greetings fellow travellers,
We will be in the dolomites late september with a car rental. We will be staying for four nights there. Then we will be heading to Cinque Terre and staying for 4 nights and 5 days (Riomaggiore will be our base). Then we will be heading to siena for two nights. Is it better to drive from dolomites to cinque Terre? Then drive to sienna? Or should we take the train? Your advice would be appreciated. And also, Is a car needed in cinque Terre?
thank you in advance!
chris
A car would be nice to have on the Dolomites and for the villages of Tuscany, although not for just Siena.
A car cannot be used at the Cinque Terre, therefore you need to keep it parked for your entire stay either at the parking structure at the La Spezia station, or at the parking structure in Riomaggiore itself.
A better idea would be to change the sequence of you itinerary and do:
Dolomites (with car)
Drive to Tuscany (Siena) and keep the car
Drive to La Spezia, return the car in La Spezia. Go from La Spezia to Riomaggiore by train (5 min).
Stay in Riomaggiore (no car)
Not sure what your next destination is.
If you cannot change the sequence and you intend to drive around Tuscany, check the difference in pricing between keeping the car for the days at the 5 Terre (rental fees and parking fees) vs returning the car in La Spezia and then renting another car a few days later from La Spezia to go to Tuscany.
The cost of parking is 23€/day at the Riomaggiore garage or 18€/day at the La Spezia station garage.
It is possible to take a train to Siena from Riomaggiore, albeit you need to change trains multiple times. Check the www.trenitalia.com website for options. The train route from Riomaggiore to Siena is via the following: La Spezia, Pisa, Empoli. You will need to change trains at all 3 cities. The train journey is well over 3 hours.
Here's my itinerary:
fly into Milan
Milan
then to lake cuomo
then to dolomites
then to cinque terre
then to sienna (including umbria and surroundings)
then to sorrento & amalfi coast
then to rome and fly out.
Tough call. You will certainly want to have a car for Tuscany and Umbria. You can do without a car in Sorrento and the Amalfi coast, since parking is expensive and u can use the buses and boats and the train to Naples and Pompei. So you could:
Leave the itinerary as is, but check price difference between parking the rental at the Cinque Terre or having two separate rental periods before and after the cinque Terre. After Tuscany and Umbria you would drive to Sorrento. In Sorrento you could return the car there and do without it. Then you'd go to Rome by train (via Naples). You could also keep it and return it when you go to Rome (in Rome or Naples). If you are staying in Sorrento, you can easily do without it. If you stay on the Amalfi coast it's your call.
Change your itinerary to do Tuscany (Siena) before the Cinque Terre. Then back track a bit to La Spezia and return your rental there. After the Cinque Terre, you'd go from Riomaggiore to Sorrento by train via La Spezia, Rome, Naples with train change in at least La Spezia and Naples (and possibly Rome too). Then from Sorrento go to Rome via train.
Whatever you decide to do, do not have the car while you are staying in Rome.
Where in the Dolomites? Some areas, like the Val Gardena, have excellent public transportation and a car is absolutely extraneous. Others, like the Alta Badia, it is more difficult especially getting to/from a hub like Bolzano.
