17 nights arriving ROME leaving Venice Tuscany and Cinq Terre

Read this about driving in Italy and restrictions involved [ZTLs]; avoid leaving anything of value in a car when parked:

http://driventoit.blogspot.com/

IME the best place to pick up a car in Rome is Hertz across the street from the Tibertina station.

Note that packing up in a Cinque Terre hotel and unpacked and walking out of one in Venice takes around 8 hours. I would suggest dumping the car at the Pisa Airport, then getting to the station and a train to the CT. Leaving there, head to perhaps Florence or somewhere else convenient to Venice.

Your timeline plan is a good start. Is this what you had in mind?

Arrival day - relax and get your bearings (1)

Rome - 2 tourist days (2, 3); [3 nights in Rome]

Travel day to Florence by train, rent a car there where you will need it, maybe spend the night in Florence. (4). Since you won't need a car in Florence maybe rent it at the airport and return it there. There is regular bus service into town, although be careful to avoid pickpockets on crowded buses.

Agritourismo - (5, 6)

Volterra or Montepulciano areas (7, 8, 9); [6 nights in Tuscany]

Travel day - return car in Florence and catch the train to the Cinque Terre (10)

Cinque Terre - 3 tourist days (11, 12, 13) [4 nights in CT]

Travel day to Venice via Pisa takes about 5 hours - 2 train changes. (14)

Venice - 2 tourist days (15, 16); [3 nights in Venice]
Fly Home (17)

https://www.trenitalia.com/en.html

Only three real travel days since the Tuscany move will be a relatively short distance by car. It is a shame to miss Florence, but you will be back, or you can rethink the other Tuscany stops. We prefer three or four nights in a place so one afternoon we can just sit in a cafe in the sun. You already have that pretty well.

Have a great time!

OMG thank you so much for taking the time to reply. The information is just what I needed. Will cut a couple days maybe from Tuscany and add to Florence. Maybe not do the agriturirmo and stay the extra time in Florence.

Again thanks..

Will cut a couple days maybe from Tuscany and add to Florence.

Are we visiting too many places. We are pretty laid back.

If you need to cut any time, cut out CT. There's WAY more to do in Tuscany than there is in CT. In CT, you might find a little "nature" (though many trails are closed), no "culture" (bars selling margaritas in tubs) and little if any "local scene".

Personally, I'd spend the entire time in Tuscany at an agriturismo. We found one 5 minutes outside Greve. It was a little too far to walk into town, but we drove down and had some really nice meals there. If you feel the need to stay in town, then I'd flip and spend more time in the agriturismo and less in a village.

You could train from Rome to Orvieto and pick up your car there. From that point, it's nice country roads into Tuscany.

Is this your first time in Italy? There's always the tension between going wide or going deep. Some people thrive on activity, packing every waking moment with adventure. Over the years my wife and I have throttled back, realizing we can't see it all and if you try, you can end up seeing nothing.

I see you are going in April. You might find this person's experience of CT in April helpful.

If you haven’t booked flights yet do consider flying in to Venice and leaving from Rome
Venice is a better place to get over jet lag and it is easier to arrive there than to leave from there, getting to airport in early am can be an expensive hassle
( we have done both and leaving from Venice worked for us, it did cost, and we knew the drill having been before)

Since this is your first trip starting in Venice might be a better/easier entry for you and moving north to south might make a difference weather wise.

Haven’t been to CT but I’d still say skip it.

First trip we did 17 nights
Venice 3
Train to Florence
Florence 3
Picked up car as we left Florence absolutely no need to go to airport for this
( do a search here about picking up car in Florence. Lots of info and look for responses by Roberto)
Siena 2, Montepulciano 2, Assisi 2
Dropped car in Spoleto and train to Rome
Rome 5

I wouldn’t have changed a thing

We have done a similar trip, just in reverse-Venice to Rome.

I would do 5,4,4,4 nights. You may be a bit jet lagged after your flight and you won't want to miss Rome, wonderful place.

Walk or taxi to Train station, train to Siena, taxi to rental car office, drive to the Agritorisimo Marciano on the outskirts of town...wonderful place to stay!!!

Drive to rental car office, taxi to train station, train to Monterosso in CT. They have a beautiful beach and great places ot eat.

Walk to train station and head to Venice for a truely wonderful experience there.

Walk to bus station, and your are at a small and easy to manuever airport to start your trip home.

Might want to use AutoEurope for tickets and rental car, we do.

Wealso use Loco2 for all of our train tickets. Easy site to use and all works well.

We use airbnb for our places to stay..full apartments with kitchens, etc..

Let me know if you have any questions.

If you're locked into arriving in Rome and departing from Venice and if Cinque Terre is a must see, then I would plan to visit Rome, Cinque Terre, Tuscan countryside, Florence and Venice in that order. You don't need a car anywhere but the Tuscan countryside. Take one of the direct Freccia trains from Roma Termini to La Spezia Centrale. I would suggest a maximum of 3 nights, 2 full days in Cinque Terre. Upon leaving Cinque Terre, pick up a rental car in either La Spezia or Pisa and return it in Florence. Train to Venice for the final stop of your trip.

again thanks EVERYONE FOR THE help. I am reading and considering all your replies.

One thing is we arrive in Rome . We have booked 3 nights in Rome but we should not be jet lagged since our first part of our journey is Spain . We are flying in from Malaga and !eaving from Venice.

We are water people. From the Atlantic Ocean and to me part of my vacation must be close to water, That is why CT is on the list, we could skip CT and do more of Tuscany. Any places worth visiting that are close to the coast. We like authentic places.

Thanks again.. What a wonderful spot for help.

DougMac yes this is our first trip to Italy. Only our second trip to Europe. last year we did Portugal. It was a dream... We have done the Caribbean and Costa Rica too many times to count. but since our retirement we have TIME and energy to venture to Europe.

Also we are like you .. I would rather sleep 4 places and then venture out, relax, have a margarita and sit in little cafes and have a cappuccino or vino and watch the trafic.

I am a water person too. But I am not a crowd person. There are many alternatives to Cinque Terre, and I think if you are not a hiker you might find CT maddening--either for the crowds or boredom. Since you are driving anyway, look at the Lerici-Tellaro area.
For a total wild card, look at the Adriatic coast. It is a three hour drive from Florence to Senigallia, then you could see Ravenna and then head up to Venice and drop the car.

Well I guess CT is off my list. YOU are the pros... That is why I am here. I was thinking April it would be quiet., And crowds of people and nothing authentic is not on our to do list. I get to see awesome sea views in the summer here in NB Canada. So will replace by Tuscany and maybe coastal towns.

CT has its pluses no doubt, but as long as I have the capacity to choose elsewhere, there is absolutely no shortage of comparable places!

DougMac yes this is our first trip to Italy. Only our second trip to Europe. last year we did Portugal.

Have a great time! Portugal is on our list. My third great grandfather was kidnapped and sold into slavery on a Portuguese commercial ship at the beginning of the 19th century. After sailing for a few years, he jumped ship in Virginia. Since the rest of my mother's family was from Austria and England, the joke was this was the source of our "Latin temperament". I attribute my olive complexion to that side of the family.

louise,

First of all, welcome to the Forum! As I'm sure you've noticed already, there's a very well travelled group here that will be able to help you plan your first trip to Italy. I have a few thoughts to add.

My first suggestion would be to have a look at the RS Italy guidebook, as there's a wealth of information there that will help your trip go smoothly. If you want to buy a copy, the 2020 edition will be available in Dec. 2019 but it will probably only have minor changes from the 2019 version.

Given the time-of-year you'll be visiting Italy, I'd probably stay with the original plan to start in Rome and fly out of Venice as the weather will probably be warmer. My suggestion would be to keep the Cinque Terre on the list as it's an easy route to travel Rome > CT > Florence / Tuscany > Venice. April should still be reasonably "civilized" in the CT so you shouldn't have to contend as much with the cruise ship hordes. If you're out touring the area during the day, you should be able to avoid most of the crowds. Despite the negative publicity, it's still a beautiful and somewhat unique area, and a UNESCO World Heritage site. You'll have to decide which of the five towns you'd like to stay in (my favourite of the five is Monterosso). If you do decide to stay there for a few days, I would highly recommend getting a hotel booked as soon as possible.

Whether you'll need a car or not will depend on which places in Tuscany you plan to visit. The larger towns are well served by rail or bus service so if you only plan to visit larger towns, public transit would be a better option. As mentioned in the link above, note that each driver listed on the rental form will require the compulsory International Driver's Permit which is used in conjunction with your home D.L. IDP's are easily available for a small fee at any CAA office. You'll also need to be extremely careful to avoid the ZTL (limited traffic) areas which exist in most Italian towns. Each pass through these will result in hefty fines, which you likely won't know about until several months after you return home. Do not drive in Florence as the city is just about saturated with automated ZTL cameras!

There are also some potentially expensive caveats to be aware of when using trains and other public transit in Italy. You'll need to do some research on that. Details should be in the guidebook but I haven't checked recently.

With a 17-day time frame, you should easily have time to cover all the locations on your original list. You could (for example), structure it somewhat like this.....

• Fly inbound Rome - 5 nights (including day trip to Orvieto or other nearby location)
• Travel by train to Cinque Terre town of choice - 3 nights
• Travel by train to Florence - 5 nights (including day trips to Lucca or other places)
• Travel by train to Venice - 4 nights (possible day to Padova)

There are lots of possibilities so this is just one suggestion. I can elaborate on this if you need more information.

In addition to travel and sightseeing plans, it would be a good idea to do some research on the aspect of pickpockets and scams in Italy, as it's likely you will encounter that.

Good luck with your planning!

Updated itinerary

After your valuable feedback here is my updated itinerary.

• Fly inbound Rome - 3 nights (we have family that are doing our first part of our journey Spain with us and they are leaving so that is why only 3 nights. We don’t want to have to change Airbnb’s.)
• Travel by train to La Spezia stay in Lerici Take bus no car - 4 nights (day trips CT, rent bikes )
• Travel by train to Florence from La Spezia 6 nights (including possible day trips to Lucca, Siena, San Gimignano, bike trips etc..)
• Travel by train to Venice - 4 nights (possible day to Padova, Vizenca)

A couple questions. What would be the better neighbourhood to book in Florence and Venice. We want a local feel, cafes and restaurant, local markets, close to public transport. In Rome we booked in the Trastevere neighbourhood.

thanks again for your valuable help.