Renting a Vehicle

Or main purpose to coming to Italy was for an Italian wedding, and the bride’s family graciously organized transportation between wedding celebrations and our Agriturismo in Tuscany. But if you are coming alone or as a small family, renting a car makes getting around much easier for this region. We chose to use the wedding transportation when it was available, but rented a car to get to and from the city.

While we thought we did well traveling by car in Florence, we were hit up with two traffic tickets four months later. One of our family members received five tickets! If you drive in the city of Florence, be aware of the reserved times for specific vehicle types. We never saw a sign, and the GPS on the vehicle directed us on those routes without warning! Also, beware of the motorcycles, which applies to any city in Italy. At one point in Florence, we had dozens of motorcyclists flying around us on both sides of our lane.

We got another rental in Naples and drove it to the Amalfi Coast. We were glad to get out of Naples, but driving the winding roads on the coast kept us on our toes. We found out later from a local, you can actually get a taxi from Salerno (the eastern part of the coast) to other cities like Positano (the western part of the coast). Renting a vehicle in this region was not the best decision, and we will be returning by taxi!

Driving back to Naples was complete madness. It was the worst and most stressful time of our trip. We experienced the worst of it toward the end of our trip, which only brought on longing for home. No one follows lanes, and the Italians in this area are not afraid of playing bumper cars to get into your lane.

By Train

Train is by far the best way to travel from city to city, and you can sit back and relax and enjoy the ride. We traveled between Florence and Venice, Venice and Milan, Milan and Rome, Rome and Naples, and lastly from Naples to Florence. The shortest ride was an hour and fifteen minutes; whereas, the longest was three hours and forty minutes. The trains are high speed, and travel time is almost cut in half opposed to taking a car.

After doing research, for five days of travel, we would save money by purchasing a Eurail Pass. You pay a set price for day passes, regardless if train ticket costs fluctuate or if you take more than one trip in a day. In Italy, you do have to pay an additional reservation cost of 10€, but Eurail makes it easy to reserve your ticket from their website. We were also able to afford first class tickets, which gives you access to a better coach and the bar cart. One of our trains was cancelled due to a strike, but it was easily resolved by talking with customer service at the station.

Inner City Travel

Every city has several options for travel, except Venice only has boats!

Milan and Rome Metro

Milan and Rome both have underground Metros, but after someone close to us got pick pocketed on Milan’s Metro, we stayed above ground. Yes, they still do pick pocket in the 21st century, and it was a set of five unsuspecting young girls working as a team.

Florence and Milan Trams

We took the tram system in Florence and Milan, which were not too bad to navigate. You can get a day pass as well, which makes it easy to hop on and off as needed.

Taxis

Once we arrived in Rome and other cities we traveled to after, we took mostly taxis. Taxis are easy and headache free if you don’t get car sick and can take the crazy driving. Make sure you don’t get in a taxi that gives you a set rate or covers their time clock. They are definitely going to overcharge you!

Tours

If you are wanting to get out further from a city, such as to Lake Como from Milan or Pompeii from Naples, I would suggest a bus tour. I am not a fan of tours, but it makes things so much simpler. The best part of our trip was a bus tour to Lake Como, then a boat tour to Bellagio. Driving back in traffic ourselves and through the winding roads would have been stressful, and we were glad to pass that responsibility on to the bus driver after a long day.

If you are heading south, I would suggest at least one private boat tour. We took a two-hour ride around the Capri/Anicapri island. It was unforgettable!