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3 Nights in Umbria or Rome in October?

Posted by (Boston) on

Ciao! Thanks to this wonderful community, we have our itinerary and most BnBs booked for our trip from Sept 29-Oct 18. We now just need to book the final 3 nights, flying out of Rome at 1PM on the 18th.

So far:
Piedmonte: 5 nights
Dolomites: 5 nights
Parma: 5 nights

We will have a rental car and we have a wine tasting/visit scheduled in Montefalco on Oct 15th with my husband's idol. I'm inclined to stay in Umbria and call it a day, he will probably be weeping with joy after the tasting and do we really want to then drive 2 hours to Rome? We would then drop the car at the airport on the way out, easy peasy. Rome right now feels like a lot to plan. That being said, it's Rome and we both haven't been since we were teenagers and had meh experiences....probably because we were teenagers :p. Also, I would guess it's the least touristy Rome will ever be.

So what does the community think? Best base for Umbria if we do that for 3 nights? Do we end in the big city? We'd then drop the car on our way into the city.

Posted by
7289 posts

You’ll want to be in Rome the night before your flight

I love Rome and wouldn’t miss a chance to grab a few days there
Don’t really need to plan much- pick 1 or 2 things and then just wander, RS Heart of Rome walk takes you past most major sites

A food tour is always fun

Or if you want some Umbria, spend 1 night in Orvieto ( you can drop car there if Hertz) then train to Rome for final 2 nights

Posted by
5298 posts

Hi Marissa,
I agree with Christine in terms of spending the night before your flight in Rome.
You may consider spending 2 nights in Assisi, then stopping in Spello on the way to Rome.

Here are my trip reports on Beautiful Assisi, and Peaceful Montefalco, if you’re interested.

Wishing you a wonderful trip!

Posted by
4655 posts

Since you have to go to Rome anyway, I would spend those nights in Rome.

Posted by
11647 posts

Give Rome another chance! Make dinner reservations ahead online at Armando al Pantheon.

Posted by
202 posts

With the caveats that I'm just a small town boy and was in Italy for the first time, I found finding the car rental return at FCO a bit dicey. If you can makes plan to drop the car off before getting to the airport I think it might prove easier.

Posted by
466 posts

Sounds like an amazing trip! I'd also suggest Rome for 3 nights. I agree that the Heart of Rome walk (at night) and a food tour are great activities. A few years ago we did the Testaccio supper stroll with Eating Italy and it was one of my favorite things that we did.

Posted by
189 posts

Sounds like a great trip! I would either add a few more days at the end so you can spend at least 3 nights in Umbria and 2-3 nights in Rome.

Or only spend 4 nights in Parma and 2 and 2--Umbria and Rome.

Parma was great but there are so many other wonderful places to see also.

Posted by
25 posts

Thank you all! We had a HUGE travel snaffu in the beginning of our trip and could not pick up our rental car in Milan. An Italian friend was able to find us a rental car company in Milan city center, but it requires we return our car back in Milan. Therefore, we cannot fly out of Rome and have to change our flights to Milan/drive up from Umbria after 2 nights. Lessons learned...Always ensure you have an international drivers license as back-up and your physical license if traveling from the US. Seems very obvious, but we were traveling during a stressful time with work and then a last-minute emergency with our dog and only had a paper copy of a new license that was just changed over to a new state. Thank you all for your advice!!

Posted by
7289 posts

Always ensure you have an international drivers license as back-up

That's a shame this happened to you, glad you were able to work around it but just wanted to point out that Italian law does require all US drivers to have the IDP. It's not just necessary as a "back up".

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