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help with itinerary

Posted by on

I just need a little help with the details of an itinerary. We plan to fly into Rome. Leaving June 23, 2015 and fly out of Rome July 9th.
Our basic itinerary would be to stay in Rome 24, 25, 26 then take the train to Florence for the 27, 28, 29th, take the train to Cinque Terre and stay the night of June 30, July 1 then leave on July 2 and stay in an Agriturismo in Cretaile and explore the small towns in Tuscany from the July 2-7 and then return to Rome and fly out on the 9th. My main question is where we would get a rental car after leaving Cinque Terre and could the rental car be returned in Rome? Or is there a better way to arrange this itinerary so we aren't back tracking etc.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks, Karla

Posted by
5301 posts

Karla,

You have 15 nights to work with on this trip.

Is this your first time traveling to Italy?

Do you have any plans to visit Venice?

If you have not booked your flights & want to visit Venice, I'd fly into Venice & then travel South to Florence> CT> Tuscany> then fly out of Rome.

If you have booked your flights & you are flying in & out of Rome, I'd go to The Cinque Terre (CT) the day you arrive, then train to Florence, rent a car in Florence to drive in Tuscany then return car in Rome.

So your itinerary would look something like this:

  • Fly into Rome 6/24 > train to CT (3 Nights)-- you do not need a car in CT
  • train from CT to Florence (3-4N)
  • rent car in Florence & drive to desired villages in Tuscany
  • Tuscany villages (4-5N)
  • drive to Rome (4-5 N)
  • fly home out of Rome

Keep in mind that the day of arrival, you will be jet lagged, so you won't do much in terms of sightseeing.

Also 2 nights in any destination equals 1 full day of sightseeing; 3 nights = 2 full days, 4 nights = 3 full days & so on...

Remember that each day that you relocate, you will lose up to half of that day (checking-in/ out of hotel, getting to train station, waiting for train, transit time, walking to hotel, checking in, unpacking, getting situated to new location, etc, etc..)

Make sure you book your hotels now especially in CT as June is very crowded & busy!

Posted by
16895 posts

You can usually pick up and drop off cars at different locations in Italy with no extra fee. Pick up points near the Cinque Terre include La Spezia (closest) as well as Pisa, Siena, and others.

Posted by
8371 posts

I'll agree with Priscilla about your trip. I'd suggest flying into Venice and out of Rome--open jaw. It's more time efficient to fly that way and backtracking can be expensive.

We went with a Hertz car rental that was arranged by AutoEurope.com. And instead of driving into Rome, we left our car at Hertz' rental office across the street from the train station in Orvieto. It's a 70 minute train ride to Rome Termini. Orvieto is a very popular hill town and a great place to stay before going into Rome. I think it took us about 90 minutes to drive down there from Siena.

Posted by
11613 posts

For the distances you are covering, especially for the segment involving a car, I think you would lose no more than 1/2 day to travel and checking in. That doesn't include possibly getting lost, though.

I agree that flying into one city and out of another is a good idea to avoid backtracking; if you are not planning to visit Venice, you can fly into Genova, take the train to Cinque Terre, then go to Florence, rent a car on your way out of Florence to Cretaile and on to Rome, where you can drop off the car before you settle in.

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