more info on where to start trip

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.

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

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.

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.

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!

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

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?