In October we are leaving Cinque Terre to spend 4 days in Tuscany. We are thinking of going to Florence only for the purpose of renting a car to drive around Tuscany and then return the car to Florence and catch the high-speed train to Naples. Can we get a high-speed train to Naples from any smaller town in Tuscany? If not, how long would the train ride be from a Tuscany town to Naples? What would be the best town(s) in Tuscany to return a car and then catch the train to Naples?
Many thanks as always for all who provide the wonderful advice...Pam
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area (USA)
15196 posts
A better thinking would be to rent a car at the Cinque Terre, or to be exact, in La Spezia, a port city just minutes by train from the Cinque Terre. All major rental car companies have an office in town. Avis not to far from the station, all others at the port (they mostly cater to the cruisaders coming off the cruise ships). Once you have a car you can drive to wherever you need to go in Tuscany. This plan is better first because you save having to take multiple trains to get to Florence, second because that way you can avoid driving in Florence altogether, which is scary to many Americans.
Trains. No. High speed trains stop only in major cities: Florence, Rome and Naples. All others must use Regional trains (commuter trains) to the closest large city, then catch a high speed from there.
You can return the car in Florence, and catch a high speed train from Florence all the way to Napoli.
Alternatively you could return the car in Chiusi (south-east Tuscany) or Orvieto (Umbria). From there you would catch a Regional train to Rome, then change to a high speed to Naples. However there might be regional trains that go all the way to Naples (haven't checked).
Train schedules are here:
www.trenitalia.com
Regional trains' timetable is downloaded weekly therefore check the next 7 days to get an idea of the times.
If you want to return the car in Orvieto, Hertz is the only company there. In Chiusi, slightly north of Orvieto on the same rail line, you also have Europcar and Avis, in addition to Hertz.
To rent a car, I recommend a consolidator/aggregator:
www.kemwel.com
www.autoeurope.com
(both part of the same corporate group but check prices on both sites)
They work with the major rental companies in Italy (Avis, Europcar, Hertz). In my experience Europcar has often the lowest prices, Avis the highest.