Driving Advice: Rome-Florence-Cinque Terre-Rome

Doable. I haven't driven to Riomagiore. You won't need a car there. Easy train from La Spezia (which has parking). The drive down the coast is pretty, give yourself time to stop in a couple of places on the way down. We went into a grocery store, grabbed some pieces of pizza, and drove out to the beach and had picnic. Great fun.

I can't answer the doable question as everyone is different with respect to their tolerance of driving. I find driving anything above 4 hours to be uncomfortable yet many Americans would think nothing of such a drive.

Airports are amongst the best places to rent a car as they usually have the largest choice of rental agencies and vehicles. A simple online search will bring up many, cost differs quite variably with the major, more reliable companies being the most expensive. If the price appears too good to be true then avoid it as it will invariably result in a number of required add ons when you arrive to collect your car. The fleet at many of the cheaper agencies are not as new or as well maintained as the larger, more expensive ones. I typically book via rentalcars.com or Ryanair car rental usually comes out cheapest. They're an intermediary and I've often rented from Hertz via them at a significant discount than booking direct.

As for gas stations, how do you find them when you're driving at home? They're as ubiquitous as anywhere else although if you have a GPS you can locate them using it.

You could take the train to Orvieto, and rent your car there after you've spent the night. Give yourselves more of a chance to adjust to the time zone and catch up on sleep before getting behind the wheel.

Gas stations are frequent with a couple of cautions. Many are unmanned, some are both, so you must a chip and pin credit card to use them. Second of the manned ones most are closed on Sunday so make sure you have a full tank on Saturday night.

1. Done it many times, so I guess it’s doable. From my house in Florence to Riomaggiore it’s about 2+ hour drive (take the A11 then the A12 freeways, exit at La Spezia). From La Spezia exit you drive around the port on city streets (there is traffic at times). Follow directions to PORTOVENERE, RIOMAGGIORE. Be careful of when the streets split: Portovenere straight, Riomaggiore slight right. This is after you go around the port area. Then the road goes up for a beautiful view of the Gulf of La Spezia. After you go through the tunnel keep an eye for the Riomaggiore turn off. If you go straight you end up in Manarola. From the turn off to Riomaggiore it’s a steep descent through a seriously narrow two way road. Remember the rule when two vehicles meet at a narrow point: the car going downhill must yield to the car coming uphill. So going to Riomaggiore you will be going downhill, so when encountering a vehicle coming up, find a spot on the right and let the other car pass. I hope you or your spouse know how to negotiate a car through narrow spaces, or you will be leaving a lot of car paint on the walls. Once you reach Riomaggiore, the two story car park is on the left passed the barrier. The car will stay put inside for your entire stay. You will walk and use trains, boats while at the Cinque Terre.
2. I use www.autoeurope.com or www.kemwel.com, two consolidators part of the same group. I generally select their Europcar or Hertz deals, which are two of the largest companies operating in Italy. I always choose the zero deductible insurance option, which costs only $4 extra per day. Insurance in Italy is mandatory and you can’t decline it, but the deductibles can be stiff ($2000) so it’s good to choose zero deductible for peace of mind, especially in your case given the significan chance you might scrape the walls at the Cinque Terre. Gas stations are ubiquitous. They have full serve and self serve pumps. Since the price difference is not significant I often choose full serve (also because diesel fuel smells bad on your hands). Only self service is available after 730pm and on Sunday (except for the freeways). Afterhours gas stations don’t have anybody, not even the cashier, so you must use the automatic kiosk. The kiosk accepts chip and PIN cards or cash bills. They don’t give change, so if you use cash bills don’t put more than your tank can take. A car for 4 people needs to be at least a compact, if not a midsize, therefore your car will be likely a diesel. Diesel fuel is cheaper than gasoline and costs about 1.35€/Liter currently. A full tank on a compact is about 40 liters, so even if you are almost empty your car won’t take much more than 50€ of fuel.

If you will ever be stopping for a meal or sightseeing on your way to a new hotel, it's essential that your car have a large enough trunk to store all your possessions while you're away from the car. And you shouldn't transfer things to the trunk after you arrive at the parking lot, either. Way too much risk of theft. Trunk capacity is a problem. You'll all need to pack light.

If your wife and/or oldest child are potential drivers, they will need an international driving permit (from your local AAA office if you're American) in conjunction with their US driver's licenses.

Many travelers who don't do any research about driving in Italy before their trips end up with very expensive traffic tickets following them home. Check now for information on international signage (of course), use of speeding camera, and presence of areas where you will not be permitted to drive (ZTLs, bus lanes and the like).

Thank You all for your responses. They are very helpful for my planning needs.

Yes, it's doable. But with regard to "...and any potential issue?" please consider this even if you have driven in Italy before. Upon arrival you'll probably be sleepy, somewhat jet lagged, and perhaps not familiar with the roads. That combination of conditions, in my opinion, might be an accident waiting to happen. Some people (and you may be one) are quite capable of driving under those conditions, but many are driving somewhat impaired and just don't realize it. And some are complete zombies who should be kept away from sharp instruments. You can easily take the train to Orvieto, stay the night to recover, and then rent the car. Even a minor fender bender at the start of a trip will put a damper on the whole trip. Just something to think about.

Note about the gas stations:
Bring cash with you when driving ; you may need it for tolls or the gas stations.

Most tolls the chip credit cards from the US would work but occasionally one wouldn't.

Gas stations if they are manned will accept US credit cards which they will be during normal hours but during lunch time (they all close multiple hours for lunch!) or at night and even on Sunday they will be open but no one there.
You can pay at the pump at those times, yet the gas pumps almost never accept a credit card from the US without an attendee on hand.
They in most all cases will have a way to pay with cash though, so if you have cash the only issue is you may end up overpaying since they accept cash and do not dispense change.

Oddly since they are used to these pumps running unmanned I believe you can get gas at more hours of the day than you can in the US. I don't think any gas stations in the US dispense gas when no one is working.