Venice-Tuscany-Amalfi-Rome: Transportation

You assessment is correct. I would not have a car on the A coast. Parking and driving are two big problems.

• All the cities you mentioned have a camera controlled ZTL zone where you can't drive in
• there is a speed limit of 50 kms/h on the causeway that connects the floating neighborhoods of Venice and the mainland. Drive 5 kms/h over the limit and you'll be fined. For sure, it's camera controlled.
• while Driving through the mountains on the A1 (between Bologna and Florence) you'll see that 99% of trucks and cars take the new "Direttissima" section of the motorway. The old one has been renamed "Panoramica" and kept in service: on the panoramic route there are zero trucks, fewer speed traps and tunnels but... no gas stations.

I don't get the reason of driving at 110 kms/h through the mountains when there are two competing companies that run high speed trains beneath the mountains, but if you have time to waste the Panoramica section is actually Panoramic. Every other mile of the A1 before the mountains is either boring or busy. Like generations of inexperienced drivers before you (italians included) you'll get lost on Bologna's ring road. It's a rite of passage.

dario - Thank you. We have been doing our homework about speeding in Italy and the restricted zones. We will not be taking the car into Florence at all for exactly that reason.

We are staying in the countryside near San Gimignano, and we'd like to explore Chianti one day; a car seems necessary for this, no?

We want to do both Pisa and Lucca another day. Do you advise using a bus rather than a car?

On our way from Venice, we are doing a side excursion to the small town where my grandfather's family was from, so the car is a necessity for that.

You'll need a car and now I get why you are going to drive all the way from Venice. It makes sense.

There is a parking on the A1 close to Florence where you can leave the car and take the tram. Roberto might know how it actually works.