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more info on where to start trip

We are flying into Venice or Florence (which would be better) We will fly out from Rome. We have 14 days We thought once in Rome we could take a train to Pompeii. So you think we should visit Florence for several days and then take a car around Tuscany for awaile before Rome. How should we do the Amafi Coast

Posted by
6898 posts

It would really help if you would reply on your previous threads instead of creating a new one for a continuation of the same question. To answer your question, Florence does have an airport. It's called Amerigo Vespucci airport. I think that it's smaller than Pisa's airport. We flew from Sacramento to Florence. United flew us to LAX where we connected to the LAX/Frankfurt flight on Lufthansa. In Frankfurt, we transferred to a flight to Florence. We left Sacto at 2:15pm on one day and arrived in Florence at 4:30pm their time the next day. The LAX/Franfurt flight was an all nighter (10.5hrs for the flight plus 8 hours time change). We took a taxi to the hotel and was roaming around Florence all evening. As in your other message, if you fly into Venice, you should spend a few days. I've never rented a car in Italy so I'll let somebody else comment on driving around Tuscany.

Posted by
35 posts

okay, I am new at this so I hope I,m doing it okay this time. Thanks for the info

Posted by
3313 posts

Ginny - driving around Tuscany is easy and much preferable to trying to connect by bus and train. But don't take a car to the Amalfi Coast. The road is a nightmare. Take the train to Naples, the Circumvesuviana to Sorrento and the SITA bus to wherever you decide to stay on the Amalfi coast.

Posted by
35 posts

Thank you all for the help. I am glad I ask because in England and Ireland I drove everywhere without any problems. (not in London though) This helpline is really a BIG help. Again, Thanks to all and I am sure I will be back with more questions.

Posted by
57 posts

We rented a car (last May) at Milan airport and drove the full three weeks, all the way to Paestum. Our wonderful trip included: Bellagio, Venice, Cinque Terre, Florence, Siena, hill towns of Tuscany, Assisi, Civita, Sorrento/Capri, Positano, Ravello, Amalfi Coast, Paestum, Pompeii, and Rome. So, my reply to your question would be: driving in Italy is relative to your own comfort-level of driving in foreign countries. You did fine in England (as did we - and New Zealand, etc.); so you will probably do fine in Italy. Yes, they do drive faster than we normally do, and yes the road on Amalfi is winding, but at home, I commute on a narrow, winding road every day to work. We had no problems, no close calls, no scrapes. I believe if you're a super cautious, slightly fearful driver, don't drive in Italy. Otherwise - go for it!

Posted by
689 posts

I can echo Polly's comments. Driving is really not an issue in Italy!!!!

Posted by
35 posts

That sounds good to me. Just another question. I have noticed on several questions on the helpline they talk about an internatinal license and also driving into some cities like Florence you have to have a pass or something. What does that mean?