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Best way to get from Rome -> Florence -> Milan -> Verbier Switzerland

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Hello - My husband and two sons (ages 11 & 15) will be traveling to Italy for two weeks at the end of March. We will arrive in Rome (FCO), and then plan to travel to Florence, Milan, and then Verbier Switzerland, ultimately flying home from Geneva. Currently, we have a reservation for a car rental from Rome to drive north through all our destinations, returning the car at GVA when we depart for home. We are planning to pay an exorbitant "one-way fee" (not to mention a different country) for about $1,000. We have been trying to brainstorm different ways to do this to lessen the cost, as well as avoiding the hassle of finding parking at each destination and also avoiding the ZTL. One idea we thought of is to rent a car for each day that we are traveling to a new city. We like the idea of a car, as we plan to make stops along the way that a train ride would not allow (Prada outlet, Ferrari museum). With this idea, there are still one-way fees involved, not to mention the hassle of picking up and returning a rental every few days, and taking ubers to and from rental place from our Air BNB condos, etc.

We are currently thinking of doing one-day car rentals from Rome -> Florence, then Florence -> Milan. Then taking a train from Milan-> GVA to pick up a final car rental - but since we are picking it up and returning from the same country and airport, we will avoid that huge fee. However, all the fees are adding up, and wondering if we should just stick with our original plan to pay the $1000 fee and use one car the whole time. Any thoughts on how to streamline this whole process? :)

Thanks for reading this long and convoluted message and I appreciate any feedback! Happy Travels!
Amber

Posted by
11839 posts

A car is not necessary, nor advisable, for this itinerary. The train will be faster, cheaper, more comfortable, less hassle, no chance of a traffic ticket.

Rome to Florence is 90 minutes on the train and no time spend renting and returning a car. Drive time is almost 3 hours.

Florence to Milan is 1H40M versus 3 hours of driving. Again, no hassles.

Milan to Verbier is 4 hours by train, although you have to change trains 3 times. BUT, if you rent a car in Italy planning to return it in Switzerland just to save a couple of hours, you will pay for it, as you know, in huge drop off fees.

Buy your Italian train tickets in advance for large discounts.

I think a car is a time waster, not a time saver, for this trip.

Posted by
2 posts

thank you for your reply. I can see how a train is most efficient in many ways, but we are also trying to see some sights along the way that riding a train would not allow.

Posted by
21274 posts

Are those pretty sights worth an extra $1000? If it was me, they would have to be some very pretty sights. When you drive, the driver generally doesn't get to see the sights, they are concentrating on the road in front. Train travel is relaxing, get up and walk around, go to the toilet when ever you feel the urge, walk to the bar car and have a snack and something to drink. Trains do have windows, big ones.

On this forum, we are inundated with complaints from people who get multiple tickets on their return from Italy and they never knew they were collecting them, since they are enforced by cameras that recorded their license plates. The rental agencies charge their credit card for each ticket that they have to look up their name and address and send it to the police. Then the actual tickets start showing up in their mailbox up to a year later. Violations are most common for entering a ZTL, forbidden zone of cities where you must have permit, driving in a bus lane, and good old speeding where you are only going a couple of kph over the limit.

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