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Transportation and itinerary questions

My husband and I will be going to Italy arriving Oct 7th into Naples, leaving italy oct 23 from Florence. Some Transportation within Italy will be by individual rail tickets but we want a car rental for 6-7 days while we are in Tuscany/Umbria area. We think we will rent the car in Assisi or Perugia at a train station, then dropping it off in Sienna area a week later and immediately heading to Florence by train from Sienna area. We have been to Sienna before and dont care to visit Sienna so don’t want to go with the car into Sienna. Is the Sienna Train station outside of Sienna and can we drop the car off there (if so what is the name of that train station and its initials?). Our last stop in Tuscany before Sienna is Volterra so should we drop off car in Volterra instead of Sienna (if that’s possible: i think i previously looked into Volterra and there was no car rental office there)? Then train to Florence from Volterra? Do you have a recommendation of a car rental company in those pickup and drop off locations and if you know whether they have an issue with the age of my husband as driver, 79 yrs old? He’s very fit and drove in Italy 12 yrs ago.

How far in advance and how should we buy 2nd class rail tickets and necessary reservations? Can we wait and buy them there last minute at train station or is that a real bad idea, especially because of Jubilee this year. Areas where we are traveling by train are naples-pompei-sorrento-rome-assisi-perugia and Volterra or sienna to Florence.

We will be taking train from rome early in morning hopefully and arrive in Assisi by noon or earlier. Sightsee and Spend the night there and go to Perugia the next day whenever we feel we have seen enough of Assisi. Then spend whatever is left of that day in Perugia, rent car (or Assisi?) and drive to our agritissimo about an hour away. if we feel limited in time, would you suggest that we devote all our time to one or the other, Assisi or Perugia?

Posted by
1272 posts

It sounds like you are cramming a lot into 2 weeks + 2 days. You've been to Italy, so you know this. As for your question, I would buy tickets ahead. I dont know if the full schedule is available yet for summer, but I'm planning to look for tickets 6-8 weeks before I want them. Last summer I bought the day of and ended up having to wait for later times in the day because some routes were sold out so I bet this summer will be worse.

As for the car, try looking on Autoeurope, which is a consolidator that offers better prices, I have found, than going through the website of specific car rental companies. My expectation is that Perugia would have more availability, but you could enter both Assisi and Perugia and see what you get. From Perugia area, I would drive straight to Volterra, and then drop the car in Florence. If driving in the city is too intimidating, you could try to drop it at the Florence airport. But Siena is further south than Volterra, so if you drop the car there, you will have to take a bus to Volterra, which isnt so bad, but if you already have the car, and you are trying to fit so much in, just keeping the car for Volterra and then getting to Florence seems more efficient (fewer logistics).

(I just re-read your post and you are going in October, so maybe you will be ok getting train tickets the day of. I was imagining June or July in my response).

Posted by
7832 posts

No rental agencies in Assisi or Volterra
Also no train in Volterra

You could pick up as you leave Perugia
Drop in Florence

Siena ( note spelling) agencies are near the station but not all walking distance

AutoEurope.com
Will ask your age and only offer agencies that allow for seniors-over 75 for example

All drivers must have an IDP
Get at your local AAA

Posted by
7832 posts

Trains
From Naples to Pompeii and Sorrento ia a commuter train Circumvesuviana
A search of this forum will bring up advice for that train

From Sorrento take Circumvesuviana back to Naples then a fast train to Rome

All the other routes are regional trains -no need to purchase in advance as price never changes and they can’t sell out

Use the official train site
( Circumvesuviana cannot be purchaeed online)
Trenitalia
https://www.trenitalia.com/content/tcom/en.html

Helpful info here :
https://www.seat61.com/train-travel-in-italy.htm

Posted by
107 posts

Thank you for your input. The websites were particularly helpful. If we rent the car at the Perugia train station, we can get to Perugia by train or bus from assisi right? I am really considering dropping the car off at the Florence airport rather than anyplace closer to the city because my husband does not want to drive in town and it looks to me like the SMN train station would be downtown and a difficult area to drive into?? The cost and time to get from airport to city via metro is negligible (we pack very light so metro is fine). Anyone see any downside to this plan? How easy is it to drive from volterra to florence airport or to SMN? Our hotel is near SMN.

I have written our route in my original question. Just confirming that they are all regional trains (no advanced purchase is even possible) except for taking the circumvesuvisna from Naples to sorrento and the fast train from naples to rome but that in october i should be able to buy tickets day of travel for ALL these trains, even naples-rome fast train. If its not available day of, i assume i can take a regional train from Naples to rome as well if we had to.

Posted by
107 posts

I think I’ve decided to pick up rental car at perugia airport or train station and dropping off at Florence airport. The Perugia train station Hertz rental station (which has good prices) closes at 12:30 pm on Wednesdays when we need to pick up car so that is inconvenient. I’m assuming the airport location closes much later. We want to visit either Perugia or Assisi or both but we are very limited in time and will only be staying one night at one of those places. I cant find anything in Rick’s Italy book on Perugia so I’m guessing he would say to visit Assisi over Perugia if you are limited for time. Seems Perugia has an Etruscan underground city but we have seen that elsewhere in Italy years ago. Thoughts?

Posted by
7832 posts

I have written our route in my original question.

Areas where we are traveling by train are
naples-pompei-sorrento-rome-assisi-perugia and Volterra or sienna to
Florence.

It's really not clear what your itinerary is- can you be more specific?

Fly in to Naples- any nights here?
Sorrento how many nights?- is Pompeii a day trip?
Rome next? How many nights
Assisi OR Perugia-How many nights
Get car as you leave Perugia
Agriturismo then Volterra? How many nights each?
Drop car
How many nights in Florence?
Depart from Florence airport?

Just confirming that

they are all regional trains (no advanced purchase is even possible)
except for taking the circumvesuvisna from Naples to sorrento and the
fast train from naples to rome

Advanced purchase is always possible on all trains, although not always necessary.

Posted by
302 posts

We just returned from 13 nights in Italy. Flew into Venice (2nights) fast train to Bologna (booked on italo app a few weeks prior), then after 3 nights in Bologna we took a taxi to Bologna airport to pick up our rental car, which was europcar booked through autoeurope (it was a Sunday and we couldn't get one near the train station) and drove to our agriturismo on the border of Tuscany and Umbria just south of Cortona. We spent 3 nights there, driving to Siena and Montalcino as day trips (with afternoon wine tastings in the area). We then drove to Lucca to drop off our car after spending the morning in Volterra. Driving in the area was relatively easy, although lots of curvy roads, google maps worked well, except for the one road it took us on leaving Montalcino turned out to be a windy unpaved road even though there's a very good, straighter, paved road that would have been less than a mile longer :)
You definitely have to be cautious driving, if you try to obey the speed limits (which I did) you will be tailgated, passed, and stared at, but it's better than the alternative. Approaching any town center is always tricky, best to pick a parking lot outside the city wall as a destination for your route rather than the city center, and have a very good navigator helping to read out the directions.
As for trains, we only reserved the one fast train ahead of time (cheaper tickets, non refundable - but don't do that for trains needed on the day of your arrival after long distance flights). For the other trains we used, they were more like commuter lines (Bologna-Modena for a day trip, Lucca - SMN with luggage) we booked as we needed them using the trenitalia app while at the train stations. You could also go to a ticket booth but I found that it was just as easy to do it on the app. (I had good cell service everywhere).
Hope that helps.

Posted by
107 posts

I will give you my itinerary but I’m pretty set on it. I think it makes sense. I imagine some will say I an not leaving enough time for Naples and Rome but I’m not worried about that as we can visit it more when we go to Sicily in the future. And I’m not too concerned about the two nights only in Florence because of the times we will be getting in and leaving there. Not big into art at all but we might go to one museum. So here it is.

Oct. 7 - arrive Naples 10 am. Do RS walking tour. Stay naples.. i would tour Archaeological museum but its closed on tuesday.
Oct 8 - 10 - mondo tour to pompeii. Train to Sorrento. Stay here 3 nights. Probably do mondo tour of amalfi coast on thursday the 9th and then we will have all day to see what was left out of the mondo tour on the 10th. We are not beach people.
Oct. 11-13 - train or ferry to Naples to see Archaelogical Museum in morning. Then high speed train to Rome. Do some sightseeing this afternoon. Spend these 3 nights in Rome. Sightsee Rome on the 12th and 13th.
Oct 14 - train to Assisi early morning. Sightsee the rest of this day in Assisi and spend the night here.
Oct15-17 - sightsee more of Assisi this morning if need to and either get to train station in Perugia to pick up a rental car by 12:30 pm or pick it up at the perugia airport. Drive on to montalcino to spend 3 nights. While there do the Val d’orca loop road. Go see Massa Marittima one day and yes i know its a total of 4 hrs there and back. Maybe see Chiusi if we have time on the other day..
Oct 18-20 - drive to volterra morning of 18th. Spend 3 nights there. While there see San Gimignano, Lucca.
Oct 21 -22 - leave volterra in morning to drop off car at florence airport. Stay florence two nights.
Oct 23 - fly out of florence on evening flight.

If you have comments about itinerary I’ll certainly reconsider the above but i have gotten all hotels lined up but they can be cancelled. My main question now is what i asked in my last, previous post. Am i missing a lot if I dont go to Perugia v going to Assisi? Thanks.

Posted by
5722 posts

Plan looks fine to me, although you say the following:

Go see Massa Marittima one day and yes i know its a total of 4 hrs
there and back.

Why not visit from Volterra, when it is just slightly more than an hour drive?

Posted by
107 posts

Thought about that. I made a mistake. The one way is identical in time from either volterra or montalcino per google maps but fewer miles from volterra so I can do from either. Thanks for making me review my facts and realize my error.

Do you or anyone have any opinion about Perugia (as I’ve asked above) when limited in time v Assisi? So far nobody has commented. Or the Perugia bus station v Perugia airport for car rental?