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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
1250 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
7674 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
7674 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
104 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.