Because of the location of the venue and being unsure of ground transportation options to the venue, we chose the rental car. The "Teatro del Silenzio" was just south of Lajatico, which is about 30 miles southeast of Pisa on a logical route between Pisa and Siena. Lajatico is not on or near a railway; there were some public buses that ran between Pisa, Pontadera and Volterra, but since we were talking late at night (both the rehearsal and the concert let out at 11:30 at night), public transportation was not an option. I learned that the promoters for the show (Four One Music) had minibuses running from hotels in the Pisa area for a round trip fare of E100.00 ($140.00).

For us, the rental car was a great option on this particular trip, but it was not cheap. Hertz quoted a rate of E324.00 for five days, but this did not include the national value added tax (most other price quotes, like on hotels and restaurants, include the VAT); also, I was unable to buy the "supercover" insurance on the Hertz website (Hertz cars in Italy come with basic liability insurance but a E900 deductible for damage and E1,500 deductible for theft). The "supercover" was E17 per day, and was really worth it on this trip, as I damaged the front bumper and got some scratches on the car as I got to know a wall at the top of the dead end road in Portofino. I bought it for peace of mind, not wanting to end up in an Italian jail if there was serious damage to the car or to a pedestrian or other person. So, the car cost us $140 per day. When I bought the supercover at the counter, the Hertz agent gave us an upgrade (we must have had a really small car reserved). To us, it was worth it; we stayed in a beautiful hotel in San Gimignano the first three nights that was for all practical purposes inaccessible without a car.

We covered quite a bit of distance on this trip, and paid through the nose at the pump (less than 30 gallons of gas cost us at least E135, and I probably shelled out at least E50 in tolls).

The trains in Tuscany serve quite a few communities, and the train from the Pisa Airport is an express in that it only stops two or three times before SMN station and covers the 50 miles in about an hour. The Rome-Pisa-Genova-Nice train line passes through Pisa Centrale station (not even a 5 minute ride from Pisa Aeroporto station). Also, trains are very cheap in Italy; I would recommend not buying a train pass, but rather buying tickets out of the selling machines that you'll see in the stations; the Trenitalia machines (as opposed to the "Regionale Rete" machines) take bills and credit cards and have an English language function. If you buy a train pass, you get ripped off in Italy, as you can't go on the Eurostar Italia, Frecciarossa or Cisalpino high speed services without a seat reservation, and they charge up to E11 for that, close to 25% of what a reasonable length journey (say, Milan to Venice) would go for on a single ticket, seat reservation included.

As far as parking is concerned, our hotel in San Gimignano wanted E13 per night to park on their grounds; they only had 10 or so spots--as it turned out, there was a municipal parking lot outside the walls of the town about 1/4 mile down the hill from the hotel, which only charged E1.00 for the overnight hours through 8 a.m., then E1.00 after that, to a maximum of E6.00 per 24 hour period. That is where we parked. In Lucca, parking came as part of the hotel rate. Parking at meters is high, just like road tolls or gas.

If you were going to do Italy by train, Florence is a great choice, because of the many, many hotels within a short walk of SMN station, and Rome is just 95 minutes away on an amazing high speed train line. However, I think the city I would check out to base myself in would be Bologna. Bologna is a totally underrated place, and it is fantastic. You'll never eat better than in Emilia-Romagna (Parma and Modena are located there, for two shining examples outside Bologna). You could do Rome and back in a day because of the high speed train (probably 2.25 hours each way tops). Venice is 2 hours away, Milano is less than that, Florence is 45 minutes, Rimini and Ravenna are within an hour. On our next trip to Italy, my wife and I have decided that we are going to fly Air France IAD-CDG-Bologna (not sure what the code is, the airport is Guglielmo Marconi Int'l).