Dolomites, Airport, Car Rental and Trains to Rome

Hello!
You do not have to rent a car and return it at the same place. Flying into Venice, I would rent the car at Marco Polo airport.
The drive into the Dolomites takes 1.5-3 hours depending on where you go. It can get a bit long after a transatlantic flight, so you risk being tired. With that in mind, Belluno would make a great first stop; the nearby mountains are a good introduction to the Dolomites and it is less than 1.5 hours from Venice airport.
After perhaps 2-3 nights, I would move to a second base on the other side of the Dolomites, such as Ortisei, for 3-4 nights.
Then, I would drive to Bolzano, Trento or at worst Verona (depending on car rental office options!), return the car there and take the train to Rome: the drive is LONG otherwise.

Current schedule there are direct Frecciargento trains to Rome Termini from Bolzano at 7:12 and 13:12 taking 5 hours. It is 6+ hours driving plus 64 EUR of tolls plus your fuel cost. 2 Super Economy tickets will be about equal to your fuel and tolls costs, so the ride is free.

What month? Season matters a lot in the Dolomites. Are you hikers or just lookers?

Just a word of advice for anyone considering a car rental return at Rome’s Termini station. DON’T! The rental offices are in the station. You will have to park your car (an impossibility) to go to the office. You will then be directed to a nearby and hard to find parking garage. Quite a bit of the area is on the periphery of the ZTL. As I found out the hard way. By all means, return the car to an office near Rome and take public transportation to town.

They can drop the car off near or under the Park of Villa Borghese and take the Metro to Termini.
I'd drop the car in Orvieto If I wanted to see a nice town more and avoid driving in Rome. BUT Otherwise there are options closer than FCO and easier than Termini.

I thought it looked like dropping the car in Bolzano was the best option. Faster and possibly even cheaper than driving.

I agree that we know what time of year you will be traveling. The Dolomites are a great summer destination; at that time of year the weather (at altitude) is a lot more pleasant than what you may encounter elsewhere in Italy. I'd want to take a good look at historical weather data before visiting way off-season. What part of the Dolomites you want to see is also key. My only experience is with the Bolzano/Bressanone/Ortisei side.

I'm not convinced Venice is the best city to fly into, though it may be. I'd suggest comparing flight costs to Milan; they could be much, much lower than to Venice, and you might save yourself one change of planes, depending on your options for origin airport.

If flying to Milan looks like a significant money-saver, I'd move on to considering where to pick up the car. I think driving after a possibly-sleepless overnight flight is a risky maneuver. It's one I'd avoid. So unless I wanted to start by visiting a place very, very close to Milan-Malpensa Airport, I'd plan to take the train to a destination nearer the Dolomites. That could be Verona (where you'd be changing trains even if you wanted to go farther before renting a car) or Bolzano. You'd also need to check car-rental rates. No sense saving money on airfare and losing it on the car. Both Verona and Bolzano have local sights to keep you occupied if you can stay awake for the rest of your arrival day.

Monica and Dennis,
We returned from a trip to the Dolomites on Monday. We trained from Lake Como to Verona and rented a car there with Avis ( booked through Autoeurope). We drove from Verona to Lake Garda and on to Ortisei. I chose Verona because Avis was walking distance from the Verona train station. Verona is an easy train ride from Venice. I had researched renting a car in Bolzano but it appeared to Involve a bus ride or taxi from the rental agency to the main train station. If I were to do it again, I would probably train to Bolzano and use public transportation to get to Ortisei. I had visions of a day trip to Lago DI Braies or one of the mountain passes but there was so much to see in close proximity that we decided not to drive anywhere. I wouldn’t recommend driving all the way to Rome, that’s a long haul and the trains make it so easy. Enjoy your trip planning.
Ciao,
Gene & Shannon

WOW!!!! THANK YOU ALL! So many helpful thoughts and suggestions! And yes...we are true hikers. We spent 3 weeks this summer hiking Glacier National Park. That being said this is not a hiking trip. We don't want to drag a lot of extra gear to seriously hike. 3-6 miles round trip max in the Dolomites. We'll arrive May 29 or 30 of June 2022. Most flights arrive in the morning. I'm sure we will be very tired. Probably a good idea not try to go to far on that first day. Maybe staying in Verona that first day should be considered. So far flights from St. Louis to Venice or Milan are about the same price. Venice is about 22 miles closer to Verona than Milan. I will check on trains to Verona from both airports. Thank you for the suggestion to pick up and return a car in Verona, then train to Rome.

As far as the Dolomite region, we were planning to follow Rick Steves' book. He suggests staying in Castelrotto/Kastelruth to see Compatsch and Alpe di Siusi meadow. That being said we are open to other ideas. We have 5 full days to visit the area.

Thank you all!
Monica and Dennis

If you land in Venice, you do not need to go through Verona to go to the Dolomites: it is a significant detour. Much better to get a car at the airport and head north. If you want a nice stop close to Venice airport, Treviso is a very pleasant option - very short drive from the airport, perfectly OK after a long flight.

Castelrotto is not IN the mountains. It is, IMO, much more fun to go up to the Val Gardena especially if you have 3 ro 5 nights.

All of the Val Gardena lifts do not fully open up until June 10th or so. You can see the schedule for 2021 here https://www.valgardena.it/en/summer-holidays-dolomites/lifts/. Even with some lifts not open, hikes of 3-6 miles abound. Check out Col Raiser, Seceda, Rasciesa, and accessing the Alpe di Siusi from Ortisei at Mont Sëuc. If you drive there, you’ll probably not use your car much if at all as your lodging will give you a pass good on the busses that run through the valley and stop at the lift stations. Only Col Raiser can be a little annoying to get to without a car so early in summer, but we sometimes use a taxi for that as we are often there off-season.

Here’s an idea too, and something we have done in a couple of short stays: Spend 3 nights in Ortisei doing hikes best accessed from there like Rasciesa, Seceda, even Col Raiser. Then transfer to the AdS and stay at one of the half-pension hotels like Saltria or Panorama and treat yourself to a nice hike in the AdS without having long transfer times. The quiet at night is amazing and it is a treat to have your (exceptional) dinners arranged for you.

EDIT: No idea why the font it so weird. Cannot fix it.