We’re planning a trip to northern Italy. We’ve been to Italy many years ago, but it was in the south, and we did not drive at all while there.
We’re thinking of going in late May. Probably around the 19th. Any reason this is not a good time?
2). Our thought is to fly from Chicago to Venice. We expect to be in Venice a few days. We’re getting a hotel right in the city center on a canal. Should we take a cab/bus to the hotel and wait until we leave to get a rental car? Or will there be places to park a rental car?
3)After we leave Venice we’re driving to Florence. Any advice on this plan?
4)We’re spending a few days in Florence and the general Tuscany area. Our interest is Wine, Wine, and more Wine. Any advice on specific places to go.
After we leave Florence we’re going to Pisa. Getting a hotel near the tower. Will there be a place to park, or should we dump the car in Florence and take the train? How will we get around in Pisa without a car?
6)We’re flying home from Pisa.
This is a VERY simplex version of our itinerary. But any comments/advice are appreciated.
Not really done your research, I think - Venice is an entirely car-free city. It doesn’t have “roads” as such. There are no cabs or buses. The equivalents are the Vaporetto lines, water taxis (not cheap) and your feet. You get from the airport to the city by water bus too.
There is a large car parkjust outside the city proper for just this sort of thing, but best to pick the rental up as you go.
I recommend you at least look at the Google earth view of Venice before you go…
I wouldn’t get a car. Except maybe to rent it for a single day to do things around a single city. The trains between Venice and Florence are ~hourly and incredibly fast and easy. It is nearly a commuter run.
I haven’t been to Pisa but I imagine Florence to Pisa is similar.
I can’t even imagine the cost of returning car to different location.
Ok, then I recommend spend the preceding day in Lucca and arriving in Pisa at night so you don’t have to see it. Lucca’s amazing, one of the most charming places I’ve ever been.
An off-the-beaten track part of Tuscany is the Tuscan hills area, towards Barga, particularly Castelnuovo di Garfagnana, which is charming. Not so good for wine mind you, but great for truffles.
Florence is as breathtaking as you could imagine, and then some - and then even more. I stayed at the Pitti Palace hotel, which was very nice, pretty good value, had a great roof terrace with a caffe, and importantly was right slap bang next to the Ponte Vecchio.
This is a point. Euro car rental companies are not good at this, and charge an arm and a leg to let you do it. I’ve done it a couple of times in an emergency and the dropoff fee was greater than the car rental itself.
I agree - you don’t need one when you’re in a city (particularly not Venice!), and can rent one on days when you want to get out of the city and snoop around, returning it to where you rented it from. Much more sensible to take the train for the long haul (much nicer way to travel anyway).
7 days picking up in Venice, dumping in Pisa is $270 include taxes. Picking up in Venice, dumping in Florence after 4 days is $125 including tax and an insurance package. Neither are bankrupting.
I at least want a car for driving in the country side. Also, the hotel we got in Tuscany is in a rural area and not attainable except by car.
Those prices are unbelievable. I mean, literally, I do not believe them. Who are you booking through?
If you can genuinely get those prices without a shit-ton of extras jammed on top (note you may need to add insurance onto the price unless your credit card has a watertight collision damage waiver built into it for international rental), then I agree you should grab them with both hands.
A service called Auto Europe (1-888-223-5555 ). According to the person I spoke with there was no fee for dropping off in another city as long as the car stayed within Italy. The packages also included insurance.
They have a Website but the prices on the website were higher than what I was quoted on the phone. The website also mentions additional fees for one-way rentals, which I was told by the rep would be waved if done over the telephone.
That does look legit, doesn’t it. They will almost certainly be a reseller of the usual suspects (Hertz, Avis, Europcar), but they must have got their volumes so high that they can pass it on to the customer.
I will still say caveat emptor about the insurance though. Last year I picked up a rental at Pisa airport that I’d booked through Expedia. Expedia’s booking policy explicitly includes collision-damage waiver. When I got to the counter I was told that Expedia’s CDW still left me liable for the first €3,000 of any damage to the car, and didn’t include theft insurance. Not much of a waiver in my book. I had to pay an extra €18 per day to get zero excess. (When I got back, Expedia sent me a form letter and did not address my complaint at all.)
Woah! If there’s no hidden extras there, those are amazing bargains. Anyway, there’s nothing better than tootling around Tuscany in a car - you’ll love it.
I would get the car only for the time you are driving around Tuscany, and avoid trying to drive in Venice or Florence as much as possible. Having a car in Venice would be next to impossible, and driving in Florence would not be much better. Take the train from Venice to Florence, rent the car just for the days you are in the country, turn it in and take a train to Pisa.
BTW I know you yanks and the panics you get into if you don’t have yer own wheels, but if you do decide to do the train for the long haul (which as said I certainly would, then pick up a rental from Florence to drive into Tuscany), here is all you need to know about Italian trains - “The Man in Seat 61”, incredible website that. I just asked il mio amore and she said she’s done Venice-Florence on a sleeper train, which might be a novel - not to mention romantic - experience for you.
I see from the map on that site it’s easier to go to Pisa than Florence by train (ETA the previous statement is not correct - it should say “only slightly harder”), so you could grab the 2-minute train from Pisa central to the airport, pick up your car there, drive to Tuscany and drop it off at the airport, thus saving the dropoff fee. Though your quoted rental prices indicate that this might not be an issue, you do also need to factor in the extortionate price of gasoline in Europe.
I can heartily recommend Autoeurope - their prices are very good for hires over 3 days, and the cars usually come from Europcar or Avis, all perfectly legit. Autoeurope are merely a broker. I use them at least twice a year, more often than not dropping off at a different place.
As others have said - no cars on Venice at all, it is a collection of small crowded islands with narrow passages, canals and large squares, but no roads. You can get a taxi or Venice Express Bus Service to Piazzale Roma then Vaporetti (water bus) to the nearest stop to your hotel. Be warned though, you will then have to walk, with your bags, to your hotel (no taxis in Venice), so bear this in mind when you choose your luggage.
You can also take a yellow water bus (the Alilaguna) direct from Marco Polo Airport which drops you at a few spots in Venice: Murano, Lido, and two stops near San Marco. Buy tickets inside the airport or on the boat.
The last and most luxurious option is to take a water taxi from the airport. If you’re staying in a large, posh hotel, they will likely have their own jetty, so the taxi will drop you literally on the doorstep of the hotel. This is the choice of Hollywood starlets.
I agree with all comments about Pisa - visit the leaning tower and cathedral, which are on the outskirts of town, but don’t stay there. Choose somewhere like Siena or Lucca instead.
Take the train from Venice to Florence, have a few days in Florence, THEN pick up a hire car to tour Tuscany. Driving in Florence is a living hell and the centre is restricted to locals with badges only - simply driving into the centre will land you with a ticket (they clock you with traffic cameras), even if you don’t park up.
I’ve traveled a little bit in Italy and Spain with and without a car, and IMO you probably want to avoid driving in Italian cities as much as possible. I suspect if you were the kind of person who enjoyed that type of experience, you wouldn’t have booked a trip to wine country and Venice.
At least, when I was there a decade ago, Italian trains were fantastic. Fast, comfortable, clean, and you can buy your ticket at a kiosk that has an English-language option.
I’d second the idea of going long distances by train, and only getting a car for the actual countryside. [Depending on your particular itenerary, I like the idea of taking the train from Venice to Florence, and only getting a car as you leave Florence, dropping in back in Florence and hopping the train to Pisa]. Remember, the countryside views from the train tracks are usually better than the views from the expressway, and that way you can both look.
There are a few things I’ll tell you when I have the time, but this remark makes me think you may not have done much homework. Or maybe you’re disabled, in which case ignore the previous remark. Have a little look at some maps, or Google Earth. You don’t need a car to get around Pisa, or for that matter Venice. They’re not big enough.
Lucca’s amazing, one of the most charming places I’ve ever been.