Traveling end of May 2020 to Italy for 9 days - need advise

I would suggest that you train to Orvieto. It is a delightful hill city easily accessible from Rome by train from Termini Station. From the train station in Orvieto you take a funicular up the hill and a shuttle brings you into town. Orvieto is very walkable. If you arrive in the morning and stay the evening you can easily experience this marvelous hill town. From there you can take a train to Florence and have days there. If you want to see more hill towns, renting a car in Orvieto would be a suggestion, dropping it off in Florence and taking a train back to Rome for your flight.. enjoy! Hank, novato, CA

With a 9AM departure from Rome you need to spend the night before ( the 5th) in Rome. You may want to go to your farthest point the day you arrive and work your way back.

A rental car is a liability in Florence. You can do day trips from Florence by bus/train or if you choose a more remote Tuscan location use a rental car to get there. It is easy to get between Rome and Florence by train so a car for that is not needed.

Tuscany is about the same size as New Jersey, so where else you choose to go , will have a bearing on what sort of transportation would be best.

You could meet at Termini and take the train to Florence on the 27th. Florence is a good base for day trips to Tuscan towns - Siena and San Gimignano by bus, Pisa and Lucca by train.

You have 9 full days. Do you want to spend time in Rome or just stay on the 5th for your flight? I like the idea of spending a night or two in Orvieto. You could even train from Florence to Assisi for 1-2N and then to Orvieto for 1-2N. Umbria is as scenic as Tuscany and possibly less crowded.

Thank you all for the great advice!! I have a lot of decisions to make!

Orvieto take the bus up to town, as the funicular does not go all the way up:

https://wikitravel.org/en/Orvieto

Autoeurope stopped using Hertz in Orvieto because of complaints. The office in Chiusi [closed Sunday] is a half block from the station; train time from Orvieto 29 minutes.

rzolezzi, when did Orvieto stop having a small bus run up and down the street from the top of the funicular to the Duomo? Do I misunderstand your posting? I've stayed in Orvieto three times, and have taken the funicular/mini-bus connection each time, but it's been two years since I was last there. Everyone would pile out of the funicular station at the top and get on a bus within five minutes or so. It's hard to believe that they would discontinue this bus service. I had planned another day trip to Orvieto this coming December, so would appreciate any insight. Thanks!

Did you want to spend any additional time in Rome or just the last night?
I would either take the train to Florence, then rent car for whatever towns you choose, or just rent round-trip out of Rome airport, since you will be returning there. Your husband can come to the airport and have the car all ready to go when you arrive, then you just zip up the coast. Tuscany is rather large and varied--do you have a guide book? Depending on how much time you wish to spend in Florence, I would only pick one or two max other places.

Here's what we did and it worked out well. We flew in and out of Rome. We drove directly to our agriturismo, but since you arrive at different times, that wouldn't work for you. Also you have a longer flight coming from LAX than we did coming from ATL.

Do you want to visit Rome yourself before heading to Tuscany? You could either rent a car in Rome (there are places from which it is easy to drive from. You could also take the advice offered and rent in Orvieto. You could train from Rome, spend the night, then pick up the car in the morning.

We stayed at Castillo di Verrazzano, which is just outside Greve. This worked out to be a great home base from which to tour Tuscany. Also, we weren't interested in spending more than a day in Florence (we'd been there before), so we left our car back in Greve and took the bus into town. The trip is about 40 minutes to Piazza San Marco, the heart of the city. This allowed us to have a car but not worry about driving in Florence.

You could also consider returning the car and staying a couple of days in Florence, then train back to Rome. I really suggest using one location as a home base instead of moving from one town to the other. From Greve, we visited Florence, Siena. Greve, Castillina, San Gimignano, Volterra, Radda and an abbey near Montalcino.

Renting a car and driving is very easy if you do your homework. It's really necessary to be able to set your own schedule and fully explore the countryside. Familiarize yourself with the signage, which is easy to understand. Strictly follow the speed limits, they have automated systems to catch speeders. ZTLs are clearly marked and easily avoided. Also the rule of thumb is that if it is a hilltop walled city (Radda, San Gimignano, Volterra, Castillina, Siena) anywhere within the walls can be assumed to be ZTL. Don't worry, there's plenty of parking outside the walls.

Have a great trip!

Thank you all and DougMac thank you for your wise recommendations. All of these suggestions are giving me so much more direction - this forum is a tremendous service