How to adapt Rick Steeves 3 week tour to some car use

Hitting the highlights, most of those places offer no advantage with a car. I guess of what you have planned, you could hit Florence after Venice, then train to the CT, pick up the car in La Spezia, do Tuscany, drop the car off in Orvieto, or other town on the main rail line, and train to Naples/Amalfi coast. Likewise, you could hit the CT after Venice, do the same as above, but winding up in Florence before heading to Naples area, all about the same amount of train travel.

For Driving in Tuscany (and most of Italy) do some research on ZTLs, it will save you some later headaches.

Driving the Amalfi coast was a breeze for us in December/January 2 years ago, but I understand you might face more challenges in June. We eventually dropped our car (Europcar) off in Sorrento, a very short walk from the train station, which was very convenient.

Depending on the time you have available, consider also seeing the ruins at Herculaneum, buried in the same eruption as Pompeii.

Hmmm.... 6 different areas of Italy in 16 days. That is a little over 2 "days" per location. Minus all the travel running to and fro and it becomes even less. Seems rather rushed to me. I would suggest that you drop at least one location. Cinque Terre and Amalfi Coast are similar (lots of picturesque towns along the coast) that you should choose just one of those places. In fact, to do the Amalfi Coast area properly you would need to stay a MINIMUM of 3 nights, or more if you want to day trip to Capri. All the major cities will need a minimum of 3 nights, plus more if you intend to do any day trips.

This entire trip can easily be done by train or bus, if you day tripped to towns within Tuscany. The bus can get you to Siena from Florence in just 45 minutes. Pisa is just an hour by train. Assisi is about 2 hours by train, although its such an enjoyable town I would suggest a 2 night stay there. In most cases the trains are going to be faster than a car, and will usually take you directly from city center to city center. You wont have to worry about foreign rules of the road, ZTL's, tolls, expensive parking, and other pitfalls of driving in Italy.

I will second Angela's suggestion of choosing just one of the west-coast destinations. That was my first thought too!

So if you have 4 nights in Venice, 3 in Florence, 4 in Rome and 3-4 in Amalfi or 5-terre,... that leaves you one day for car travel.

Take a night off of each of these destinations (but I wouldn't for Venice because you should always factor in jet-lag) and you have up to five days of car travel. I like to have at least a week with the car because, first off, the price is about the same once you reach that weekly pricing break, but also, after the first stop gathering provisions, not to mention the luxury of not having to pack your shoes into your travel bag with each move,... you'll want to keep the spread out joy of that 'rolling closet' going as long as possible.

But if you were to budget only 4 or 5 days of car touring, I would recommend doing it between Siena and Orvieto.

Thanks for all your input. I realize that we may not make it to all these places . We like to make a plan, but then be flexible enough to change it if we decide to stay in one area longer. Last year, in England, we thought we might go all the way to Scotland but never made it further than the Cotswolds! Always good to have options. Several of the posts mentioned taking public transport between towns. Will we be wasting half the day waiting for the bus to come? That's one of my concerns. Seems like with a car, you can come and go as you please and not have to wait for the scheduled public transportation.

Try to find someone who has successfully and happily followed Ricks timeline. Probably harder than you think. Rick has what is often called "The Curse of Knowledge" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_knowledge) He's been to these places many times, knows how to get to them and how to get around in them. As someone new to these areas you don't. As I see it you have 3 choices: 1) try to follow his timetable which may be more stressful than you think. 2) slow it down and turn his 2-day stops into 3-day stops or more. 3) hire an expert; if you go on a RS tour they can go at a rapid pace because they have a bus to handle the logistics and a guide who is familiar with each location.

So you think you may or may not go to Cinque Terre because you want to remain flexible? It's impossible to make a hotel reservation with a "might or might not be there", and going to the Cinque Terre in June is going to require a definite hotel reservation because the place will be packed with tourists.

Flexibility is good, however you are traveling during high season in Italy. If you intend to hit places like 5-Terre you better have your hotel booked months in advance!

Public transport in Italy is very good, unless there is a strike. If you want to travel from town to town or winery to winery in Tuscany, a car can be useful. Otherwise it's just an expensive pain in the neck. Many towns don't allow traffic into the historical centers at all.

While Italy has excellent roads, in some places the train is the best way to go. Some examples:

Orvieto to Rome, the early express train gets there in 55 minutes. It would be 90, with no traffic or toll booth lines by car.

Rome to Naples, a fast train leaves every hour and takes 1:10. Driving would take nearly 2 hours.