What do to with Luggage on drive through Tuscany?

pack light...pack light...one bag

Kelly,
Not trying to be rude, but I would be more worried about leaving luggage in my car in San Diego than where you are going in Italy.
We have rented cars and driven in Tuscany for over 10 years and never had a problem. There is crime in Italy, like everywhere.
Anecdotal reports of thief tend to make it seem worse than it is, although if it happens to you it is 100 percent.
Only problem we had was not watching our bags while traveling by train.

Thanks for your reassurance. I have read sooo many folks saying NEVER leave your luggage in the rental car in Italy that it got me worried. I am not comfortable leaving my luggage in my car in certain parts of San Diego. But most of the time that is fine if it is out of sight. I will take the same precautions. We are a family of 4 and plan to travel with 3 carry on bags. So they can be out of sight easily.
We will be sure to take Camera's etc. with us.

....and wear your money belts and don't leave tourist books or anything that screams tourist lying around in the car. I usually get an Italian newspaper and throw it on the back seat. Have a great time.

I never worry about luggage in the car. The way I think about it, if I'm a thief, the last thing I'd want to steal would be a suitcase full of someone else's clothes.

A thief wants valuables that they can sell in a hurry, not luggage.

Your best bet is to make sure everything, and I mean everything is out of sight. Don't even leave random stuff laying around, it just attracts attention. Also take anything that you cannot live without with you in a day pack. This includes used camera cards and travel documents like plane and hotel reservations.

There is always a risk dong this, but just don't give anyone an incentive by leaving stuff in sight. Also try not to pack everything away at the parking lot. It does happen that thieves stake out lots and watch for tourists packing valuables in their trunks and then...

Kelly, we have the same concern. The problem is that the only cars available for 4 people seem to be wagons or hatchbacks, and it is hard to hide the luggage. We won't leave anything of value in our luggage, but even losing all our clothes would be a hassle. We'll be parking at Siena and will just have to hope that a car parked in a paid parking lot at mid-day will be safe.

There are some places that are more risky for break ins than others. The San Gimigiano parking lots seemed to have a lot of people around when we were there and as long as you are careful I don't think you'll have a problem there or in Volterra if you stick to the main parking areas. We also left an Italian paper in the car, make sure you don't just buy a new one though and throw it in the car, glance through it and fold it open to a page so it looks like you've actually been reading it. Definitely don't leave anything personal or of any value in sight. When we stopped at AutoGrills with luggage in the car, we just took one extra precaution and went in one at a time for restrooms. If we also decided to stop for a snack, we'd evaluate how comfortable we were at that point and decide if we wanted to go back in together or if one of us would go back in and just bring out something. We didn't have any problems.

Thanks, Nadine. It sounds like you advocate caution rather than assuming all will be OK.

I think I will contact our agriturismo and ask if we can leave our luggage there before we go to Siena. It will be too early for check-in, but hopefully they will let us drop the 4 (small) roller bags for a few hours.

Now I just have to figure out how to write my request in Italian. . .

I usually use one of the free translation services on the web. Google free translation.

I'll write it in English, copy paste the translation and then email or fax both.

while you might not want to do high level diplomacy with them, they are usually good enough to get your point across.

Kelly,do not believe anyone telling you not to worry about your belongings in your vehicle.Take all your money/Tickets/Passports with you!If you are victimized then you do not have to go to the consulate to replace passports.Pack light and take it with you if you can or put it in a locker.
Dennis

I would not worry too much about leaving luggage in your car (covered) in Volterra and San Gimignano. They are small towns and out of the way. Park in a public lot, but don't expect them to be monitored. I would definitely avoid leaving luggage in a car in a bigger city, and definitely anywhere (big or small) in Southern Italy.

With a station wagon or esp. a hatchback the best way
to stop someone from breaking in the rear hatch/door
is to back the vehicle into the parking slot and pull
up to the wall, fence, tree, etc. That way the door
won't open - up or sideways and nothing can be removed until you pull ahead. Always worked for us.

mimi---that is a great suggestion---thank you.

As for communicating with your agriturismo, just keep the sentences plain and simple in English and they'll figure out what you mean. After all, they can plug your correct English text into a translation engine if they're a little stumped as to what it means.

But a word of caution about relying on those translation sites. Here's the text of my preceding paragraph after it has been run through Babelfish into Italian and then back into English:

Regarding the communication with your farm holidays, as soon as it maintains the phrases pure and simple and they' the ll it calculates outside what meant. After all, they can insert your correct English text a translation motor if they' with reference to a little one stumped as for what it means.

My experience with Babelfish is that it can turn out pretty silly or incomprehenisble---just as you indicate.

We are actually diligently studying Italian, but spoken more than written. Mainly I need help with conjugating verbs, etc. When I'm writing to a place I sort of rough it out first on my own, using a dictionary as needed, and then compare it to what Babelfish produces.

With Mimi's suggestion about backing the rear door up to a fence or tree so it can't be opened, I'm not sure we even need to drop off our bags early. But I do need to ask about check-in time, so it can't hurt. We will be driving right close to the palce on our way to Siena.

Mimi suggestion is awesome! LOVE it... We have no choice but to keep the luggage with us though since our Agritourism farm is near Pienza and at the very end of our drive from Lucca. We will take all the precautions and be sure all our valuables are with us except our clothing. We won't open the trunk, we will leave the glove box open and put an italian newspaper in the back seat.

Thanks for all your suggestions. We will take our chances so to speak and hope for the best.

We have never had any problem with leaving our luggage in the car. Seems like we always end up with a hatchback type vehicle and it has a black shade thing that you can pull over the stuff. Not like people wouldn't know that there is stuff under it though. Once of twice we ended up with vehicles with real trunks and that gave me more of a comfort level. Just leave nothing of value on the seats, etc. and you should be fine.

As you leave your vehicle with all your belongings in it have fun worrying about it while you are trying to enjoy wherever you visit.They won't even bother with the hatchback they will pick the lock on the door!

Thanks. So how much risk do you think there is in a busy public parking lot (at Siena in our case), early afternoon for a couple of hours?

we were parked on the street in Bergamo and gone for just 2 hours only to find a clean-pick on our passenger lock.You said a smart thing earlier and that is to leave no real valuables i.e.passports,$,driver's licenses.You will probably be OK enjoy yourself!Dennis