bvlenci

Florence is one of the muggiest cities in Italy, usually hotter than cities further south, like Rome, because it lies in a natural bowl, where there isn't a lot of air circulation. I myself wouldn't want to stay there four nights in July. It's also packed with tourists, and they're not mostly day trippers, so it's crowded even in the evening. I try to go there in the dead of winter.

john183

I think you have found the right plans for what you want to do too. Good luck with finding places to stay and figuring out your transportation logistics.

laurenjess

Hi everyone, you have all made such wonderful suggestions and i truly appreciate them!
We've had a slight change and i would like some advice with regards to trains vs car rentals.

Here is the trip:

- Fly into venice and stay one night
- go to Lake Garda (stop in Verona for a few hours on the way.) I'm staying in Bardolini in Lake Garda for 3 nights
- Drive to florence and make stops along the way
- Stay in florence 4 nights
- drive to chianti and stay 3 nights
- train to rome and stay 2 night then head home

My questions are:
- Should we rent a car in venice and drive to verona and then lake garda?
- does anyone know if i can rent a car in garda?
- do i need a car in garda or will the ferries be sufficient? I think we'd like to check out 1 or 2 other towns on the lake for one day
- if i train from Venice to verona, does it make sense to store my luggage at the train station and spend a few hours walking around? then take the train to garda. Will i be able to get a taxi in garda to drive to bardolini?
- lastly, do you trust luggage storage at the train station?

thanks in advance!

Jean

The pace of your itinerary doesn't appeal to me, so I'll only answer a few of your questions.

There are car rental offices in both Peschiera del Garda and Desenzano. You can reach both towns by train, and both towns are ferry stops on the route that includes Bardolino.

There is also bus service between Verona and Bardolino.

https://m.atv.verona.it/#/routes

Whether the ferry service on Lake Garda is sufficient for you in the time you have depends on where you want to go, what you want to see/do. Not every ferry in each direction stops at Bardolino. The ferry website is currently showing timetables effective through May 31st, so you'd have to check back.

Navigazione Laghi | Lago Maggiore | Lago di Garda | Lago di Como

There is luggage storage at the Verona Porta Nuova train station. IMO, these services in Italian train stations are trustworthy, but we do lock our luggage when we leave it.

Now, I have a couple of questions.

Were you planning to keep the car while you're staying in Florence, or turn it in and rent another car as you're leaving? If you plan to keep it, you need to figure out where you're going to park it and how much that will cost.

Are you familiar with ZTLs? Zona Traffico Limitato. These are zones set aside in nearly every Italian town of any size into which you can't drive without a permit. If you drive into the zone, even by accident, you risk receiving an expensive citation after you get home. You can research a town you're thinking of visiting to see if it has a ZTL, but you should definitely know what the ZTL warning signs look like.

https://www.italybeyondtheobvious.co...with-ztl-zones

Each driver needs to have an International Driving Permit.

neckervd

IMO it doesn't make sense to try to rent a car in the small village of Garda. Do it at Verona, as you plan to visit Verona anyway.
It would make even less sense to take a bus from Verona via Bardolino to Garda and to look there for a taxi in order to backtrack to Bardolino as you obviously plan.
Tell us at which places you plan to stop between Bardolino and Florence. If you mean Mantova, Cremona, Parma or so (all reachable by public transport without any problem) it might be easier to visit them in day trips from Bardolino.

laurenjess

Thanks Jean. Once we are in Florence, we will not have the car. We only wanted the car to get there. I saw some car rental companies in the city but perhaps its easier to drive it to the airport? I'm worried about the ZTL areas. I'll have to look it up on the map.

Then when we leave Florence to go to Chiante, we thought about renting a car again. THe hotels i'm staying at have free parking. If Chianti is accessible by bus and taxi though then I might not want the car.

The real reason I'm excited about the car is because i've heard beautiful things about driving through Tuscany and since I'm coming in from Lake Garda, I will be able to drive through small towns and pick up food along the way.

Jean

Lots of people find the Florence airport easier for rental car business than navigating city center streets. No ZTL, many more open hours, etc.

It would be very difficult to see Chianti/Tuscany without a car in the time you have. There is bus service, but it's geared more for commuting than sightseeing.

If your goal is to 'drive through small towns,' consider driving secondary roads as much as possible, rather than the autostrade or major highways.

Is your Chianti hotel within a ZTL? Is so, you need precise instructions from the hotel on how to drive to the hotel.

Where were you thinking of returning the car before Rome?

Reeshiez

This sounds like a good plan. However if I were you I would take a night or two out of florence and put that night or nights in Rome.

Jean

The original poster has changed the plan. They now will fly into Venice and visit Lake Garda before heading to Florence.

bvlenci

If you need a car with automatic transmission, it's easier to get one at an airport than in a small town with one rental agent.