Driving in Italy

Last summer, we rented a car (actually, a huge minivan, for our family of 5) when we left Rome, headed South to Vesuvius, Pompeii, Sorrento, then North through Tuscany to Florence, to Pisa, Cinque Terre, then Venice, where we dropped the car upon arrival.

Not once did we ever regret the decision to drive.

Have fun!

We spent 5 weeks in Italy driving last fall and in our opinion you need nerves of steal to drive practically anywhere in Italy -- not just in the big cities....but definitely avoid them completely if possible.

Our first obstacle was getting on/off the autostrada - when you are getting on, you drive up to the gate and there is a ticket machine on your left - here you pull the ticket out of the machine which will lift the gate up. You keep this ticket and store it in your car until you exit the autostrada. When you exit the autostrada you again approach the gate and ticket machine, but this time you insert the ticket into the machine which calculates how much you owe and then you insert your money accordingly. Yes, this sounds simple and it is once you figure out how it works. When we first arrived in Italy we had no idea what to do so we pushed the help button on the ticket machine only to get yelled at in Italian -- and then the gate mysteriously opened so we drove thru, only to get the same treatment when we tried to get off the autostrada, plus we were slapped with a 50 euro fine for not having the ticket from the machine where we entered the freeway.

Definitely get yourself a GPS as most streets don't have any signs on them so it is very difficult to navigate around with a map....especially in the smaller towns.

I wouldn't suggest driving to Cinque Terre but rather leave the car in La Spezia and take the train there. Sure its possible to drive in but the roads are extremely narrow and the parking is minimal and expensive. You won't need a car there at all.

In the smaller towns of Italy the roads are quite narrow with next to no shoulders on them...and in most cases the shoulders of the roads are replaced with stone/brick walls...also you have to navigate around pedestrians, scooters, and other cars on the road.

I am sorry to make it sound so bleak but just prepare yourself and drive slowly..its an entirely different driving experience there!

Some of the most candid and realistic advice for those who haven't driven before in Italy can be found here http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/driving/index.htm

In 2006 we drove from Malpensa airport, Venice, Umbria , Tuscany, and to the south Sorrento, Positano for a month. We obtained maps at the information office in each region and had no problem navigating - we only used one major highway as we enjoyed doing the secondary roads. What a pleasure. I was the navigator and my husband drove. He was nervous when going into small towns in Tuscany and Umbria but we took our time. Had a ball. The only real difficult time was returning the car into central Rome coming from Sorrento. Had to hop out and ask directions several times but we made it. Make it an adventure and you will be fine. I agree with the previous post- do not drive in Cinque Terre - take the train in. As per other threads the road between Positano and Amalfi is closed for construction - for how long no one knows. Take the ferry from Sorrento or Positano to Amalfi and if you do that then take the bus (right on the docks to Ravello - breathtaking. Both Nominal fares
In any case have fun.

Since we often can get a car for free (i.e. only pay for gas) we've seen quite a few countries by car incl. Germany, Czech Republic/Slovakia, Poland, Benelux countries, France, Switzerland, Austria and yes, Italy. Especially if you're interested in seeing more of the country side rather than larger centres or if you're travelling with a group of more than 2 people it can certainly make a lot of sense to use this mode of transportation.

However, Italy was by far the most stressful country we ever experienced. Streets are very narrow, especially in smaller towns, so try to get the smallest car that will fit your group and luggage. A GPS definitely helps A LOT!

I would not recommend driving in Italy if you've never driven outside Northamerica before. And if you decide to try it anyway please please do familiarize yourself with the rules of the road!!! They are not the same as they are in your hometown. The example of the autostrada tolls is only a minor inconvenience compared to what some of the other travellers here on the helpline have experienced.

And I agree with the posters re. CT: we also left the car in La Spezia, took the boat to Monterosso and the train back to La Spezia.

May I suggest that you get the smallest car that will carry you and your stuff. With the small streets and tight parking, a smaller vehicle is a real plus.

I also second having a GPS with moving map. Finding your way around in cities and towns can be difficult, even if you're somewhat familiar with the area. Having one person act as navigator while the other drives is the way to go.

We found no problem at all driving a car in Italy...it was great! We stayed away from the big cities (you can take a train to them) and traveled over hill and dale; it was delightful! A map is all you need for this adventure, and we found getting a bit lost to be the most fun, lots to discover. No GPS for us. By the way, we found driving in Ireland far more stressful, with everything opposite of how we are used to driving. Italy was a breeze!

I have a question about something that's been mentioned a couple times in this thread, about difficulty driving in the small towns. I was under the impression that most of these towns had car parks outside the walls. That was what I was planning to do for an upcoming trip because it just sounded easier to park for free outside the walls, walk or bus in, and avoid all possible ZTLs and other such headaches about driving inside the towns. Is this unwise?

Debra,

there were a number of places where we indeed parked our car outside a historical centre that has a ZLT, e.g. Siena, San Giminiano, Volterra, Barberino Val d'Elsa ... just to name a few. And most of them had very well signed parking "Parcheggio" outside the walls. However, not all towns are walled towns and just to get to our B&B in Torca we had to navigate some very narrow streets and needed help to get into the parking space. In fact, as quiet as this little hamlet is, you might get woken up at 6 am by all the honking that goes on when drivers announce they're entering a hidden curve on the road!

We scraped our car when we were heading for a parking lot in Sorrento and the GPS told us to go down a narrow street that ended in a dead end. The only way to get out was driving in reverse. In the end a young Italian gentleman took pity on us and drove the car out of the tight spot for us - after we already dinged it against one of those low pillars (hard to see in your mirrors) they put up to discourage people from parking ...

We drove a Fiat Bravo, about the size of a VW Golf, which was the largest car we saw in that area. Never seen that many Fiat 500 in my life, the old (my sunday school teacher had one for her family of five 30 years ago!) and the new ones. And every second car was missing one or both outside mirrors ...

Our B&B hosts hardly ever use their car but prefer their vespas as they are much easier to ride in those narrow streets.

For us, driving in Campania/Sorrento Peninsula was stressful for that reason. And getting out of Rome from the rental pick-up at Termini. Tuscany, Umbria, Pisa, La Spezia offered rathre peaceful driving.

Thanks Kent and Beatrix. I'll be traveling solely in Tuscany this time and staying at an agriturismo, so I think I will just stick to following the directions in Rick's book and the Blue Guide Tuscany book for the parking outside the walls wherever possible - sounds MUCH easier!

I drive every day in Italy. If you pay attention and have a GPS you will be fine. I think the biggest thing to know is Italians (and all Europeans) drive agressivly, but they are very safe because there are laws in place that prevent them from being distracted when they drive. Also just a friendly piece of advice there are no semi trucks on the autostrada on Sundays. So if you have a long way to go think of driving on a Sunday. OH and unless you have a death with NEVER EVER stop in a traffic circle...or at least not a busy one. Umbria was wonderful by car. We got to see sites that I would have never seen otherwise. The amalfi coast was a bit stressful, but again with our car we could go places we never would have seen otherwise.

We too rented a car when we visited Italy about 5 years ago in order to drive through Tuscany. We actually gave up our train tickets in order to drive from Tuscany to Venice. We absolutely loved it. We are going to do it again in October. It is a little stressful but the adventure is well worth it! There is so much to see. I have to admit the autostrata is an experience, but you just get on and go with the flow!

I enjoyed driving in Italy although I did not drive in the big cities. The gps suggestion is a good one. Never felt we needed one having relied on maps on previous trips but decided to give it a try our last time and now will not go without it. It just makes things so much easier. Still take a map however.
I would not discourage you from driving to Cinque Terre if you knew you could find a parking place but that could be a shot in the dark depending on the time of year you go. The drive to the parking lot above Vernazza is a twisting narrow road and if that bothers you then skip it. This link gives you an idea of the drive.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ProfileGallery-i17920788.html

Here is a site that can help with driving in Italy.

http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/driving/index.htm

One thing that hasn't been mentioned yet is that you need to get an Int'l Drivers License. You get these at AAA, they are around $20 and good for one year. It isn't actually a license, its just a translation of your USA license into many different languages. So you are required to carry both your valid USA license and this one. In Europe you can be pulled over and asked to show it without any cause needed at all; we got stopped 2 or 3 times in the Tuscany region. You come around a corner, there are a pair of officers standing beside the road and if they point to you and the side of the road, you pull over. It was no big deal, showed them the license and were on our way in a minute or so.

A GPS is a real godsend, but don't neglect to have a map of the area too. It's hard to plan a day's driving on a 3" screen, we found it helpful to have an overall idea of what towns were were going to in what order by looking at a larger map.

One great thing a car gives you is serendipity; you're driving by some village that pops up in the countryside; go in and wander around, have a cup of coffee. In Le Marche we ended up visiting a few places just this way, had a great time! Just because it isn't in RS or some other guide book doesn't mean you can't visit it...

Last October my wife and I and another couple rented a VW wagon and drove from Milan to Florence, throughout the Maremma and into Umbria. A total of 9 days, not one problem. The roads are well marked and in great shape. We arrived in Rome and I dropped the ladies off at the hotel and went directly to the train station to return the car (no need for the car in Rome). Last week I received two traffic violations in the mail for my 45 minute drive thru Rome! My suggestion - drop the car off at the airport and take the train into the city!

Don's post adds yet another good reason supporting what has become the standard advice given on this forum regarding driving in Rome and other Italian cities with ZTL's: Don't.It's not like here, there are alternatives to driving everywhere in your rental car, and penalties if you assume it's like here and try to drive everywhere.In 2008 Florence handed out a ZTL violation every minute. All enforced by automatic cameras, so you get nailed every time but don't know when or if or how many $125 violations you'll get in the mail until months after you return.Think how many of these fines are being handed out that we don't hear about here!Don: thank you for sharing your bad news here, so that others can learn. Driving through Italian cities with ZTL's makes for stress and financial uncertainty. It's not like here: there are financial penalties for just automatically doing what you'd do here and going everywhere in your rental car. We're trying to get the word out.

Whether or not driving is bad in the cities is not as important as whether or not you will be allowed to enter at all. Taking the bus into the center of town is so, so much easier than figuring out where you are going to leave your car before entering the city.

But, you asked about the country. It's true driving is easy and orderly in the countryside, but expectations of other drivers are very, very different. So, do your homework before you drive or you will be a nuisance and wonder people are are tailgating you or honking their horn. As a sweeping generalization Italians drive better than we do, albeit faster, so you need to adapt to their ways.

I do recommend that you get a car for PART of your trip, but not all of it. Use it to get off the beaten path, explore the Italy that's not in the guidebooks, drive the backroads and the small towns not served by transit. Don't rent a car because you think "driving won't be so bad." or to get from point a to b.

A car is great for Tuscany, Umbria, but not for cities like Bologna. Consider for example, that you can't drive your car into CT. You will need to find safe parking for the duration of your stay.

Driving takes a lot of work and research. You should not do it casually. You should only consider it if it is vital to experience your destination, and in your case it probably is at times. But, it's not worth doing when it's just a substitute for the bus and the train.

Amen to Linda's post. The car is great in Tuscany and Umbria which are not served as well by public transportation. Otherwise, take the train; your trip will be a lot less stressful. I wouldn't recommend driving on the Amalfi coast unless you are very skilled-it's not the road, it's the heavy traffic, and the huge tour buses. We rented scooters in Sorrento which may seem foolhardy but you have a lot more room to maneuver (and we ride motorcycles in the US). However you travel the Amalfi coast, go later in the afternoon and the traffic isn't nearly as heavy.

Regarding ZTL's and GPS--my TomTom indicated the ZTL's and directed me around them. So far (and it has been over a year since I was there) I haven't heard anything from the friend on whose credit card our car rental was charged about receiving tickets from Italy. I even drove in the outskirts of Florence (NEVER AGAIN!). Other than Florence, I actually enjoyed driving in Italy. I have lived in a lot of different places in the US with all kinds of driving styles and quickly adapted to the aggressive driving there. It also helped that I have driven on a lot of different toll roads so the toll booths didn't give me any trouble. Because we were a group of 4, renting a car was actually cheaper than buying train tickets so this mode of travel made the most sense for us. For two, trains may be a better deal.

I'm wondering about the GPS. Do you rent one in Italy, or can I use my own Garmin? If I use my own, do I need to buy an Italian software for it? I'm leaving for Italy in 2 weeks, and plan on renting a car, staying in Florence, possibly driving to Rome. Only now I'm not so sure.

About European maps for a Garmin GPS: I'm not sure whether it's possible to load Euro maps into all the models at all (with most Magellans, for example, you can't). Some come with them pre-loaded--we just bought a Nuvi 270 just to get the maps--they're available all over for well under $200 (end of the product life, some refurbished), and with not too much trouble (on a very fast connection) you can get a free update to the latest map European set. I tried to check on the Garmin site to see which models accept European maps and how much they cost, but it makes you step through a tedious process. Buy.com is easier--it shows the City Navigator NT SD Card for Europe from $113 to $241.

Before we left for our 10 day driving trip we kept reading that the roads were closed on the Amalfi coast. We just got back. Drove the whole coast. No closure except for periods of 15 minutes every hour in the middle of the day. They are installing netting on the mountain. The drive was so exciting for the passengers, not so fun for the driver, who can't dare take his eyes off the road. Very worthwhile to drive! Bought a Garmin $139 GPS, it was a lifesaver