Does anyone have a feeling about driving from Pisa to Montalcino? Google Maps suggests major roads down the coast for most of the trip. I thought it might be more scenic to drive smaller roads through the countryside, but I'm open to any good suggestions.
Thanks!
It depends on how much time you want to spend driving. Remember those scenic roads via villages etc. can take a lot of time. So, if getting from Point A to Point B is the mission take the major roads. Scenery, long lunches (you get the picture) smaller roads are great. It is CRITICAL that you buy a really really good road atlas (available at most petrol stops and probably on Amazon). You need a map with local spellings of towns etc. GPS is great but only until you come to the "road work in progress follow detour to New Zealand and back" sign (in Italian of course).
On maps.google.com enter your departure city and a city half way to your destination on the road you choose.
Do the same for the second part of your trip. You will see a map and the distance and driving time for each segment.
This could be a really nice drive and use of a rental car in Italy. One suggested route to consider would be to drive down the coast to just before Cecina and then turn east. You'll drive by Volterra, San Gimignano and Siena before turning south to get to Montalcino.
Thanks everyone for the replies! Let me add a twist on my question. The original plan is to go via train from Florence to Pisa, see the tower, and then pick up the rental car. My thought process was that this would eliminate having to drive in Florence, and allow us to see the leaning tower as well. My question is, is the tower really worth it, since this would add a lot of extra time (train and car). Alternatively, we could skip Pisa and just rent the car in Florence.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks!
My two cents - if you ARE going to see the tower try to do it early in the morning. I was happy to see it at 7AM after a night train from Paris. I was alone, the light was beautiful. As I was walking away from the grounds, tour bus after tour bus filed in. At the same time an endless row of souvenir stands began opening up selling Leaning Tower plates, towels, egg cups etc.
I'm not convinced it's worth the special trip when you could spend a little extra time in Tuscany. Montapulciano, for instance, is so close to Montalcino.
We drove out of Florence, btw, on our was to Tuscany a couple of years ago. We left early and our rental agency was a bit of a hike from the city center. That turned out to be a good thing because it meant it was an easy drive out of town.
The interesting thing about having to see the leaning tower of Pisa is that we have seen the tower in our history books since primary/grade school. We know its there. Then, we get really close (i.e. the train stops at Pisa on the way to the CT) and we want to see it. We did. It was well worth the visit to connect with our childhood teachings. Now if I can just get to the Taj Mahal, Victoria Falls in Africa, Ayers Rock in Australia and a few other places, I'll be a happy boy.
I'll just add that I bypassed Pisa on many trips because I thought the Tower was a cliche.
Finally seeing it, I think it is one of the memorable sites I have seen.
It leans more than you think. The architecture is beautiful. It belongs on your bucket list.
I agree with Brad...don't take this trip without a GPS. It can offer you so many options, and you can't get lost. We have used our TOMTOM Go 920 in both Portuagal and Germany, and for a cross country US trip.
We are taking it to France for our trup this May. Once you use one, you'll ask yourself why you waited so long to buy one.
It is the absolute best travel investment and marriage survival tool that I could reccomend!
Chris, seeing the tower was worth it, i can't explain why, the area is very touristy, lot of cheaps souvenirs shops etc, but climbing to top was very special, i guess it is because we have seen so many pictures, and we finally made it there! I don't think we would go back, but I am happy we went!
We got lost a lot in Tuscany...I agree with the previous posts, buy a good map, but even if we got lost we still enjoyed the drive very much.
I liked the tower. I agree with going early before the tourist throngs really get rolling. It's definitely worth seeing once. We probably wouldn't make a second trip but were glad to have seen it and the baptistry/duomo.
Not having a car in Florence is a good idea.
I would suggest packing a GPS for when you rent your car. My TomTom gives me a choice of routes. I can choose fastest, shortest, avoid tolls, avoid freeways, bike route, etc. If you learn to use it. You can choose one route, see how long it takes, then choose a different route and see how long that takes. Then you can decide how much time you're willing to lose to get off the autostrada.
Thanks everyone! My original plan was to stop in Pisa on route to Florence from Monterosso. Then we had to cut CT short overall by one day, so that's why I was thinking about rearranging and seeing Pisa after Florence. I think I may go back to the original plan, which still leaves us 2 nights in CT. Then we could rent the car from Florence and go straight to Montalcino, or take the train from Florence to Siena and rent the car there.
Thanks for all the input!
Going back to Pisa seems like a lot of backtracking.
