Itenerary for Italy

laura, With only eight days to visit three "geographically distant" locations, my first suggestion would be to use fast trains primarily instead of a car. Travel by car will use more of your VERY limited travel time. One possibility that might "fit" would be to use train for getting between the major centres, and use Siena as a "home base" for Tuscany. Rent a car there for a few days to get to local sights or wineries. One point to note is that for driving in Italy, each driver must have the compulsory International Driver's Permit, which is used in conjunction with your home D.L. Good luck with your planning!

Here are 2 ways to do this, not the only ways. Both are consistent with Ken's suggestions above, and both stick with your requirement of flying into and out of Rome and saving Rome for last: Itinerary #1) pick up car at Rome airport Then drive from airport to "Tuscany" (someplace other than Florence or Siena historic centers, driving there is more trouble than it's worth); you'll probably be tired from the flight, so make this a short driving day Explore "the Tuscany hilltowns " by car (again, avoid driving in Florence) When you're done with uscany hill towns, drop off car at a convenient Tuscany location (not Florence) that has good train service to Venice Train to Venice When your time in Venice is finished, train from Venice to Rome Explore Rome Alternative Variation #2) Instead of picking up car at Rome airport, take express train into Rome Termini station, connect to train to Orvieto, spend the arrival day exploring Orvieto on foot, sleep in Orvieto and then the next day, pick up the car in Orvieto explore Tuscany hilltowns by car then follow the rest of the itinerary #1 There are other ways to do this: some would not use a car at all, but if you want to explore Tuscany hilltowns, a car is best. If in Tuscany you only want to see Florence, Siena, and, say, PIsa, you can do those by train. Main things: Avoid driving in Florence or Rome. And avoid picking up the car inside Rome at a location where you would have to drive out of Rome (that's why plan #1 has you picking up the car at the Rome airport).

You mentioned fly roundtrip in and out of Roma. Have you purchased your tickets yet? If you haven't, consider flying open jaws into Venice and home from Roma. This will maximize your time in country and will eliminate time consuming backtracking. If you have already bought your tickets, then I would suggest two destinations and not three. With two cities your vacation could be more of a vacation and not a marathon at a dead run. The Italians have a saying, "Il dolce di far' niente." It means the sweetness of doing nothing. Taking a break and sitting at an outdoor cafe watching the world go by is a legitimate vacation activity. Buon viaggio,

Yes, thank you all for the suggestions. I lived in italy for 5 years (Aviano) and have the flavor of the Italian culture, and I am a very experienced European traveler. I am trying to accomodate 3 people who have never visited the country before and I appreciate the suggestion of doing two destinations instead of three. That might be the best plan, and not use a car at all. Thanks

for 8 actual travel days in Italy, 3 locations might be a bit ambitious. Whether by train or car, just getting from place to place is going to take about 1/2 the day when you look at it from starting the move to bags dropped off at the new hotel. My suggestion would be for splitting the time between one of the two cities and the other 4 days in Tuscany/Umbria so you get a flavor of both parts of Italy. You'll probably want a car in Tuscany, but don't need it in the city. Pick a hilltown as a base (we've used Perugia, Cortona, Spello - pretty much anyplace is fine) and go on daytrips from there. Find out about the restricted traffic areas, ZTL, so you don't get hundreds of dollars in tickets. We have traveled in Tuscany without a car but it is somewhat limiting since the trains might run hourly or less, don't go to all the places you might want to visit, and if you're visiting hilltowns you also burn more time because you still need to get from the train to hilltown.