My wife and I are planning a trip in the spring of 2016 to couple week to visit both the Cinque Terre are and rom about in Tuscany/Umbria for a week or so. We are contemplating utilizing scooter rentals for some portion of our roaming the countryside. Anyone every done this? One of my concerns is parking the scooters and making sure they are safe. I'm sure they come with some type of chain or locking mechanism, but I'm still concerned. Should I be?
Handlebarmike
Glenwood, NM
First question. Are you an experienced rider? If you are not, Italy is not a good place to learn. See Roninrome.com for a discussion about renting scooters.
I would love to have a Ducati or big BMW road bike to run the back roads of Northern Italy. That is if I was 20 years younger. But then, I had a young daughter and my family talked me into selling my hot rod cycle. I'm now stuck with ATV's and Waverunners.
After many trips to Tuscany and Northern Italy, I would have no desire to do any mountain or hill touring on a motor scooter.
I suggest you rent a car and carefully plan where you go.
The Lake Como area, Lake Garda (west of Verona) and The Dolomites are incredibly beautiful places. But the most beautiful place I've ever been to is the Grossglockner High Alpine Highway--northeast of Cortina and south of Zell-am-See, Austria.
We ran into a couple in Rome who had rented scooters and loved it. They were experienced drivers, though. Sorry I can't answer your specific questions about parking safety.
I was a centaur in youth when I lived in Florence. Meaning that I lived in symbiosis with my two wheelers. I don't remember too many moments when my ass wasn't sitting on one riding somewhere.
I used a lock plus a special lock that goes in the wheel in addition to the steering block lock that comes with it. None of my bikes/scooters were stolen. Occasionally they stole the seat (maybe 2 times over 10-12 years until I welded the damn thing so they couldn't screw it off), or the engine cover on my Vespa a couple of times over the same period. So, overall the probability of theft is low. However it's a good idea not to park in hidden out of sight spots where a potential thief might have free rein to steal some parts.
The bigger issue, to me, is whether you are an experienced bike/scooter rider or not. The countryside is ok even for rookies as traffic is limited, but city traffic in Italy is a challenge if you are not an experienced centaur.
mike,
As I understand the rules, one can rent to smaller Scooters (<50cc?) using a vehicle D.L. but the larger ones require a Motorcycle license. The small ones only have a limited speed so wouldn't really be suitable for wandering about regions like Tuscany.
Ken, I think it is 125.
Frank,
Thanks for the clarification. I couldn't remember the exact number, but the most important point is that the small ones are only capable of limited speeds.
Wow! Thanks for all the replies. OK, to answer a few questions and let you know what my research has led me to thus far. First, I am an experienced motorcycle rider, and my wife has some limited experience. Our plan is to buy a scooter for her in the next month or so (she'll get her motorcycle license designation as we will get her a 150 cc machine and you have to have the motorcycle designation to ride that here in New Mexico, you can even do the test on it) and let her ride for a year or so before the trip, so we'll be able to check the box on experience. We don't plan to go into any major urban areas on the scooters, just the countryside. As an aside for anyone else planning on this, most of the scooter rental places I've found online say a normal driver's license will allow you to rent a scooter up to either 125cc or 150cc in some cases. My biggest concern is the theft issue, as you are of course responsible for the scooter once you rent it. We plan to base ourselves in some small Tuscan hilltop town (many great suggestions on Rick's site) and cruise about each day on the scooters. A 125 or 150 cc machine should have enough umpf to carry one person (we plan on each having a scooter) up and down the hills. We'll restrict any serious wine consumption to our base location at days end... :-)
Again - thanks for all the feedback. I'd love to hear from someone who has done this type of thing already....
handlebarmike
Glenwood, NM
I've never rented one in Italy, but I had my own. I've driven Vespa 125, 200, Honda 500cc all over Tuscany and Liguria for the most part. I lived in Florence so that was my base.
The big problem with a 125cc is that you are not allowed on the Autostrada or the Superstrada, basically the divided motorways, so you can only take regular roads. You need at least a 150cc for a motorway.
If you choose a base somewhere in Tuscany, unless you have a large engine, with a scooter you are limited in the amount of ground you can cover in a day. I remember once with my friends we took our Vespa 125cc from Florence to Arezzo, via regular road. It took all day back and forth because you have to go through every little town. From Florence to Viareggio, via regular road, it would be at least 2.5 hours each way with a 125cc.
To see the optimal range for day trip, use www.freemaptools.com. Use the radius feature. Choose a base in Tuscany and draw a 25 mile circle. That's pretty much what you can cover comfortably on a day trip back and forth on the same day on a scooter. If you rent a Ducati 1200 you can cover much more.
We used this company for a self guided hiking tour in Umbria last fall.
I can recommend them highly, and you might consider doing a guided group tour with them to get more out of your time on the scooters!
In Rome you don't have to rent scooters to ride them. You can now let someone else do the driving by using a new mobile APP for the new service scooterino.it. I read an article about scooterino at
www.wantedinrome.com
dated April 24, 2015. Scroll down to find it.
The scooter ride-share program started around the end of March, early April 2015. The driver supplies the helmet, and it's a matter of connecting with a guy or gal driver going your way. Or willing to go your way. Article and website don't mention boundaries, so you may get out to the countryside.
Scooterino is not Uber. It is community-networked based. For the link:
www.scooterino.it
It's very cheap and I can't wait to try it. WooHoo!
Roberto has the best post on this. Hope I can add to it somewhat.
Roberto is completely correct about the use of Scooters on the A roads. And sometimes you might need to use those A roads. Sometimes the weather can force a quick return to home base. I have rented Motorcycles three times in Italy. All of these were 500/650 CC bikes. 2 were Trans Alp Hondas and the other was a BMW Single. The Wife and I rode two up as I could easily see that if we got separated there would be a problem trying to find each other again. I have 40 years experience riding motorcycles. My wife, never really got into riding on her own, but her Dad and Brother, raced motorcycles and she is familiar with them. What I can say about Italy is that you need to be an experienced rider to do it safely. You need total situation awareness and instant reflexes. And sometimes all of those things are not enough. The Italians are expecting you to be aggressive, and as a tourist, I'm trying to be safe. I've walked a bike out of a particularity difficult set of intersections in Florence, till I got to a side road, to return the bike because I could not get from A to B driving the bike without doing something extremely dangerous in these intersections. As far as the TZ go and Parking, it is entirely up to the local COPS as to how they want to enforce it - even if the rule is Motorcycles are exempt. Good Luck, and the 222 is beautiful.
