driving from rome to padova and back to rome

We can give a much better answer if you give us more info: for example, how much time you have for this?

WE ARRIVE IN ROME ON JUNE 29 AND MUST BE IN PADOVA THURSDAY AND FRIDAY WE ARE THEN FREE UNTIL JULY9 AS WE WILL DRIVE BACK TO ROME TO RETURN HOME

Padua is in the middle of a big flat valley - kind of like the San Joaquin only with cheese and ham. There are hills nearby, but they aren't terribly interesting. Are you talking about attempting a day trip?

I think they mean they would like places to see along the route...i.e. the Tuscan Hill Towns, etc. ;-)

YES WE WOULD LIKE TO SEE PLACES ALONG THE WAY SUCH AS THE HILL TOWNS

WE CAN DO DAY TRIPS OR STAY IN TOWNS ALONG THE WAY WE ARE REALLY OPEN

WE ARRIVE JUNE 29 AND MUST BE IN PADUA ON JULY1 WE CAN LEAVE ON JULY 2 WE MUST BE AT THE AIRPORT IN ROME ON JULY 9 TO RETURN HOME

This is a bit of an odd itinerary, with you starting in Rome, going to Padova in a bit of a hurry (Padova is just to the west of Venice), and then going all the way back to Rome.

But be that as it may, here's an overall plan:

Because you'll have a car, avoid the cities and larger towns as much as you can. Looks like there's time pressure to get to Padova. Go to googlemaps.com or viamichelin.com to input your driving route and get travel times so you make it to Padova on time.

pick up the rental car at the Rome airport, not in the city

many people don't feel like driving too much on the first day, if they've flown all night, jet lag, unfamiliar driving conditions, etc

avoid driving into the larger towns and cities, you'll understand why if you make that mistake; try to go around them, both on your way to Padova and your way back.

on the way back, think seriously about not driving into Florence (it's a long story)

A car is a very good way of exploring the Tuscany hill towns. But to know which hill towns you want to see, well, we can't plan your whole trip for you, you wouldn't want us to have all the fun, would you? So buy a book, and soon, this is next week, right? Rick Steves has written one but half of it is about Florence and you probably want to avoid Florence on this trip.

You can have a nice driving trip, on the way back from Padova to Rome, exploring the Tuscany hill towns. So the strategy would be to head directly from Padova to the Tuscany hill towns. You have some homework to do, to figure out the details of what you want to see in Tuscany. There are many places to go, we can't sort all that out for you here.

Happy travels.

bonnie,

just an FYI...there are "Hill Towns" in lots of regions of Italy so I think that was maybe the confusion...Tuscany does have hill towns, true...and if you do a search I'm sure you will find many Tuscany ideas...en route, you certainly could also visit Ferrara, Bologna, Florence, and Arezzo without venturing off a direct driving route to Rome. Why don't you use a mapping program and see your route and decide on stops that work with your drive times? Those are some of the most popular tourist spots in Italy...so it would be VERY hard to narrow it down! p.s. when you use ALL CAPS is reads as if you are yelling at us ;-)

There is a large amount of information available on Rick's website about this subject

For Rick's list of Tuscany hill towns (some might be in Umbria)

go here for list of Tuscany hill towns

For other information about this area

go here and scroll dwon