When we leave Cinque Terre we plan to take a train or bus to a Tuscan town and rent a car for our time in Tuscany then return it to that same town before we bus/train down to Sorrento. Our first thought for a car rental town was Siena but now I'm wondering if Volterra or Pisa or some other town would be better for an easy car rental experience. Can you rent a car in one town and return it to another town? Are certain car rental companies better to deal with than others? Grazie Mille! Pam
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area (USA)
16268 posts
To save money, rent a car through a consolidator:
www.kemwel.com or www.autoeurope.com (actually they are part of the same company, but check prices in both).
Based on your itinerary, I would pick up the car in La Spezia (next to the Cinque Terre), drive to nearby Tuscany from there, visit Tuscany with the car, then drive all the way to Sorrento (all freeway except the last few miles from the freeway exit in Castellammare and Sorrento. That way you save yourself the train trip on the Circumvesuviana. If you don't need a car in Sorrento, return it there, all companies have offices there. You don't need to return the car where you picked it up, there are no drop off charges as long as it's within the same country.
If you absolutely want to go by train, then you can return the car in Tuscany (Florence?) then proceed by high speed train to Naples, then to Sorrento.
For your Tuscany base, Siena or sourroundings is good. However Siena has a ZTL in the historical center where traffic and parking is severely restricted to residents only, therefore, if you decide to stay in the city itself, choose the hotel carefully so that you can access it by car. If the hotel has parking accommodations, that would be way better. Otherwise stay somewhere in the countryside between Siena and Florence, preferably close to the freeway connecting the two. In the Upper Elsa Valley would be great (Monteriggioni, Colle Val D'Elsa, Poggibonsi, area).
Posted by
OP
Ormond Beach, Florida
72 posts
Never thought about driving all the way from Tuscany to Sorrento. Does the freeway have tolls? Are gas stations abundant? Are there good maps? How long would it take to drive from Tuscany to Sorrento? Any rest areas with bathrooms? We are senior citizens so not as adventurous as we used to be but the driving idea is intriguing.
If we decide to train instead, how many stops and train changes should we expect from Florence to Naples on a high speed train? Thanks for answering all these questions.
Posted by
California 🦋
5308 posts
Pamela,
If we decide to train instead, how many stops and train changes should we expect from Florence to Naples on a high speed train? Thanks for answering all these questions.
I won't answer your driving questions since I've not rented a car in Italy.
You can take a high-speed (freccia) train from Florence to Naples and it may take anywhere from 2Hrs, 31mins to 2Hrs,51 mins.
Check this website for train schedules: http://www.trenitalia.com
I'm just wondering, will you be visiting Rome? You may want to return the rental car in Rome if you don't want to back track to Florence (after driving around in Tuscany), then take freccia train to Naples from there (1Hr, 10 mins)
EDIT: Pamela, check this website to calculate cost estimate for driving anywhere: http://www.viamichelin.com/web/Routes