Is this just too much? Tips for "relaxing" with this itinerary in mind?

Lauren,

I don't think you're going to have much time for "relaxing" with this Itinerary. It made me tired just reading it!

One thing that's noticeably absent from your description is reference to the travel times between locations.

I'm sure you'll get a variety of opinions here, but IMHO this is far too ambitious.

Good luck!

Thanks for the reply...believe it or not this is actually pared down just recently - we were going to spend 1 night in Orvieto and 1 in Siena, then 2 in Florence, then 1 in Milan before heading to Lake Como... eek!!

As for travel distances, not entirely sure what you're getting at here?

We'll have a car, and plan to make stops along the way. For instance:

Rome - Pompeii - Sorrento

Sorrento - Orvieto (lunch) - Winery Tour - Siena

Siena - Winery Tour - Greve - Florence

Florence - Lamborghini Factory Tour - Varenna

Varenna - ?? - Venice (may just drive this a straight 3-4 hour shot)...

We did 1 night in Milan, 2 nights in Venice, 2 nights in Florence, and 3 nights in Rome last summer. It was overwhelming, but as long as you take some time to relax in each city, you should be okay.

For example, in Venice we spent one day sightseeing and one day wandering around the city, stopping to relax/eat whenever we wanted, and it was relaxing. Just don't jam-pack your day with tours and museums, and you should be fine! We did that in Florence (Uffizi, Duomo, Boboli Gardens) and it was too tiring.

The tough part is traveling between cities, but you seem to have enough time to recover from each travel period.

If you are doing all of this by car you won't have many opportunities to relax. Driving in Italy is a challenge, to say the least, and parking can be an expensive nightmare. Most everywhere you are going is well served by public transportation. If this is your first trip to Italy forget the car and ride the train so you can sit back, relax and take in the scenery.

Driving Sorrento or Positano to Siena is about 500 Kilometers and takes five hours on the highways-not counting getting lost or making mistakes b/c of the hard to understand signs. One of the worst travel mistakes I made was driving from Sorrento to Taormina, Sicily-it took about nine hours instead of five. I had delusions of stopping along the way but once you hit the road, destination is on your mind. Let us know how relaxing your trip was with a trip report.

hm that's odd - I find driving much more peaceful than attempting to transfer trains, catching the right one, etc etc. So I think for us, driving will be 10x more relaxing. Well, unless we hired a personal driver for the trip but I think that's well out of the budget! I've planned for $30-40 per night for parking.

And FYI - I drive 2 hours daily to get to work so driving really isn't an issue!

I was just hoping to get some ideas for where/how to relax in each location...oh well...I can't really change the itinerary now (nor do I want to).

Lauren,

The point about driving isn't the TIME but the STRESS. "Italian drivers are crazy" is a generally-held opinion, even among my friends here where agressive driving is the norm. Add to that unfamiliar roads and sign markings, and restricted driving zones in some of your destinations.

I would also mention that there is a huge difference between seeing as much as possible and enjoying as much as possible. I don't know what you are planning to cook for dinner, but shopping, preparing and clean-up don't sound like much of a relaxing evening to me.

Wow what negativity! I didn't expect everyone to try to persuade us out of driving or I may have never even posted! Understand that this is NOT what I came here for, and like I've tried to say many times, that for US driving is MUCH better than any sort of public transportation. I don't do trains. It is NOT relaxing for me to travel that way.

In addition, making such a stink over driving in certain areas (such as Florence, which I believe has the only ZTL zone we'll encounter) is pretty crazy. It's not THAT horrible. And, if you're parking in a garage or staying at a hotel in Florence, they'll call in the license plate for you, so that the police don't issue a ticket.

Lauren, You specifically asked for "suggestions" and "tips". Some experienced folks have taken time out of their lives to provide just that. You are free to accept or reject the advice. It's usually customary to say "thanks" after someone goes through the trouble.

I did thank those who actually gave me advice, but I figure that trying to argue with the person asking for advice over their own plans that I did not request advice on was pretty unnecessary and I didn't feel like thinking them for that! I do however appreciate the tidbits of advice that anyone does have.

As for driving in the cities I completely agree - that is why we will be arriving, parking, sightseeing for days w/o the car, and then upon our departure we'll be picking up the car again. We don't even need to enter the ZTL zone in Florence, and the owner of the apartment in Sorrento will be helping us with the parking garage. Other than those two cities, we won't be driving in any large ones.

In addition, regarding train travel that you all seem so keen on, I like the ability to stop in the countryside and not waste time storing luggage just so we can walk around! It works for a LOT of people, but just not for us. We've traveled quite a bit and this is how we are comfortable (driving). So...I'd love it if we could get back to the main point of my post here. First time posting at Rick Steves' site isn't going that well.

LAuren - obviously, it's your trip and you get to do what you want to do. Just make sure you have an international driving permit (available at AAA here in the states) We generally take the extra insurance with no deductible. Nice to be able to walk away from any damage with no cost to you. We find the extra cost good peace of mind insurance. Remember most credit cards that offer coverage is used don't offer that coverage in Italy.

Make sure you know what a ZTL sign looks like. Big cities are not the only places that have them. Just about any spot with a historic center is likely to have a ZTL. Orvieto, Siena and Volterra have them too.

Food at the Autogrills on the autostrades is good. So don't fell bad about grabbing a pannini while getting petrol. You maight want to skip what seemed to us to be the abligatory shot of Sambuca that the other drivers were having. ;-)

Oooh a shot of Sambuca might be just the ticket to staying awake!! JK! Thanks for the tips for the paninis, not like a 7-11 sandwich then, huh? ;)

At any rate I appreciate the reply! It is a LOT. I totally understand that. But...that's the way I roll ;)

Thanks again!

I'm with you Lauren; we traveled by car from Milan to Bellagio to Verona and ended in Venice in /06.

This Spring we're traveling from Milan to Como, to Genoa to Cinque Terre, two weeks in a Villa in Tuscany then driving to Positano, ending in Rome; dropping the car off in South Rome first. Total 25 nights.

Driving in Italy is no different than driving in a large city in Toronto or Montreal, Canada. We'll park our car when we stop then walk or take transit in the larger cities. We like the convenience of a car so go for it!

Jean

Hi Lauren,
A general rule of thumb is a car is necessary to enjoy rural Tuscany, but will be a nuisance when you're near the cities so you should plan accordingly, especially if you want to relax. I think some people may have been prompted to mention this because it appears you may not have adequately planned for travel times between cities nor the time and hassle of going back and forth from your accomodations to your parking lot.

To digress a bit: ZTLs are quite common in Italy--even in very small towns in rural Tuscany. You will encounter many. You will park on the outside of town and walk in. Not a big deal in a small town, especially if you pack light. Make sure you take the time and hassle of getting back and forth from centro storico to you car into account in your travel plans.

PS My advice is that having your Florence hotel "call in your license plate" is a bad idea. Read all the stories from people who got tickets anyway and had to hassle with it. Besides that just creates extra hassle because you still have to get back to your hotel after you park so there's no reason to do so if you pack light.

I agree with you about train travel vs. driving. We always drive on some portion of our vacation, and limit train travel to point-to-point trips in between cities where we don't need a car (i.e., Florence to Venice). I actually like driving on the curvy Italian side roads, and don't find driving on the autostrada to be stressful - I feel like the drivers are more vigilant than in the U.S., and I like the way people drive primarily in the right-hand lane).

During your time in Siena, right on the Campo there's a great little wine bar, the Liberamente Osteria Wine Bar. You might decide to visit San Gimignano instead of Volterra, as it's closer to Siena. Volterra does have a nice Etruscan museum, though. On the north end of Volterra, also, are the ruins of a Roman theater, which are quite interesting. Monteriggioni has several very relaxing restaurants, with seating outdoors in their gardens, if you'll be there at lunchtime.

While on vacation, we find having a leisurely meal at a restaurant to be more relaxing than cooking (despite great local ingredients). There are plenty of pizzerias, if you don't want the full-length Italian meal experience.

In the suggestions or tips category, you may find that, once you're on vacation, that you want to cut out some of the day trips, and spend time in whatever your base city is. That's something you can decide then and there.