Four of us will be traveling in August and we are wondering at the feasibility of renting a car near Venice, driving to La Spezia or Pisa and dropping it off, taking the train into Cinque Terre. We have taken the train that route when it was just 2 of us but we were thinking it might be fun to drive it and save a few euros at the same time. Has anyone tried this? I know we wouldn't need the car in CT. What about doing something similar to Rome but dropping the car off once we were near the city and taking the train in the rest of the way?
Posted by
Knoxville, TN, USA
7209 posts
The train easily services both of those routes (Venice-> CT, CT->Rome). The train is so easy I can't see why you would want the hassle of a rental car for a day just to get from V to CT. Actually you might have a very big problem with renting a car for only 1 day. By the time you get the rental car facility, go through the paperwork, load the car, pay for toll roads, find the car dropoff point, get to the train station to continue to your destination of CT...whew not even considering the possibility of fender benders...you will have wasted a lot of time, effort, and money to do the car thing.
Personally I wouldn't dream of renting a car between these destinations when the train is so simple.
Posted by
OP
St. Louis, MO (formerly, Windermere, FL)
340 posts
We have done the route by train and thought it might be interesting to try it by car and stop at an interesting looking village or 2 along the way. Your advice is definitely worth considering. We have driven in France and Germany but never Italy. After checking Europebycar.com the cost to rent a midsize station wagon for a day including taxes, tolls, gas and insurance is almost half the cost of 4 point to point rail tickets. But, perhaps the aggravation of driving and worrying about getting lost or in an accident isn't worth it.
Posted by
Gettysburg, PA
1589 posts
If saving money is the prime factor, use the train. No contest.
Posted by
OH, OH, USA
1158 posts
I am a pro car rental, but sometimes traveling by train is cheaper.
Most likely there will be drop-off charges.
The gas in Europe is very expensive $7-8 /gal
I rented a car years ago from europcar.com, but we got a very good rate because we rented for 3 weeks.
To check train ticket prices go to Trenitalia.com --official site
Posted by
Portlandia
3313 posts
If you use Autoeurope you're not likely to have to pay drop charges within Italy. It would be very easy to pick up a rental at Piazzale Roma in Venice and get on the road from there. You don't have to deal with urban traffic getting out of Venice. Drop in La Spezia.
Posted by
Vicenza, Italy
319 posts
Do not drive toward the beach (CT) on a friday, saturday or sunday in Italy. That is when many Italians head to the beach for their week long vacations. You would be stuck in traffic for hours. It is especially bad in Blogona and Florence. I have seen many travelers get out of thier car and have a picnick while thier car is still parked in traffic. Yes trunk picnicks! It may be a little better driving CT to Rome. but not much
Posted by
Okanagan Valley, BC, Canada
37 posts
Hi Lise,
We drove our rental car to the CT and we would never do it again!....We were there last Sept. The roads are very narrow and winding plus the parking is minimal and expensive! I don't think you would be saving any euros driving there as opposed to taking the train in from somewhere close by.
As for your trip into Rome, you could drive to Orvieto - which is a wonderful town with lots to see and do.........then drop the rental car off there and take the train into Rome (which I hear takes about 1 hour).