We are taking our 2 twenty-something daughters on an Italian road trip. Renting an SUV (and already worried about the size of small town Italian streets based on a trip 25 years ago when we had a minivan…).
Looking for advice on folks’ favorite places to eat/stay/see. We’ve got about 12 days at the end of May. Basically no big cities (Rome, Florence, Venice).
I think we want to go through Tuscany for some of it, and we will definitely do Naples and see the Amalfi coast for some. But otherwise still up in the aire/ Thinking of staying 3 - 5 places for 2 or 3 days each.
Advices on places to stay (not too expensive) and places to eat (no budget limit there ), as well as sites to not miss. North to south (ex-Sicily) all fair game.
We will either rent the car in Milan and drop it in Rome, or else start and finish in Rome.
I’ve already spotted the Emilia-Romagna thread from last month.
Tuscany is perfect for a road trip, and many gorgeous small towns abound — San Gimignano, Volterra, Lucca… but I will say the roads are curvy, and you’ll encounter a lot of cyclists. It’s huge in Italy.
You could fly into Florence and take it from there.
Yes. And in Padova, the Scrovegni chapel, frescos by Giotto of the lives of Christ and Mary. Revolutionary for their naturalism, at the dawn of the renaissance. Ravenna mosaics, the end of the simple natural realism of Roman art.
I would worry about SUV size in tiny tuscan hill towns, or any ancient village in Italy, definitely. A stay we had at a place called Gargonza, not far from Siena was memorable with our (young) children. A tiny castle village atop a hill with fragrant cedars and other trees all around, we walked down the the restaurant with its wood fired meats when we didnt care to cook. Visited the many wonderful towns in the area each day.
End of May is a lovely time, not getting hot yet. I remember driving over the appenines in Tuscany from Florence to Ravenna at that time, the yellow broom was in bloom, smelled like honey. Wild strawberries in the stree markets in Rome. I think may would be a beautiful time to visit Campania - the Amalfi coast, the meadows at Pompeii and the islands would be filled with beautifulwildflowers and it would not be high season yet. Great for hiking, walking and enjoying the foods and wines. Could be starting to get warm that far south.
Good for Emilia Romagna too, prosperous ancient towns with their old Roman wall and street structure, romanesque churches with great art, arcaded streets, delicious food, of course. Summer time is too hot for this area.
The Slow Food Osteria app is a good investment, wherever you are going to get to good meals.
If your daughters havent been in Italy before Id be reluctant to totally skip larger cities. But it depends on interests.
Country roads are no problem, but negotiating sharp turns in Middle Age villages certainly is. Once when we were upgraded to a midsize car, our hosts couldn’t restrain their mirth re how inappropriate it was considering the narrow lanes we needed to traverse.
AND finding any place to put your car once you make it in there! We usually go for the smallest 4-door hatchback (I dont want to drive a tiny mini) but OP would have to impose severe discipline on family in terms of luggage to make that work.
I’d look into Le Marche. Ascoli Piceno at the southern end of the region which puts you close to marvelous Abruzzo and the Gran Sasso if you want that type of road trip, then there’s Senigallia futher north in with its fantastic restaurants, Urbino and environs (Urbania, Corinaldo).
One trip we picked up a car in Rome, spent time in Umbria, drove over the Pian Grande to Ascoli Piceno, several days there, then roadtripped through Abruzzo (have overnighted in Santo Stefano di Sessanio once, Sulmona once), then to Naples, where we dropped the car.
The Senigallia trip I arrived from the north, taking the train from Venice to Pesaro, where I picked up my rental.
Agree with Leely: We had a great combination of Le Marche and Abruzzo a few years ago, by car, with a few days’ stop in Norcia en route from Rome to Senigallia
Some country roads aren’t mapped onto GPS. We got lost and were driving around, getting stuck on narrow roads, because the GPS wasn’t able to help us get from a road not on the grid, to our rented villa that was located down a private road.
Very frustrating 2 h, driving in circles.
While it was a nice change to stay in a big villa with 7 other women, I much prefer staying within a 10 minute walk of a restaurant, café and train station.
Id say a trip from Rome into southern tuscany and umbria (even into the Marrche for Urbino) would be lovely at that season. I remember the meadows full of poppies in Assissi, the white stones and palace ruins of Gubbio and such places as Arrezzo and Sansepolcro for their Pieros, a double rainbow in beautiful Urbino with its ducal palace and museum, very fondly - but if you havent been in Rome, heavens, dont skip it altogether. check out the smaller towns, they may be less crowded. There are some remarkable things in the Sienese countryside. I still love Siena, but the last time we were there, in March 2018 I think, the parking situation was horrible, tho the crowding inside the city was tolerable .I cant personally comment but the area between Siena and Rome and w of the autostrada is full of Etruscan remains and my sister and her husband found touring this region fascinating.
We love staying at this place in the medieval village of Portico di Romagna in Emilia-Romagna. We’ve been there 3 times, because the food, scenery and hospitality are so good. It’s driving distance from Bologna, Florence and (I think) Modena and Ravenna.
Driving on a white road in Tuscany and following it almost into a swimming pool.
Running partially off a white road in Tuscany and being saved by Gore Vidal. My ungenerous spouse contends I might be exaggerating. She is wrong.
Backing into a drain from the 1500 in a VA Golf rental which resulted in the inside the wheel well trim to fall off. On a white road in Tuscany!
Almost burning out the clutch in the very same VW Golf trying to transition from the town of Montalcino to a white road in Tuscany. Which I could not see over the hood of the Golf. I did manage not to unalive my spouse and her mother! I am still looked at askance by my ungenerous spouse. Saving her life after putting it in danger is still a good thing. Right?
Tearing off a mirror from a VW golf. Yep the same one. On a white road.
Wait! Wait!!! Why the hell would anyone take driving advice from ME of all people in Italy.
And don’t ask me about the time I got sent to the school principles office by the guard at the Autostrada for not having a ticket of entry. I mean it makes Katz’s policing of their tickets a lullaby!
While I experienced none of these things while driving in Italy, the vibe seems very familiar. I vividly remember being tailgated incessantly at high speeds and seeing a multi-car wreck as a result of same.
On my early driving trips to Italy I rented mostly something sexy and powerful that I was able to play pinball with the small Lancia Beta’s and Fiat Puntos. As my trips to Italy changed from business trips to just vacations paid for by me, I went from a Strada Bully to a Pinball in a Fiat Punto.
aside from the autostrada freaks flashing their headlights to get you to get out of the fast lane, we have never had a problem with the DRIVERS in Italy, they seem to be relatively skillful - but the rules of the road are more dependent on looking at the other drivers and reaching agreement than paying attention only to rules of right of way. The roads are another matter, gps also is constantly improving but I would not drive there without a high quality paper maps that show and labels the minor as well as major roads, if you intend to get off the highways and explore the countryside. a detailed Michelin or Touring Club Italia regional map can be a helpful security blanket . GPS can fail to give you coverage in some rural places - we ran into problems with GPS in Florida just recently.
Oh believe me, I was never in the fast lane, would not have dared. My experiences also pre-date GPS. We did have good maps and a couple of skilled map readers, thankfully. Having grown up and learned to drive in Boston I am rarely intimidated driving anywhere but Italy humbled me.
This is curious but I guess I’ve just been lucky. I’ve been driving in Italy for a few yers now, but mostly south of Rome and I have not had any problems. (Used to be a passenger holding the giant paper map; that was a lot worse than actually driving!)
I am a terrible driver, living in NYC and not driving much outside the city. I just keep in the slow lane in Europe, and if they get up close and flash their lights, I just ignore them. BUT I always rent a car with GPS included and yes, I have ended up in the middle olive groves in both Molise and in Gargano but at least it was daytime! (In a hill town in Andalucia, I was escorted out off the town by the police when I was driving the wrong way on a one-way narrow street filled with kids just exiting school).
But the oddest thing I saw in Italy while driving on the ring road around Rome, heading from Fiumicino to Norcia was this: Pretty heavy traffic, with two women in a small car right in front of me, creeping along. All of a sudden, a car in the adjacent lane, to the left of the women, stops dead and two large men get out and head for the car with the two women. One guy proceeds to drag the woman driver halfway out of the car while the other woman cowers in her seat; both women are screaming and both guys are screaming louder and cursing, partially spitting. Guy keeps puling the driver woman further and further out of the car until she is just about on the road… Just then traffic in my lane inches forward so I could not see what eventually happened but I never forgot the scene…
I never rent the smallest cars.* Anything smaller than “compact” isn’t comfortable for me. I’m 5’8". Midsize has been fine too. And as someone who enjoys driving stick, I’ve generally had a good time. [Knocks wood] Which is not to say I haven’t gotten lost, driven on roads that seem to turn into footpaths, etc.
I do try to suss out where to park in advance so I don’t drive into a ZTL.
*ETA: Not true–I realize I rented a Lancia Ypsilon, which I think is considered economy size, on a solo trip to Puglia in 2023. I didn’t do any long-haul driving, though.