Prix either on Thursday or Friday as we still haven’t settled on the exact day.

- Decided to fly from Barcelona to Nice instead of driving across southern France (€29.99 via Vueling Airlines).

- Decided to take the train from Nice to Milan, therefore including a stop in Milan for a night (where we could also visit a family member and a close friend) and allowing us to pass by the lakes on our way to Verona.

- With those changes, we’ll pick up the car in Milan instead of Barcelona and still return it as soon as we get to Rome. This will lower the car rental cost from €1400 to €400, reduce the number of driving days from 14 to 9, and reduce our total driving time by around 15 hours.

- Increased driving times by around 50% to allow for stops along the way.

- Adjusted the order of a few cities and removed a day (down from 31 to 30 days) due to a work schedule conflict.


This is how the itinerary looks now:

Day 1 - Barcelona (arrive in the morning)
Day 2 - Barcelona
Day 3 - Barcelona
Day 4 - Barcelona to Nice (by plane, leaving in the afternoon)
Day 5 - Nice
Day 6 - Nice (Monaco Grand Prix day trip by bus)
Day 7 - Nice to Milan (by train, leaving in the morning)
Day 8 - Milan to Verona (full day trip driving by Como and Sirmione)
Day 9 - Verona
Day 10 - Verona to San Biagio di Callalta (2-hour drive time)
Day 11 - San Biagio di Callalta to Venice (1-hour drive time)
Day 12 - Venice
Day 13 - Venice
Day 14 - Venice to San Marino (5-hour drive time)
Day 15 - San Marino to Imola (2-hour drive time)
Day 16 - Imola to Monterosso (6-hour drive time, stopping by Maranello)
Day 17 - Monterosso
Day 18 - Monterosso to Florence (4-hour drive time, stopping by Pisa)
Day 19 - Florence
Day 20 - Florence
Day 21 - Florence to Marciano (3-hour drive time, stopping by Arezzo)
Day 22 - Marciano
Day 23 - Marciano
Day 24 - Marciano (day trip to Siena)
Day 25 - Marciano to Rome (3-hour drive time, stopping by Orvieto and Orte)
Day 26 - Rome
Day 27 - Rome
Day 28 - Rome
Day 29 - Fly from Rome around noon

The question we have now is - we have 30 days available for the trip and our itinerary includes 29 days, so we're considering spending an additional day in a place where we wouldn’t stay for too long (Milan, Verona, San Marino, Moterosso) instead of cities where we’ll already spend 3-4 days (Barcelona, Nice, Venice, Florence, Marciano, Rome). Based on your experience, in which place would you spend one additional day?

Thanks again in advance for all your awesome suggestions.

- With those changes, we’ll pick up the car in Milan instead of Barcelona and still return it as soon as we get to Rome. This will lower the car rental cost from €1400 to €400, reduce the number of driving days from 14 to 9, and reduce our total driving time by around 15 hours.>>

yes - result! great idea, though personally I would avoid Milan and go straight from Nice to venice and do that bit of the trip in reverse order, thus obviating the need to put your car in an expensive garage in Mestre or wherever.

otherwise - love it.

as for your extra day/s [if you follow my suggestions] I'd add a day each to Barcelona and Venice or even spend a day actually on one of the lakes, doing a day or two of trips by boat.

On Day 8, "driving by Como" would be a big detour, especially if you were thinking of picking up the car at Linate Airport.

Days 14-15-16. With that much driving on back-to-back-to-back days and so little time in San Marino, I'd skip San Marino and head to Ravenna for 2 nights instead. See some of the stunning Ravenna mosaics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=It3i-dKusIM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvnr0wnmoGY

I assume the Maranello stop is for Ferrari. If so, consider going to Modena instead. Do a little research on the Enzo Ferrari House and Museum near the train station in Modena versus the rather commercial Ferrari Museum in Maranello. Also, you'd be going through Modena anyway, and Maranello is a bit of a detour off the direct route to Monterosso.

And when I say "head to Ravenna for 2 nights," I mean skip the single nights in both San Marino and Imola.

For your F1 activities in Monaco: Thursday is practice day for the F1 cars. I would suggest taking the train from Nice to Monaco. You can get tickets for practice on site. I paid 70.00€ this year. There's plenty of seating available.


There are no F1 cars on track on Friday. But there is a GP2 race. And it's free.

Since you are not averse to taking an intra-European flight, check out the possibility of flying from Nice to Venice. The train ride from Nice to Milan is a slog. In fact, there is an argument to be made that if you don't want to fly, then take the train from Nice to Italy, pick up a car in Ventimiglia or San Remo, and drive le Cinque Terre. Much quicker. Then rearrange the rest of your trip from there so that you end up in Florence or Venice as your last stop with a car, and use trains from there to see Florence, Venice and Rome.

Another possibility to consider as you toy around with this is to go from Imola to Arezzo (spend the night there), then to Siena/Marciano, then to Florence, and drop off the car. Take the train to le Cinque Terre with a stop to Pisa en route (you can store your luggage in the train station), and then take the train from le Cinque Terre to Rome. (If you want, you could delay seeing Pisa until you are on your way to Rome).

If you very much want to see something of the lakes, then see if you can fly from Nice to Milan, pick up a car and then go to the lakes. From there I would head to le Cinque Terre, and do the loop so you end up with your last stop in Venice, so you can drop off the car (see Florence on the way to Rome, with a day trip to Pisa).

Hope that is clear -- but I don't know how to say it more simply.

One more thought:

I assumed when writing my post that you had already purchased tickets into Barcelona and out of Rome. But if you haven't done that, your trip might be a whole lot simpler if you flew from Nice to Rome and ultimately flew out of Northern Italy.

I take it that one of you is a big car buff and wants to spend a lot of time behind the wheel in Europe. But some drives and destinations are really unrewarding concrete-ugly-straight-lines-filled-with-trucks or highly problematic with a car (and you pay through the nose to park the car, and risk heavy fines for making mistakes in urban areas), so you would do much better to cover some distances by plane or train, bunching together the destinations where it is wretched to have a car, but then pick up a car to use continuously for a chunk of time/geography in between where having a car is actually fun.

I'd love to hear what you ended up doing and how your experience was.
I'm planning on doing something similar but I only have 12 days

jfontano - if you want some up to date information and to canvas as many views as possible, i suggest you start a new thread with your query.

Then you will get answers tailored to your situation.

If you decide to do that, do tell us when you are thinking of travelling, how any people, where you are flying into and out of, and those sorts of details. it just a saves us asking!