What's the best way for (5) ladies to travel from Rome to Florence in a (1) day? Should we stick with the train or should we consider driving. From what we have been able to research, to take the train round trip per person is 100 dollars give or take and to rent a car with insurance and gas it would be about 300 dollars. Is it worth it? Is this accurate? Does it take much longer to drive?
Posted by
Seattle, WA
1317 posts
Rent a car with insurance and gas is about $300--how much for parking? Assuming you can find parking. Who has the nerves to deal with Italian drivers/traffic? And if you accidentally cross into the Florence no-driving zone, the fine will wipe out any cost savings you might have had.
Some of the more experienced drivers in Italy might be able to give you a better idea of whether or not it's a good idea to drive between them, but Rome and Florence are two of the WORST cities to have a car in. Overall, I'd take the train.
Posted by
Seattle, WA, USA
7737 posts
Have you ever driven in Italy? If not, it's incredibly easy to get lost and it's incredibly stressful. If you take just one wrong turn, you're lost and you've lost any amount of time you might have saved by driving. And then what do you do with the car once you arrive? This one is a no-brainer. Train. Definitely.
And it does appear that a 2nd class ticket is about $56 US each way, taking about 1:40 hrs going the fastest way.
Also, you can get up and wander around on a train and it has bathrooms, unlike most cars. :-)
Posted by
Elk Grove, CA, USA
6898 posts
Actually, a roundtrip on the Eurostar, which takes 1hr. 40min, will cost you $112 each. However, you have some choices. You can take an IC train and pay $85 each or an R train, which costs $49 each. The penalty you pay for the decreased costs is an increase in travel time. The IC train takes 2.5hrs each way and the R train takes 3.5hrs each way. The high-speed Eurostar is really the best for a day-trip.
For renting a car, www.viamichellin.com shows a drive time of 3hrs each way plus a cost of 40Euro for gas and tolls. However, there are serious downsides to renting a car and driving to Florence. First, there is no parking in Florence. Every conceivable parking place is taken. The city was built centuries before cars. Second, Florence has the dreaded Zona Traffico Limitato zones. These are restricted zones and there are lots of them in Florence. If you drive into one, cameras will take a picture of your license plate. Your rental car company will rat you out. $150-$200 collection notices will arrive in your mailbox up to a year later. If you must drive into Florence, you must be aware of the ZTLs and what the signs look like. Third, you don't possess the driving skills of a typical Italian in Rome and Florence. Their rules of the road are different.
Yes, the train is much more expensive but...