HELP with driving in Tuscany and itinery!

Dom,
This may help http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/tuscany/hs_planning.htm

Pienza would be a GREAT base for seeing Tuscany. It's small, but big enough to offer several restaurant options so you don't have to eat at the same place every day. If you park just below town, outside the walls, it's an easy (like 5 minutes) walk into town to get to your lodging or back out to get your car for day trips to see other area towns. From there you can easily visit Montepulciano, Monticchiello, Montalcino, Siena, Cortona, LOTS of places.

If you overnight inside one of the larger towns (like Montepulciano) it's hard to drive in and find parking, and a longer hike out to the car if you park outside of downtown. If you're overnighting around places larger than Pienza, I'd recommend finding lodging with on-site parking, just outside of the town walls. It can be a pain to have to park outside a larger town and have to walk (and drag luggage) 20 minutes just to get to your lodging.

I can't advise as to a car pickup location as we got ours in Rome, but driving in the Pienza area is really easy. Mainly just country roads like you're used to at home (except they drive on the right...you'll get used to that quickly, just as I get used to driving on the left quickly when I'm in the British Isles). Just stay out of the cities (including the heart of Siena) and you'll be fine.

Dom: Your nervousness is understandable. The link provided by Henry is a good one and a careful reading of that will help you. Of course Italy will be wrong side driving for you, I believe that website is written with UK drivers in mind.

It's been said a hundred times here: avoid driving into Florence. Browse the Helpline if you have questions about why that advice is given.

Having an assurance of secure overnight parking is important, wherever you end up staying. With a rental car, accommodations outside of the center of towns/cities, with easy access to the highway, are easiest.

Send me a Private Message if you wish.

Thank you for some great advice. I think getting a train close to Pienze then getting a hire car would be best. However, we think we may leave this to next year and do it over 9 or ten days as opposed to two weeks.

By the way what are these ZTL zones you mention? Why will they cost me money? Also how do you know whcih towns you cant drive through or stop in with a car? All sounds very complicated to me!

Anyway, now looking at Croatia, like we had originally planned.

Dom,

You might consider something along these lines:

• Train from London to Paris

• Train from Paris to Florence (although that's a bit of a long trip - are you going to be stopping in Paris for a few days or is it just a transit point?).

• Stay in Florence for a few days then Bus to Siena. Rent the car there as it's a smaller town and there will be less of a problem with ZTL zones (however I believe Siena has a few of them too). From there it's a relatively short drive to Pienza.

A GPS unit would be a really good idea, along with a good Map for "backup". You might also do a quick search of the net on the towns you're planning to visit, to see which ones might have implemented ZTL zones. That will hopefully prevent you from getting any "nasty surprises" in the mail after your return home.

BTW, are you in North Yorkshire? One of my favourite areas (I'm also a Heartbeat fan).

Cheers!

Dom: Driving in Italy is going to be different, you may not realize how different until after day 1 of driving in Italy. It can be done, thousands of tourists do it--but you'll have a more pleasant experience if you start by reading the Italy Slow Travel link that was provided to you by Henry in the first reply to your original post.

After you do that--you asked about the ZTL's and if they can cost you money. Yes, they can cost you serious money, Florence hands out one of these per hour at about E100 every time your car drives by one of the dozens of cameras in the Florence ZTL. And other towns have ZTL's.

Because you live in the UK the Italian authorities may be able to enforce the fines against you easier than they can collect from Americans who don't pay.

To begin what you need to know about ZTL's, here's links you may find highly useful:http://www.bella-toscana.com/traffic_violations_italy.htmhttp://www.slowtrav.com/italy/driving/traffic_cameras_speeding.htmhttp://www.florencenewspaper.it/vediarticolo.asp?id=a7.12.04.17.14