I am trying to help friends w/a 19 day trip to Italy and I need help with the routing, they already purchased airfare to and from Rome ( I would have suggest open jaw, but got involved too late) they want to drive most if not all of the trip though I have recommended train travel for most. They are interested in Rome, Florence, Venice, Cinque Terre, Amalfi Coast...I can't figure out the smartest order and to break up long drive times...other towns and city suggestions welcome as well. thanks for the help
Posted by
US Pacific Northwest
10344 posts
Toni: Tell your friends they're making a silly and needless mistake if they insist on driving to Rome, Florence, and the Cinque Terre, despite your advice against it. What we usually do here is not waste our time arguing with people who don't want to be helped. Their punishment is fair: they get a chance to prove they're right, by doing the trip their way. Let em drive!
Posted by
Chicago/Rural WI
811 posts
Goodness. You and Kent are absolutely correct in that you DON'T need a car for Italy. Unless, of course, you are planning to go WAAAAYY off the beaten path to a town like Casasola (where my family is from), which is a town in the foothills of the Alps and has a population of 40 (but I'll take the under). They don't even have a grocery store, let alone a train/bus stop, so it is essential to have a car to get there (even the mailman doesn't stop by on a regular basis). THIS is where a car is handy. But not for just about everywhere else!!
But, I digress. If they still insist on having a car for at least part of the time, maybe you could suggest this:
Start in Rome for a few days (no car), then head down to Sorrento (preferably sans car) and make that their home base for the Amalfi Coast. From Sorrento they can explore towns like Positano, etc., via bus and/or ferry.
After a few days in Sorrento, pick up a rental car there and drive to Florence. Use the car to explore Tuscany for a bit, then drop off the car and train it to Cinque Terre for a few days.
After Cinque Terre, pick up another rental car, drive to Venice (maybe with a stop in Casasola? I mean, they'll have a car and this is, after all, what having it is good for...), and drop the car off at the airport in Venice. After a few days in Venice, train back to Rome, overnight by the airport, and head home the next day.
This entire itinerary is doable by train, naturally, but you can lead horses to water but you can't feel responsible for all the tickets they will most likely get for driving in the wrong part of Florence.
Good luck, and be glad you aren't traveling with them!
Posted by
lansing
72 posts
this trip is totally doable by train and much much easier. they will have virtually no use for a car in the cinque terra or venice, and it will just be a pain in rome and florence. I went from rome to assisi to florence to cinque terra to venice all by train. it was easy as can be. suggest assisi to them. it is amazing!
Posted by
Anaheim, CA, USA
1455 posts
Toni, when we were in Milan, my husband wanted to drive to Torino. We argued (and lucky I won)and we opted to take the bus and train.
He saw that the drivers are very different in Italy than in So Cal. Heck, they're even crazier than the drivers in Mexico!! LOL.
On top of that, the streets were not clearly labeled and we would have been lost getting to our destination. It would NOT have been an adventure.
Also take into consideration the cost of petrol. We are paying over 4 bucks here. Europe is close to 10 bucks.
The most economical would be train and take a rental car to the remote locations if a bus does not go there. Its also more relaxing.