I'm planning a trip to Italy for this summer. My previous Italy experience was with a group tour, Rome-Asissi-Florence. This trip will be on my own, starting in Rome, and then looking to explore further afield. What's the best way to travel around? Train? Bus? Thanks for any tips.

JDG

Edit: Oops, looks like I forgot to expand my search before posting....

I'm planning a trip to Italy for this summer. My previous Italy experience was with a group tour, Rome-Asissi-Florence. This trip will be on my own, starting in Rome, and then looking to explore further afield. What's the best way to travel around? Train? Bus? Thanks for any tips.

My first Italian travels go back to 1962, an era of 3rd class trains, ancient cars with horsehair stuffed seats. Even today, I still enjoy Italian rail travel and find it a pleasant time to recoup and relax between cities. For short trips, especially in Tuscany, l'autobus works fine, but it's possible to become stranded by "the last stage out of Dodge" syndrome if one sticks around for a late dinner or entertainment. Overtime, I've even figured out a few of Rome's bus routes, which limits one to familair places, except that Italians are the world's most willing providers of advice and counsel, often a bit confusing, especially since they all speak Italian better than I ucomprehend or speak it. Unfortunately, some of them, ready to help me, have some difficulty in understanding my stilted syntax. modest vocabulary, and TexMex accent.

The downside for me, after more than a dozen visits, is that the best of Italy is often to be found in the countryside, small villages, country hotels and restaurants out in the sticks, making a rental car necessary. That's offset by the facts that much of Rome and Florence are closed to private autos, only three parking places have been created in Italy since 1945, many hotels in "Car-ban" areas are poorly accessible. If you're thinking Sicily, then think about rent car, and for me the same applies to non-urban Tuscany and my favorite, the Marches/Lazio North of Rome. As for the Amalfi Coast, I'd choose to join Custer on the Greasy Grass before agreeing to drive that frightening biway again, and driving in Naples may be more frightening than crossing the Rapido under fire.

Of course, Venice, only to be missed on pain of death, presents no problems, all parts accessible by boat or afoot, with not a car or bus around. There, and darn near everywhere else, the key is that with which you are hung about or dragging behind. Unless you are safely ensconced among the "aristos", able to afford the double deluxe or hired cars, drivers and porters on call, the secret to enjoyable Italian travel is not how to get around, but how to minimize the load with which you burden yourself.

Don't over-plan or over-schedule. There's far too much to see and experience in several lifetimes. After all, the Italians have been busy collecting and marginally preserving all of it for many thousands of years.

I'm planning a trip to Italy for this summer. My previous Italy experience was with a group tour, Rome-Asissi-Florence. This trip will be on my own, starting in Rome, and then looking to explore further afield. What's the best way to travel around? Train? Bus? Thanks for any tips.

JDG

Edit: Oops, looks like I forgot to expand my search before posting....

If you're just going to the big cities (Rome, Florence, Venice) then take the train. If you're doing more rural areas you'll want a rental car.

I'm planning a trip to Italy for this summer. My previous Italy experience was with a group tour, Rome-Asissi-Florence. This trip will be on my own, starting in Rome, and then looking to explore further afield. What's the best way to travel around? Train? Bus? Thanks for any tips.

JDG

Edit: Oops, looks like I forgot to expand my search before posting....

A lot of this depends on your budget. A rental car will give you the opportunity to stop at out of the way places and get off the standard tourist track. However, rental cars are expensive and gas costs about three times more in Italy than the US, then there is parking - which can be a real challenge.

As a result, the train IMHO is preferable.

I guess I'm just an American. If I'm spending time in cities, I try to arrange my itinerary so that I don't have a car in the cities, but do have a car to travel in the countryside. I can stop wherever I see something that interests me. This is my general plan all over Europe. So, I'll fly into a city, stay a few days, rent a car, travel around, get to another city, ditch the car, fly out.

However, rental cars are expensive and gas costs about three times more in Italy than the US, then there is parking - which can be a real challenge.


Outside the major cities, parking isn't an issue. I'm not sure exactly what "gas" refers to (petrol/LPG/LNG/something else), but you can rent a small car with a diesel engine and therefore be able to get around for not much. Renting a car is not expensive- €200 a week should do it for the smaller car groups.
I'd say the train is good for travelling between major cities, but I'd go with the car as you can find little gems of small towns (e.g. I randomly stopped in Alessandria which I ended up quite impressed by), and all major cities have hotels in the outskirts (which, as a bonus, tend to be cheaper than city centre properties of comparable standard). For longer distances, also look into the option of flying- no reason to go Rome-somewhere and then have to come back to Rome by train only to catch a flight from FCO. Indeed, if you're flying Alitalia, you should be able to do an open-jaw for no/little extra cost.
Example: You're flying in from MAD and want to go to Sicily in addition to Rome, so you buy a r/t ticket that is thus:
MAD-FCO
CTA-FCO-MAD

And use the train/car to go from Rome to CTA.

I'm not sure exactly what "gas" refers to (petrol/LPG/LNG/something else), but you can rent a small car with a diesel engine and therefore be able to get around for not much. Renting a car is not expensive- €200 a week should do it for the smaller car groups.
I'd say the train is good for travelling between major cities, but I'd g.

"Gas" refers to fuel for the automobile:rolleyes: and while as someone based in the UK you may not consider fuel costs high, it is a fact that fuel (petrol, benzina, etc...) costs three times in Europe what it does in the US.

"Gas" refers to fuel for the automobile:rolleyes: and while as someone based in the UK you may not consider fuel costs high, it is a fact that fuel (petrol, benzina, etc...) costs three times in Europe what it does in the US.

Yes. But my point is that you don't really have to pay 3 times as much as the US cost for moving from A to B. That's because you can use fuels OTHER THAN petrol, fuels which include actual gases (LPG in the UK or GPL in France/Italy for passenger cars, and LNG/CNG for trucks/buses). That's not likely to be available on a rental car, however diesel cars (i.e. those not actually burning petrol/benzina/etc) will definitely be available in Italy and are far more economical than the petrol versions. On a per mile basis, it's still probably going to be a bit more expensive than what you'd pay for petrol in the US (or a lot more expensive than what you'd pay in Venezuela!), but it's definitely not something to seriously worry about.
Obviously, you're free to choose a petrol car and pay three times more than in the US for your fuel, but there's no reason to do that unless you are only going to drive very short distances (the very smallest rental cars will only be available with petrol engines).

Fuel(?) for auto cost in europe:

http://www.aaroadwatch.ie/eupetrolprices/
for present time, we have €1.286/liter for diesel, 0.6942€/$us and 3.78 lt/gal us.

is nice cause that comes out $7.00 even /gal. here in DC, 90/10 gas is $3/gal.

my last automobile got 25 mpg, or a fuel cost of $12/100 miles.

That would require 59mpg to come out with even costs. even when driving down the mountain side, I did not get 60 mpg in my fiat panda. the €200 seems about right for a wee put, but for a diesel vehicle that fits when you have your shoes on, and will take a suitcase, will cost closer to €300-350.

my current vehicle cost over $20/100 miles for fuel. that would be easy to generate with most european diesel vehicles.

Fuel(?) for auto cost in europe:

http://www.aaroadwatch.ie/eupetrolprices/
for present time, we have €1.286/liter for diesel, 0.6942€/$us and 3.78 lt/gal us.

is nice cause that comes out $7.00 even /gal. here in DC, 90/10 gas is $3/gal.

my last automobile got 25 mpg, or a fuel cost of $12/100 miles.

That would require 59mpg to come out with even costs. even when driving down the mountain side, I did not get 60 mpg in my fiat panda. the €200 seems about right for a wee put, but for a diesel vehicle that fits when you have your shoes on, and will take a suitcase, will cost closer to €300-350.

my current vehicle cost over $20/100 miles for fuel. that would be easy to generate with most european diesel vehicles.

I agree with you. 10 Eurocents per km is a decent base for calculations!
As for renting, I think you can find a Punto diesel for just over €200 per week, but anything bigger would cost more. In any case, I would advise against a big car in Italy, because there are town streets where both width and length may be a problem.

Fuel(?) for auto cost in europe:

http://www.aaroadwatch.ie/eupetrolprices/

Slawecki - thanks for the link.

At the present (poor) exchange rate, I get a cost of about $8.00/gallon for diesel in Italy, which is more than double but less than triple what it would be in the states.

As for LPG, etc... since they are not likely to be available for ready use in rental cars, I didn't see any reason to mention those.

One thing I forgot about Italy. The funny gas stations. At night they may be attended, but use a system where you put in money and put in gas (petrol, I suppose). They don't take credit cards. You can't "fill" your tank, you don't get change back. So, returning a rental car in the evening is a pain in the you know where. Last time, I stopped at four gas stations outside FCO. Every one was the cash/machine variety. I was down to my last few euros. So, I went off in search of an ATM. Couldn't find one. I finally found three five euro notes stuck in the back of my billfold. I put them in one at a time. The last two "fills" registered no change in the tank guage. The attendant got mad because we didn't know what the system was. We got the tank about 3/4s full. At that point, I decided I had had enough and would just return and pay the premium for the gas.

Slawecki - thanks for the link.

At the present (poor) exchange rate, I get a cost of about $8.00/gallon for diesel in Italy, which is more than double but less than triple what it would be in the states.


in past, i recall diesel being about half the price of petrol. that site shows the same price for both. sort of remember 1500 lira for diesel, while gas was 3000 lira.

I own a diesel dump truck. while gas is about $3.00 in us, diesel is over $3.50. can feed that bad boy a couple hundred dollars worth at a single sitting.

Because folks got wrapped up in the price of using a car, I think we got sidetracked from some of the other options. Since you are in the country for four weeks, you will probably want to use a mix travel options. I have traveled extensively throughout Italy, and only on my most recent two week trip did I rent a car. If you are traveling alone, the train will be the most economical way to travel between cities and towns. It is the way most Italians travel between cities as well, so it puts you in touch with the local culture. It will also avoid all of the problems mentioned above regarding parking in cities. The bus system is also quite good, although I have been caught by the last bus out of dodge problem, so pay attention to the schedule.

I would consider renting a car when you know you want to spend time in the country. This will minimize both cost and hassle. So you could spend some time in Rome, take the train to Florence, spend some time in Florence, rent a car for a few days, see the Tuscan countryside, return the car, take a train to Bologna, etc. However, if you don't want to rent a car at all, it is completely possible to see the countryside, using buses and trains, you just will have to spend more time planning it out.