Next month we will be flying into Rome, where we will pick up our daughter and travel to the Tuscan countryside (via train to Florence) for the weekend. Once in Florence, we were going to rent a car and drive to Querceto (a farmhouse) in Castellina in Chianti, but with our late arrival (6:30PM) we are unable to rent a car that evening. We will need a driver to take us to Querceto and then again to take us to dinner that evening and then again the next day to the car rental office. It seems that we will have to return the car Saturday, since they are closed on Sunday which means we will need another driver to take us to church, lunch and then to the train station.
Does anyone have any better ideas about transportation or lodging for this brief weekend in the country? Perhaps there is a town where we can stay and walk to dinner. Please help!
Posted by
Portlandia
3313 posts
Why not pick up the rental car at the Rome airport and drive to Castellina from there? Taking the train to Florence, renting and then coming back south to Castellina is a lot of backtracking.
Posted by
OP
Stow
5 posts
Thanks Doug for your reply.
We didn't want to drive in Rome!! Are there any places outside of the busy city to rent a car?
Posted by
OP
Stow
5 posts
The idea of renting the car at the airport sounds great, except we are arriving early in the AM and need to pick our daughter up near the Vatican after 4PM. We planned on putting our bags in her apartment and enjoying Rome until she was ready to leave at 4PM. So if we renteda car at the airport, we'd have to drive into the city for the day. Is it really difficult to drive in the city?? I have heard that it should be left up to the natives!!
Posted by
Collierville, Tennessee, USA
510 posts
I've never done it but I understand that most airports have lockers where you can store your luggage. store your luggage and take the Leonardo train to Rome to spend the day. If that doesn't work, pick up your rental car at the airport, park it there, and take the train into Rome. It is not usually a good idea to leave luggage in a rental car, but I would think that an airport would have good security and it would be okay for the day. Either way when you daughter is ready to leave, just take the Leonardo back to the airport and pick up your car. In my opinion driving from the airport to Tuscany is no more difficult that driving out of any metropolitan airport in the U.S.