Florence Travel Answers

hi - i am wondering why you are hiring a car - it doesn't seem as if you are travelling off the beaten track - and a car in places like the cinqueterre and florence and rome is just a nuisance with parking problems and limited traffic zones (big fines)

First of all, I would tend to agree with the previous comment regarding a car. We spent just over a week in Florence and Venice a couple of months ago and did everything on foot / train. Cars have become a real liability in many European cities with the restrictions they put on them in the city core, lack of parking and excellent public transport (if you want to take it, most city centres are so small, walking is actually the best way to see the highlights). Florence is easily good for 4 or 5 nights, and Venice is worth a couple of days, three if you are pushing it. Rome is probably worth about the same time as Florence. I know my daughter did a day trip to Naples (Pompeii really) from Rome back in the fall when she was backpacking through Europe. From a transport standpoint, Venice is about 2 hours by train from Florence and the Florence / Rome link is about the same (this is via the high-speed train). Pisa / Lucca / Cinque Terra are in the 1 - 2 hour range, depending on the train you are using. I assume driving times would be similar. Local and regional Italian trains are cheap. I think one way from Florence to Lucca was around Euro 8.50. When we travel we tend to try to stay in a place 2 or 3 nights and daytrip. Not having to pack and haul the luggage every night is something that works for us.

Agree with others. I would dedicate a couple of days - 2-3 to the Amalfi area such as Sorrento. If you have 2 weeks I'd do following: Venice 2 days Cinque Terre 2 days Florence 3 days with day a trip to Luca and Pisa Siena 2 days with a day trip to San Gimignano Rome 3 days - devoting a large part of the day to the Vatican Sorrento/Naples 2 days possibly flying out of Naples? You can fly into one city (such as Venice) and fly out of Naples - as we did. You can easily do all of this using public transport. I would definitely pre-book rooms instead of relying on searching once there. Summer is height of tourist season for Italy and much time will be lost lugging luggage around searching out a place to stay, especially affordable places. Homer

Hi We just booked a nice hotel in Florence for July. The rate is quite good. Have a look at their website: http://www.hoteldonatelloflorence.com/

Agree absolutely about the car. A car will be absolutely useless in Venice, of course, and a major hassle in Milan, Rome, Florence, Pisa, Siena, Lucca and numerous other Italian towns and cities, where restricted traffic zones (ZTLs) are in force. They are monitored by CCTV cameras and fines are automatically taken from your credit card, often months later. Parking is *exceptionally* difficult in the Cinque Terre at any time of year and will be even worse in June. Use public transport (trains and some buses) to get around that area. The Italian railway network is extensive, with frequent services on most routes, safe, comfortable enough and very reasonably-priced indeed. You can very easily visit Pisa, Lucca, Siena, San Gimignano and the Cinque Terre villages by train from Florence. Train times, details and fares in English: trenitalia.com/homepage_en.h... No need to buy tickets in advance online. ticket machines have English language options, accept cash (and cards with chip 7 PIN) and give change. For Siena it is best to use the express bus, as Siena railway station is some considerable distance from its historical centre: sitabus.it/sita-toscana/Fire... Florence is the most sensible base for exploring Tuscany and the CT in daytrips, imo...but not with a car (unless you are prepared to find accomm outside the historical centre, preferably with its own parking, and then use public transport to get in and out. In June I would not risk leaving accommodation until I arrived in a location, and certainly not if I were travelling with family. You may find that accommodation within your budget and in a convenient place for you is not available and may end up paying more, or staying further afield, or wasting much time seeking accommodation. Better to book in advance. www.booking.com and www.venere.com are both reliable sites used by many VT-ers.

Reading this thread and looking at the map I thought that may be I can visit Cinque Terre on a way from Milan to Florene instead of taking the main route via Bolognia. In your opinion is Cinque Terre worth this detour, or are we better save this time for Tuscani? Here is what Wikipedia says that sounds like couple of days at least: "A passenger ferry runs between the five villages, except Corniglia. The ferry enters Cinque Terre from Genoa's Old Harbour and La Spezia, Lerici or Porto Venere. A walking trail, known as Sentiero Azzurro ("Light Blue Trail"), connects the five villages. The trail from Riomaggiore to Manarola is called the Via Dell'Amore ("Love Walk") and is wheelchair-friendly. The stretch from Manarola to Corniglia (still closed in April 2012 for ongoing repairs since the October 2011 damage) is the easiest to hike, although the main trail into Corniglia finishes with a climb of 368 stairs."

Yes, I know the Cinque Terre. Visiting with a car is not a very good idea. Prking is *extremely* difficult in all the Ct villages. If you intend to visit the CT then I suggest you make La Spezia as your base (a pleasant town anyway, with much easier parking) and use the frequent trains to visit the coastal villages. You can, of course, walk some of the coastal path if you wish. Some of it may still be closed after damage caused by flash floods last year, but other parts are open. You will need to buy a Cinque Terre card (from tourist information offices, or the railway stations) if you wish to walk *any* part of the coastal path. You can see what Vt-ers have written about the Cinque Terre villages if you put each name into the searchbox top right of this page. This page has a good description of each segment of the coastal path: italyheaven.co.uk/liguria/ci... It dates from 2003 but, obviously, the terrain will not have changed greatly since then!

You can easily visit the CT from a Florence base, by the way, by car (but park in La Spezia and use the train to access the villages) or by train. I took a daytrip from Pisa by train and visited 3 villages very easily. I could have visited all 5, but chose to spend time in La Spezia instead because it has a museum which particularly interested me.

Thanks for the answers. I was wondering if we could save some time by visiting Cinque Terre on a way from Milan to Florence, instead of taking time for that Florence. The distance from Milan Genoa seems very short. And then we could drive from La Spezia to some place near Florence to park the car and do trips to Florence by train. I was told by someone who took a bus tour of Tuscany that Montecatini Terme is a convenient base for Florence. Any thoughts on that?

Wow wonderful info thanks We are only renting a car because i thought we would need it to get from point A to point B ( like afrer we explore milan how do we fet to venice? I understand i wouldnt need a car in venice but i thought id leave it at the hotel... I am leaning not getting one now but how much is the train from milan to venice? I am also planning on buying guide books just havent yet so i have no idea how much and how easy the train is ...you guys have answered many of my concerns We are traveling with teens a.y advice ...the fetival in Como on june 24th looks fun any thoughts?

You can easily take a train to Venice and then catch the vaporetto into Venice - no problems. We took the Vaporetto from Venice St Marks Square to the train station for onward travel to Verona, then to Bologna, Florence, Siena, Rome, Naples, Sorrento... Public transport is efficient, easy and cheap.

few hotels in venice have car parking - if any if you stay on the mainland at mestre many would have parking check out the italian rail site - trenitalia - mostly the site is working well - oddly the trains in italy seem to work better than the site

and genoa is a wonderful city to visit with much to recommend it - including a large old quarter

Yes..use the train to get around. It is much easier than using the car and Italian trains are very reasonably-priced. You do *nnot* need to buy tickets in advance online (see below). Train fares do not rise as departure date nears, trains are safe and comfortable and used by everyone, ticket machines have English language options and accept cash (or cards with chip & PIN) and give change, ticket offices accept unchipped cards, platforms are clearly signed 9most have electronic signage) and there is always a big electronic display in station entrances telling you which train is leaving when from which platform. The Italian rail network is very extensive and services are frequent in the majority of cases. You can find train times, details and fares in English on the official site; trenitalia.com/homepage_en.h... Don't look for your exact dates..data on railway websites is not held months in advance. Just check for the same day of the week next week: imes and fares are unlikely to change before your visit. You can easily buy your tickets on the day of travel or from the station a day or so beforehand if you prefer. BUT...there are some cheaper online advance discount fares for certain routes/dates/departures. These are called 'Mini' fares and it will be worth buying them if you see them on offer for a route/departure/date which suits you (check using the Trenitalia site). But be aware that they commit you to that one departure time. The one thing you absolutely *must* do when travelling by train in Italy is validate (date-stamp) your ticket before boarding, using the yellow machines on the platforms. There are on-the-spot fines for non-validation and guards do check. I'd advise you to use the train to get from base to base and..if you want to hire a car to explore more widely (remembering that the *vast* majority of places are accessible by train or local buses)...just hire one for a couple of days or so from your base. But beware of the numerous ZTLs and expect to pay for/have difficulty in finding parking.

car is canceled - Thanks everyone

Most of Italy - at least the places we traveled to - Venice, Verona, Bologna, Parma, Siena, San Gimignano, Pisa, Florence, Orvietto, Rome, Sorrento, Pompeii/Herculaenum and along the Amalfi coast - are so well serviced by public transport as Leics and others have said. We really had no need for a car. They are also extremely pedestrian friendly and walkable. Walking around the various towns/cities is the best way to get to know the place and often times, the best way to find hidden gems and places to eat. Eat away from touristy areas! Even walking 1 or 2 blocks away from the tourist spots will result in finding cheaper choices. Homer

can I stay in one town while exploring Cinque terre,piza and the sights in Florence ...can someone recommend a good base

I believe Leics replied that you can easily do CT from Florence as a day trip. I'd use Florence as a home base

Yes, indeed you can indeed easily visit CT from Florence or from Pisa. Either make a good base, although Pisa>Siena is more complex and time-consuming than Florence>Siena. You will need to go into Florence first (by train); there is no direct bus service to Siena from Pisa (apart from once per day from Pisa airport. Basically, it works like this: Florence to CT villages, Pisa and Lucca by train: trenitalia.com/homepage_en.h... Florence to Siena by express bus: sitabus.it/sita-toscana/Fire... Florence>Fiesole (and other places) by ordinary bus: Ataf route 7/7a for Fiesole here: ataf.net/en/timetables-and-r... Other buses depend on where you are going...different companies operate different routes. Florence>San Gimignano: Take the train to Poggibonsi and pick up the bus from there: sangimignano.net/tourist-inf...

Since we are coming to Florence by car I looked for hotels in Fiesole and Grassina. I found only few and most did not have rooms for 4 people. But I found one closer to Florence - it is Villa La Sosta located at Via Bolognese 83. Does anyone know anything about it? Can I drive there without problems and park my car?

We have much of a same itinirary as you- and we have found a lovely place 18kms south of Florence. Seems easy to drive to. We will also be driving fromFlorence. They have an apartment that can accommodate 4 persons. Have a look anyway: florenceholidays.com/florenc...

You will not find many hotel/b&b rooms which accommodate 4 people; it is not really the norm in Europe. You will have much more choice if you look for apartments. I know nothing about Villa Sosta but Via Bolognese is quite some way outside Florence centre (put the address into googlemaps), not really 'near' as their site claims. It seems from the reviews on booking.com that there is a bus service, and the place itself seems pleasant: booking.com/hotel/it/villa-l...

Just so you know, everywhere in Florence is about a 15/20 minute walk from the train station, for example, Ponti Vecchio. This of course excludes the outlook point over Florence! That is above the city. Do not miss the Duomo in Florence-it's black and White stone on the outside and is truly awe inspiring inside and out. Hayley :)

we are heading to Florance from Venice , should we go direct to Florance or stop somewhere ? What is the best train route from Venice to Florance

European railway websites *always* automatically give you the 'best' route, in terms of speed and ease of journey. That is how they all work. So just put Venice and Florence into trenitalia.com/homepage_en.h... and you will see the options. If you want to take another route you can work it out by looking at googlemaps. although there *may* be a way of fiddling tickets to allow you to do this I really do not see any point whatsoever; just buy a ticket from a to b, then from b to c when you have visited/stayed, from c to d and so on. The obvious stop-off en route from Venice to Florence is Bologna, about half-way, from where you might make a day trip to Ravenna to see the mosaics. I have not yet been to either place (they are on my list) but if you put the placenames into the searchbox top right of this page you will find loads of tips, info and photos from Vt members (locals and visitors). But you could take any route which suited you, as long as the location has a railway station and you buy the correct ticket!

Florence to Venice on the high speed train takes around 2 hours. Both the Santa Maria Novella station in Florence and the Venezia Santa Lucia are termini stations (i.e. end of the line), so the trains stop there for longer as they have to turn around to leave again (with engines at both ends of the train set turning around really means going in the opposite direction), as opposed to just passing through.

leics , I am having a hard time looking up a train from Florance to Rome the web site(Logo Trenitalia ) says they don't recognize the stations ? What am I doing wrong

also can you tell me what I can expect to pay for a one way Florance- Rome -(just an idea) I can't figure the site out and I am trying to calculate the transportation costs.We don't care about the high speed train as much as saving money so the regular train is fine Thanks :)

why not fly into rome, rent a car, then head north - you will be flying over places you can drive to and then have to drive back - just did this - so here was our itinerary - flew into rome, then went to amalfi coast drive to oriveto, then trained into rome drive from orvieto to siena, florence drive florence to lucca and cinque terra drove to verona and flew out of verona (have driven to milan but with early flight had to stay over near airport)

flights are booked it's into Milan out of Rome , I don't want a car in Venice,Rome ,Cinque Terre , but maybe cheaper then the train on the days i have to travel from place to place >? The train prices I am seeing are high, I would like to know what I should expect to pay from Florance to Rome and Venice to Florance