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Transit from Arezzo to Barga and Lucca to FCO

Posted by (Amelia Island, FL) on

We are traveling late Sept/early Oct, starting in Rome for 2 days, staying at a villa in the Perugia area for a week, then 5 days in Barga and Lucca. The plan is to stay in the heart of Rome then train to Arrezo, get a car in Arezzo for use in Perugia, return the car and then train to Barga and use public transit while visiting the Barga/Lucca area.

Question #1
Does that train/car/train plan sound feasible? (To me, a car seems like a necessary burden when visiting most hill towns but I would like to not have the stress of driving/traffic/parking if the comfort and convenience of a train is an option.)

Question #2
When we leave Lucca we still have 2 nights before a VERY early morning departure out of FCO.

Here are the options for those 2 nights that I am considering and would appreciate your feedback:

So that we can see the coastline and a different route than earlier in the trip….
- Take a Regional train and overnight in Grosseto, then train to FCO for the final night before leaving.
- Rent a car to drive the coastal route and overnight somewhere (suggestions?)between Lucca and FCO, then spending the final night at FCO.
OR
The faster way, which is a replica of the first train travel of the trip, the inland route through Florence….
- Overnight in Orvieto (though we plan a day visit there while staying in Perugia) then on to FCO for the final night
- Overnight in Viterbo, then on to FCO for the final night
- Other “easily accessed” towns along the train route for an overnight before the final night in FCO?

Posted by
11647 posts

Get rid of the car when you get to Lucca. We left ours parked the whole four days we were there.

Posted by
16168 posts
  • 1 - Yes, if you stay at a villa in the Umbrian countryside and intend to visit the many towns and villages in the area, a car is a must. However I don’t see why you would need to rent it in Arezzo, which is not on the way to Perugia. There are other better options for a car rental, as illustrated below.

I will make a premise, that, if this were my trip, I would rent it somewhere downtown Rome (whichever office has the cheapest rate on www.AutoEurope.com or their other website www.Kemwel.com) and drive to the Villa directly from Rome. That is particularly true if you are one of the 90% of Americans who does not know how to drive a car with a stick (manual transmission), since automatic rental cars are easily available in major cities like Rome (where many Americans are who demand it) rather than at smaller locations. The drive from Rome to Perugia is just over 2.5 hours, all on a 4 lane divided freeway similar to an American Interstate.

If you still insist on taking the train first to somewhere in between Rome and the villa, there are many rental opportunities between Rome and Perugia, depending on which railway line you take (via Foligno or Via Terontola). First of all Perugia has rental car offices both at the station and at the airport. Perugia is a decent size city and will definitely have automatic cars. Otherwise along the way on the Rome Terontola rail line there is Orvieto (Hertz) and Chiusi (Avis Budget Europcar). On the Rome Foligno line there is Spoleto (Hertz, Avis Budget). Foligno used to have Europcar but I don’t see that anymore.

I would also drive all the way to Lucca. Visiting Lucca does not require a car because Lucca has a walled city center where the car must be parked outside the walls. However if you intend to visit Barga, the Garfagnana Valley, and maybe the Apuana Alps, you need a car. If later you plan to drive the coastal route, obviously you will need a car and it would make no sense to book two separate rental cars. If you don’t think you will need a car after Lucca, then you could return it in Lucca (although I would keep it while in Lucca if planning to visit the Lucca surroundings).

  • 2 - Obviously you need to spend the last night at FCO. The drive through the coastal route is not particularly scenic since the freeway travels in the interior at least a couple miles from the coast therefore you will never see the coast. However there are several nice spots you may want to visit along the way. The most obvious is the Maremma (Province of Grosseto). If you like the coast I would look into Mt Argentario Peninsula (Porto Santo Stefano or Porto Garibaldi or a bit to the north, Talamone). Otherwise, in the interior, but very close to the coastal freeway, there are some famous hilltowns. Capalbio (the hamlet of the Roman political VIPS) and Massa Marittima are the most famous. Grosseto has also a nice walled city center like Lucca (both cities are the only two provincial capitals of Tuscany with intact walls). Grosseto can also be visited easily by train, if you decided to drop the car previously. Since the interior route is something you plan to visit on the way north at the start of your trip, I would opt for the coastal route on the way down. However if you intend to visit anything other than Grosseto, you should keep the car all the way and return it at the Rome airport before spending the night at the airport Hilton.

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