Drive or Train

You can drive it in 5 hours if you make no pit stops (if you can resist 5 hours without going to the bathroom). The train however would me much faster and far more relaxing. Less than 4 hours.

Take the train, i don't recall it being scenic enough to warrant the headache of taking a car into Rome. ( oh , read up on that,, )

Would you drive from Hemet to Yosemite Park and back in a day? (I know Hemet, BTW). About the same drive. Except you have to also add in a load of toll stops, add in the tailgaters, add in all the tunnels as you go through the mountains. And once you get to Rome where will you park? And how will you avoid the dreaded ZTLs? Have you seen Rome traffic? What did you expect to see in Rome? What time of year? Will you be collecting your car from a car park in Venice or will you have to wait for a rental place to open for the day? So if you leave Venice at 8:30, it will take nearly 6 hours if you stop at a rest area, and you might get to Rome at 2:30 pm. If you want to be back at Venice at 10pm you need to leave Rome (if the traffic doesn't get you) by 4pm. So 90 minutes in Rome. Not counting trying to get to the thing you went there to see (from the outside). It may be worth it to you (see my first question). It wouldn't be for me. At least on the train which goes at 300 kph you can relax and arrive fresh. Still not worth it to me, but better. You can leave as early as 6am and return by midnight.

NO i would not make that drive , Nor did I plan a round trip in a DAY . just going back to Rome after Carnval in Venice . Wanted to know if the Drive was nice and worth the car rental . I have returned a car in Rome .But if you know Hemet you know we have to drive to do anything , so we are used to our cars in Ca.

Train. Easy call.

I'd consider driving only if there were 4 people driving together and wanted to save some money. (4 train tickets at full price will amount to 320 euro. A rental car will be less than 60 (if you rent ahead of time). Add a little over 100 euro in gas and tolls and by car option will cost you 1/2 as much as the train at full price. I'm not sure if saving 150-160 euro would still be worth the trouble and stress of driving, though (especially to the person doing the driving). I'm used to driving a lot in California too, including in the Temecula valley, but driving in Italian freeways is much more stressful. Everybody drives at 120-130km/h (75-80 mph), Italian freeways are often congested and full of big rigs, literally hundreds of them one after the other, and all traveling just as fast as cars. Also, people tailgate you aggressively if you stay in the left (passing lane) for over 2 seconds. The left guardrail next to the passing lane is so close to your lane that you are in constant danger of swiping your left side if you distract for a second when you pass. Passing all those trucks (who might cut in front of you without looking) at 80 mph through countless tunnels and viaducts on the Apennines, between Bologna and Florence, while cars are pressing you at 2 inches from your rear bumper to get you to pullover to the right lanes so they can pass you, is no fun for the driver. If it's only 2 or even 3 people traveling together, then the train is the way to go, hands down.

Gina, I see from your response that you would not do that in a day. But how else are we supposed to read your question??? I quote the question you asked: How long to drive from Venice to Rome is it worth it for a day to So, no punctuation, and the question seems to run out of steam before the end. You ask, how long to drive from Venice to Rome. Got that bit. The next bit is less clear. It looks to me like, Is it worth it for a day to ... So I draw the conclusion that it is a "day" something. A day to ... ?? A day trip? Maybe. That's what I'll respond to. And I did. Tough to get, I want to drive there after Carnival, one way, from that. Sorry I answered the wrong question.

To the price of renting a car, add in the possibility of getting a ticket for some unknown violation. We just got charged $60 on our credit card for something that happened during the three days we had a rental car in Verona this past May. We definitely did not go into the ZTL, but apparently there are some intersections outside the ZTL where only local residents are allowed to make a turn. I don't think we did that, but who knows? Also possible was a ticket for speeding due to an automatic camera. I didn't willfully exceed the limit that I'm aware of, but then again, who's to say? Apparently I did do something wrong so we are paying the charge, but I'm going to sit down and figure out just how much that car ended up costing us versus the price of just hiring a driver.

gina, Without a doubt, train is the quickest and most efficient option, and you'll still be able to enjoy the scenery without any of the hassles that Roberto mentioned. It could be the cheapest option too, depending on when you buy your tickets. Two options you could look at..... 1.) ITALO - trips from Venezia SL to Roma Tiburtina are currently as cheap as €42.50 PP. It may be possible to buy even cheaper tickets if buying well in advance. 2.) TRENITALIA - trips from Venezia SL to Roma Termini can be as cheap as €29 if you manage to get Super Economy tickets. If you can only get Economy tickets the price is €49 PP, which still isn't too expensive. If you wait to long in buying tickets, Base fare is €80 which is a bit pricey. I used arbitrary dates in checking ticket prices, so results may be different when you check. I only looked at second class seating (which I find is quite adequate on the fast trains). Happy travels!

@Michael - Here's the bad news: odds are that $60 charge was the rental company's charge for passing your identifying info to the Italian traffic authorities. Your actual ticket(s) will come in the mail, from Italy, at some future date.

Michael, unfortunately the charge from the rental agency is likely only the thunder before the storm. That charge will have been for them to furnish the police with your personal details so that they could send you the original ticket. The rental place doesn't pay the ticket for you, just turns over who was in charge of the car at the time. You agreed to that in your rental agreement. After some, possibly quite long time, you will get the actual demand and it is unlikely to be inexpensive. Sorry for the bad news...

Nigel and Tom, Thanks. Yes, I knew that was a possibility, and I'll pay it. I'm looking forward to finding out what I did wrong. It was our fourth trip to Italy and I do so much planning it makes D-Day look like an impromptu picnic. I had researched the ZTL in Verona, studied maps, got the GPS, and still something happened. The frustrating thing is that due to the rainy weather we really only used the car once - to drive to Sirmione on Lake Garda on a sunny day. That's turning out to be a ferociously expensive daytrip. I wonder what percentage of American travelers who rent a car in Italy end up with some after-the-fact ticket like this.