My family (husband and two elementary-school aged children) will be picking up a rental car in Venice and driving to Montepulciano in early June. I'm looking for suggestions of interesting drives/stops on the way. (We'll pick up the car around 10 am but won't be checking in to our rental house until 4 pm, so a leisurely drive would be great).
Thanks!
It’s a 4 hour drive plus pit stops, almost entirely on 4 to 8 lane freeways.
I would stop for lunch at one of the many rest stops on the freeway at an Autogrill restaurant, that way you don’t need to exit the freeway system. By the time you are done and drive the rest of the way it’s time to check in.
The drive is mostly a boring flat plain up to Bologna. Then the freeway goes underground under the Appennines mountain range in some of the longest tunnels you’ve ever seen. The Tuscan part is a bit more interesting. Once you exit the freeway at VALDICHIANA, after Arezzo, right near the exit there are the outlets of Foiano, if you want to do some shopping, before taking the road up to Montepulciano.
Thanks! That's really helpful info. I'd been envisioning working in some sightseeing along the way but that doesn't sound feasible. Would you recommend taking a train to Florence or Siena instead and then picking up a rental car? I'd read on some other sites people said it would be easier to just drive straight from Venice.
