hi
posting my itinerary once again. we have time just need thoughts. thank you
arriving in florence 4-14/4-18 we will have a rental car
florence 4/14-4/18
sienna 4/18-4/20
spello 4/20-4/25 we have a car
spello to positano via the coast through bari
4/25-4/28
rome 4/28-5/1
volterra 5/1-5/6
florence 5/6-5/7 home
You do not want a rental car while staying in Florence. Rent a vehicle the day you leave Florence and read up on ZTL zone laws to save on hefty fines. A few seconds in a bus lane can set you back as much $300. Would hate for you to do that twice.
You also don’t want to have a car in Positano, and driving from Spello to Bari to Positano? You need way more than three days for this. Please look at a map of Italy and use Rome2Rio to get an idea of how long these drives will take you.
Rachel’s is dead on - you don’t want a car in Positano. If you must, drive from Bari to Salerno and then up the coast staying in Amalfi as a base. Use local buses and/or ferries to visit the coast. The main road in Positano, designed by inebriated mountain goats, is a one way. If you miss your stop, go to the bottom, drive up to the top and start all over again! But Positano looks quaint from the hills or the sea!
ZTL zones; it's not just the posted rules. We picked up the rental car, drove to the apt to get our luggage, I stayed with the car. Unfortunately we were in the zone and my staying with the car while we loaded our luggage resulted in a fine received 6 months later. The rental agency was charged and their agreement with the car renter in fine print says they can charge the card for fines. So you might ignore the Italian authorities but you can't ignore the credit card company.
Florence: I like to say that some of the sights in Florence are open on the first Monday of the month after the full moon. An exaggeration but opening/closing hours are strange so make note of what you want to see and note the opening/closing times.
I have some suggestions for your Italy trip. We spent 2 weeks in Italy last spring, visiting Rome, Siena, Spello (with day trips to Orvieto,, Assisi, Deruta and others). Florence - definitely no car. You could take the bus to Siena, but it sounds like you have committed to a car. Do not try to park in Siena Old Town. Park in the garages at the train/bus station/mall and take a taxi into the town. Siena is very walkable. Drive to Spello is easy but close-in parking is troublesome & costly. There are some free parking areas about a 10 minute walk from the town main gate. Loved Spello. Positano - also definitely a no car area. If you can, go to Rome first and drop the car at FCO. It took us about 2.5 hours. Take trains to Naples, Sorrento then taxi or bus to Postinano (or trains to Salerno, bus to Positano). Trains & bus back to FCO to pickup a car to drive the rest of the trip. We drove from Spello to Orvieto for a day as we had visited longer on an earlier trip. Drove to Perugia as a day trip from Spello but could not find parking anywhere. Will take bus next time. Another day trip to Deruta and area was easy. Assisi was an easy trip but avoid weekends - and good luck on the parking.
It's not exactly clear if you'd already planned for this but you definitely don't want a car for Rome either (as you've already been counseled in a previous thread). Also, you've only planned 3 nights/2 full days for that city; it could use another one.
At a glance, I'd be strongly tempted to skip the anything south of Rome; you really don't have adequate time to cover Spello>Bari>Amalfi Coast, and as already pointed out, you don't want a car in Positano. Fly into Florence, do your sightseeing there, then rent a car and work an itinerary for the Tuscan/Umbrian towns/countryside between Florence and Rome. End up in Rome, dump the car, spend 4-5 nights there and fly home from FCO versus backtracking to Florence.
You could also extend your time in Florence to include some day trips, or move on to Siena by rail or bus, spend 2 nights there, and then rent the car. One note of caution? It's not a good idea to leave anything at all you don't want to lose in an unattended rental vehicle.
Yes, what Kathy says is perfect. A few home bases plus day trips is more flexible and less time-wasting. Plus, I'll mention this since people often don't consider it when planning, you might get sick and not want to go from town to town to town. My husband and I are both as sick as dogs here in Bologna, and really glad we are here for a whole week. We had to cancel our rental car that was for doing two or three day trips from here.
More time in Rome.
Also, don't keep the rental car in Rome, parking is a problem and expensive.
Not sure that I would recommend driving all the way to Bari. What are you planning to see on that drive?
Not sure what Bari is doing there??
Did you mean a different city instead of Bari? That’s completely out-of-the-way from Spello & Positano. If for some reason you do actually mean Bari, there’s a lot more in that area, and you should skip Positano. Even then, that’s not enough days for Puglia, plus getting there & back.
You’re definitely free to use any type of transportation; it’s your trip! Just commenting that I’ve stayed in over thirty cities in Italy, including every place you’ve mentioned except Volterra, and just traveled by train or ferry with a couple of buses. Riding the train is such an easy method of travel! Renting a car can slow you down in some cases where a train leaves you near the historic center, and there’s no ZTL worries and parking issues.
If you don’t have the Rick Steves guidebook, several of those cities have good coverage in his book. Have a great time!
My husband and I are both as sick as dogs here in Bologna, and really
glad we are here for a whole week. We had to cancel our rental car
that was for doing two or three day trips from here.
Nancy, I'm so sorry to hear that you're both so sick! It's bad enough to be miserable at home let alone far away from your own bed. Hope you are better soon! :O(
