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Three Days for a Road-trip from Florence to Rome - Suggestions on Route

Hello. My husband and I are taking our 11th Anniversary trip to Rome and plan to tour a few days in Rome, head to Cinque Terre and then take the train to Florence and from there we plan to tour Tuscany via rental car. We have around 3.5 days 10/8-10/10 before we need to arrive back in Rome to take our flight out the next day 10/11 (Flight out 11am). We are aware that we need an IDL and he has driven in Greece before, so we are okay with driving in Europe. We'd love to do a relaxing and leisurely drive and stop at winery's as well as enjoy the scenery. I would like to know the following:
1. Where do you suggest we rent the car from and where to return it? I heard suggestions of renting the car outside of Florence and returning it outside of Rome (I would rather not drive in the city as I heard of the ZTL and want to avoid it). I also heard that using a car2go in Italy maybe another good alternative if we want to avoid ZTL as they are considered scooters, but not sure if I can drive these cars from one city to another. Has anyone done this?
2. What itinerary do you suggest if we want to visit a view villages/towns in Tuscany on our way to Rome?
3. What towns should we spend the night in?
3. I would really like to see the Cascate Del Mulina Di Saturnia and I heard it maybe on the way. Do you suggest including this?

Posted by
870 posts

If you are not staying in Florence, arrange a car at the Pisa Airport through Autoeurope. I would stay in one place between Montalcino and Montepulciano [selected on booking.com].

https://www.wanderingitaly.com/maps/valdorcia.html

This is a marvelous scenic area with all kinds of places to explore. You park outside of the towns and walk in.
You can drive to Fiumicino [about 2.5 hrs] and dump the car at FCO; overnight at an airport hotel, not needing to arrive until dinner time.

Read this about driving in Italy and restrictions involved [ZTLs]; avoid leaving anything of value in a car when parked:

http://driventoit.blogspot.com/

Posted by
870 posts

Note that traveling from your CT village to Florence, you would likely change trains in Pisa. At Pisa Centrale you can take the People Mover shuttle to the airport [being sure to validate your ticket], or a cab. If you did go to Florence, the SM Novella station, you would need to take a taxi to Via Palagio degli Spini, the rental complex near the airport.

I suggest one location because you have 2 nights [a single full day]. The 10th you would want to plan carefully, returning to your lodging to pick up bags before heading to FCO. If you are staying in a town [e.g. Montepulciano] vs out in the countryside, you would want to save the exploration of that town until the 10th. So upon arrival on the 8th, you would dump your bags, then head to a nearby town for lunch and visits in the area.

Posted by
870 posts

Your timing for the Cinque Terre is perfect, as there will be no cruise shops in the La Spezia port. On the 8th leave early, because there will be two big ones carrying up to 12,000 passengers. Amazing that the lunatics running the port allow this to happen.

Posted by
15681 posts

We have around 3.5 days 10/8-10/10 before we need to arrive back in
Rome to take our flight out the next day 10/11

Kim, just so that you're being realistic about the time you have, I'm counting 2.5 days and not 3.5 if you're leaving the C.T. on 10/8 for Florence to pick up the car there. Or are you spending time in Florence before heading out to more rural Tuscany?

As you're going to need to be at the airport (Fiumicino) at 8:00 AM on the 11th for an international flight I'm also not counting that one as a 1/2 day for sightseeing. Even for a domestic flight, you'd want to be at your departure airport by 9:00.

Posted by
3112 posts

If I understand correctly, you will pick up a car on 10/08 and return it on 10/10. You could pick up he car in Pisa as suggested and stop in Volterra on the drive to Montalcino area (lots of good wine options in and around). Spend 2 nights there, exploring the area on 10/09. Be careful about sampling and driving, as legal limits are very low. On 10/10, spend the day driving to a hotel at FCO. That would allow you to stop at the Cascate if desired (have never been there, so can't comment) and probably one other place, such as the Etruscan sights near Tarquinia, Orvieto/Civita or Viterbo.