We are traveling to Italy for 16 days in July with our arrival and departure in Venice. I have reserved 3 nights in Venice at the end of the trip. In between, we are planning on visiting CT (4 nights), Florence (3 nights), Siena (maybe 2 nights) and a car for a few days in Umbria(3 -4 nights). Other than Venice, we are not sure about the order of our trip and are still deciding on whether or not to brave il Palio.
As we begin to work on our itinerary, do we need to take into consideration weekend schedules? In other words, can we pick up and return rental cars on Saturdays and Sundays? Will we have trouble getting trains or buses on Sundays? Bottom-line, do we need to avoid Sunday as a travel day?
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area (USA)
16231 posts
First of all you are visiting Venice plus Tuscany/Umbria. It might have been better to look for an open jaw (multicity) flight arriving in Florence and departing back to the US from Venice (or viceversa). You could save time and money of going down from Venice and then coming back to it. Train fare from Venice to Florence is over 40 euro per person one way. If you haven't bought tickets yet, look for that option. Saturdays in Italy are the same as working days. Sundays may have limited hours at rental car offices in the city. I'm sure most will be open at least in the morning. Airport locations should be open (however it costs less to rent from the city center office rather than the airport). Trains and buses may have more limited schedules on Sundays, but not by much. Basically you might have 1 bus every 2 hours to Siena rather than 1 per hour. The only problem with Sunday travel is that lots of Italians also travel on Sundays (day trips etc.). That might mean a lot of Sunday drivers coming back to the city on Sunday evening or more crowded trains coming back from the seaside. I remember coming back from Siena on Sunday evenings would mean spending a lot of time in bumper to bumper traffic on the Siena-Florence freeway before the tunnel at Tavarnuzze. Seaside locations (such as the Cinque Terre) tend to get crowded on Sat and Sundays, particularly in Summer, when it's virtually impossible to find parking. If you drive to Siena on the day of the Palio, expect major delays, also good luck finding parking in Siena that day. If you can stay put in a place on Sunday (for example in Florence), you'll avoid the crowds (and traffic) of day tripping Italians. The only advantage of Sunday driving is that big commercial trucks aren't allowed on the road unless they transport perishables.
Posted by
Tresana, Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
23660 posts
One other consideration is that many museums, etc., are closed on Monday since they are open on the weekend.