How to get around Tuscany without a car

You have to do the trip in a way that makes you comfortable. Not being a women, I cannot pretend to know your state of mind, however driving in Tuscany, especially if you use secondary roads is relatively easy. Make sure you have a gps and drive.

For the Cinque Terre a car is not necessary and a train to Venice is logical. If you rent a car drop it in La Spezia and take a train to the Cinque Terre.

Have a great trip.

Linda,

It's relatively easy to reach all the places you've mentioned by train. However, it's difficult to offer much specific advice without having a better idea of your overall Itinerary, time frame, etc.

If you can drive at home you can drive in Italy. They drive on the same side of the road. Knowing the language is not necessary to drive especially because European road signs are self explanatory symbols. Just google 'road signs in Italy' and you will find anything you need to know. Just stay out of ancient city centers in all towns, traffic is prohibited in many historical centers. Just park outside the ancient city walls.

Bob,
Where would you suggest I rent a car if we decide to drive? Should I rent outside of Florence to avoid the city? You suggested where to return it but where do you suggest to rent it from?
Thanks
Linda

Linda,

if you decide to rent a car, a few important things to keep in mind....

• you'll need the compulsory International Driver's Permit, which is used in conjunction with your home D.L. You can easily obtain an IDP at any AAA office, and they're valid for one year.
• you'll need to be vigilant to avoid the dreaded ZTL (limited traffic) areas which exist in many Italian towns and cities. Each pass through one of these areas will result in hefty fines, which you won't know about until several months after you return home when unexpected charges start occurring on your credit card.

If you're planning to only go to places in Tuscany that are reasonably well served by public transit, I'm not sure there's any need to rent a car. However, there are also some potentially expensive "caveats" to be aware of when using public transit in Italy. If you need more information on that, post another note.

Ken
I prefer not to rent a car but from what I am being told it is very difficult to get to Cortona without one. What are the potentially expensive "caveats" you are referring to? I am wondering if it will be too difficult to go there but there is a cooking class at an Italian woman's villa that I really want to go to. Advice?
Linda

I get around Tuscany by bus and train, but some schedules can be difficult, especially on Sunday'.

To get to Cortona, there is a train that stops several kilometers out of town, a bus (or taxi) can take you the rest of the way. There is parking at the foot of the city, if you decide to drive; just take a bus from there to the city center.

I am not familiar with Lari, but perhaps you can find similar tours in places that are more conveniently located.

Edit: just looked at images of Lari, it's on my list for next year.

I prefer not to rent a car but from what I am being told it is very difficult to get to Cortona without one.

Talk to different people. I think you've learned more about your friends than you have about traveling.

Here is a picture from Google Maps of the train station. https://goo.gl/ooDOXg The building on the right is the small train station. That canopy on the left, 50 feet away? That's the bus stop. You can buy tickets from the driver. Just make sure it's the right bus. Dead ahead, those closed metal doors? That's the tabacchi that can also sell you bus tickets. Maybe they're closed for lunch in this picture, or maybe they've gone out of business since we were there; it happens. But how hard does this look to you?

We are not wanting to drive ourselves being two girls and not knowing the language

We've traveled in Tuscany by car, also by using the train. You know which is harder? Public transit. Buses get re-routed due to road work or parades (we had the latter happen). Trains are delayed. If you don't speak the language, it is quite difficult to understand when someone is trying to tell you the bus isn't going to stop here today, or the train has moved to another track, or to ask for help when you are confused. Basically as long as things are working the way you expect you are fine, but if there is any wrinkle it becomes, shall we say, an adventure. And hopefully it has since changed, but when we were there small train stations like Cortona did not have the modern ATM-like ticket machine with an English menu option but an old-fashioned wall-mounted machine with prompts only in Italian. Here are instructions on how to use one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_tHUCgFsWo

When we went to Cortona we parked in the lot below town visible here https://goo.gl/7HC4GY When driving in Italy bringing a GPS that you know how to use is key. Also obey all speed limits and be careful of ZTL areas (in the countryside, generally the interior of towns).

I'm not trying to push you to drive. It is a convenience and opens up access to many towns that are not near a rail line. By train, just pick places with stops nearby, that still leaves a lot to choose from. For hilltowns often you need to take a bus from the base on up. Do the work before your trip to figure out train schedules to your chosen towns. Browse the web for info about the towns you pick; often someone has already done the work of figuring out how to get into town (eg can you walk, do you need a bus, etc). And be sure to find out when arriving in each town how often the buses down the hill run so you can catch your train back out of town.

It's reasonably easy to get to Cortona from Florence. 1 1/2 hrs by train and a short 6 minute bus
ride into town.

For tickets and to look at the schedule, go to http://www.trenitalia.com/tcom-en.
Input a date in the next seven days to see a complete timetable.

The stations must be entered in Italian. Firenza SMN-Camucia-Cortona. 1H21m

For Lari, it's about a 90 minute trip, train and bus.

Firenza SMN-Pontedera 50 min. Bus 42min. Here I would check with the tour to
see if the can pick you up at the station.

Next the Cinque Terre, Pontedera-La Spezia 1H25m I don't know which town you're staying
in but most will require a change in La Spezia.

We don't know your path of travel, but would suggest Venice, Florence, Cortona, Lari,
then the Cinque Terre.

Would help if we knew where you were flying in and out of.

Linda, I'm a middle aged woman who spent a week driving in Tuscany last year as part of a longer trip. My Italian language skills are very limited, and although driving had its challenges (roads are narrow, and they drive fast on the backroads and are prone to tailgating), bus transportation (on which we relied during other parts of the trip) was often much more challenging than driving. Italy is a safe place, and if you encounter car trouble, people are likely to be very friendly and helpful. If you go equipped with both a GPS and maps, drive at your own speed and let people pass you, and stay out of big cities, I think you'll be fine. If you elect to rent a car, note that cars with automatic transmissions have limited availability - you may have to rent at an airport if you can't handle a standard transmission.

Have gotten to Cortona twice now without a car and is very easy really. Take the train to Camucia and take the bus up into town. Just make sure you take the correct bus. School busses stop there also and do NOT take you all the way into Cortona, but let you off outside the walls with a uphill steep walk.

Linda,
We were in Tuscany in December. Our primary transportation was car, but we did use public transportation. Whichever you choose, you can have a pleasant trip with adequate preparation.

First, are you comfortable driving and are good at map reading and using a GPS? Can you drive a car with a manual transmission? You can rent automatics, but they are more expensive.

We don't speak Italian and had no problems driving and reading traffic signs. You'll be surprised how fast you pick up Italian words and phrases even on a short trip. We actually needed to understand Italian more when using public transportation.

We took a bus from Greve to Florence and we were the only non-locals on the bus! We thought the bus we too went to the bus terminal in Florence. The driver spoke very limited English. The last person on the bus had a long conversation with him and came back to tell us the bus didn't go into the terminal (I think he was supposed to). She was very helpful and told us what stop to get off and what in town bus to take to get us to our tour meeting point. Folks on the local bus were also helpful and we succeeded to get off at the correct stop with 10 minutes to spare. This, of course, wasn't what we were expecting, but we didn't panic and put ourselves in the hands of friendly strangers.

Where do you fly to? Read up before you go, but there are plenty of information kiosks who can direct you to the train station and help you find the right train to Cortona. Folks in Cortona can then help you get to Lari.

Cortona to Lari is 3 1/2 hours by train. You can drive it in the same amount of time if you take the Autostrada. However, you could drive through the hear of Tuscany if you have more time and see some spectacular scenery. You could plan a route on the back roads that would take you through Radda, San Gimignano and Volterra, three spectacular hill towns. This route would avoid Siena, which is confusing and congested.

If you choose to drive, pay attention to posted speed limits, especially in towns. Many small towns like Greve don't have ZTL's. The charming town of Radda does, but the ZTL is well posted and easily avoided if you just pay attention. How old is your daughter? Can she act as navigator?

Finally, when to you plan to go? Cinque Terra is suffering from its own popularity. Getting there is now more difficult and it can be overrun by cruise ship passengers, especially in the high season. Like anybody who has seen Rick's videos, we'd love to go there, but we don't like overcrowded tourist spots and have crossed it off our bucket list.

I agree with the others in that it's relatively easy to drive in Tuscany (with a trusty GPS). While it's certainly possible to get around using public transit, I personally think it's easier and faster to drive and it affords more flexibility. I simply research the addresses of the public parking lots for each town we plan to visit and then plug them into our GPS. It makes getting around very easy. I would not think of driving without my GPS and while it's not foolproof, it certainly make the experience much easier and enjoyable. Just my two cents!