My husband and I will be traveling from Venice to stay a week near Pienza early April. We have 2-3 days free between the two destinations and were wondering if it would be doable to go to CT from Venice before heading over to the Pienza area, and if so any recommendations on best ways to do that. We ultimately need to rent a car before traveling out to Pienza. We will stay our last 2 days in Florence.
Posted by
872 posts
Hotel relocation time 8.5 hours. Allocate the nights to existing locations.
Posted by
Gettysburg PA
7229 posts
Train to CT
Spend 3 nights
Pick up rental car in LaSpezia and drive to Pienza
Posted by
San Diego, California, USA
1147 posts
Hello sonnets-givers.0i, and welcome to the forum!
I get the appeal of the idea but whether the time is worth it is up to you. I agree it will be 7+ hours door to door given the fact the you are crossing east coast to west coast near the thickest part of the country.
Getting to train station, fast train to Florence: ~2.5 hours, train(s) Florence to La Spezia (~2.5 hours), getting to CT town/hotel.
Also March/April is still cool temperatures with highs probably in the 50s which means fewer tourists but also maybe less what you go to see. I think whether it is 2 or 3 days makes a real difference if you're giving over almost and entire day to travel.
I would suggest looking at something else to do with the those days that will involve less travel time. You could stay in:
- Florence it can easily support more than the two days you have scheduled
- Bologna Italy's culinary capital and preserved city core
- Verona for it's Roman sights and genteel, arty, cafe culture vibe
- Lucca for a hilltown without the hills experience and day trip to Pisa if that appeals
Whatever you decide - I'd suggest you rent the car in Florence so you can drive to Pienza and then drop the car back in Florence for your time there avoiding expensive different city drop off penalties.
Have a great trip,
=Tod