My family will be going to Italy in September of 2011. We are staying 5 days in Rome. One day while in Rome, we want to take the train to Pompeii for our own little day trip. We are
My family will be going to Italy in September of 2011. We are staying 5 days in Rome. One day while in Rome, we want to take the train to Pompeii for our own little day trip. We are taking the high speed train to Venice and staying 3 days there. We would like to rent a car from there and drive to Volterra where we will be spending 5 days while using the rental car to get around and see the beautiful sites and just explore.
Here are my questions: 1. Do we need to get train tickets online for Rome to Pompeii (roundtrip) and Rome to Venice (one way) or can we get them when we get to Rome about 2 days in advance?
2. Can we get a rental car in Venice and return it to the airport we are flying back from, to the states?
3. What city flights in Italy go non-stop to a city in the United States? Rome, Venice, Florence, Pisa?
1. You will be able to get them once you are in Italy. You may be able to get discounts if you buy in advance through trenitalia.com. You won't be able to buy them more than 90 days from the date of the train. You will need to call your bank and tell them you'll be making a transaction with an Italian entity before your credit card will go through (and sometimes that doesn't do it, so you'll end up buying your ticket once you're in Italy).
2. Yes. I use AutoEurope. They have outlets all over Italy. There is no drop-off charge as long as you return the car in Italy.
3. To what airport in the US? Personally, if I have to have a connection, I prefer it in Europe. But definitely there are non-stops from Rome, Pisa and Venice to NYC. Florence is a longer shot.
In addition to the Italian cities Road Crazy listed, there are non-stops from US cities to Milan, and I have in the past seen non-stop flights to Florence (from Atlanta, on Delta). They may have been discontinued.
If you haven't bought your air tickets yet, I suggest you begin your trip in Venice, rent the car leaving Venice, drive to Volterra, but also keep the car and drive it from Volterra to Pompeii for a night there. I would suggest dropping off the car in either Salerno, Sorrento or the Rome airport of Ciampino and making your way into Rome by train (or from Ciampino airport, taxi). After seeing Rome, fly home from Rome.
One advantage of that itinerary is that it will be cooler in Rome and Pompeii at the end of your trip rather than the beginning. The drive from Volterra to Pompei is a bit more than 5 hours, which you can break up with nice lunch en route.
Actually, I was thinking of suggesting pretty much the same thing as Bay Guy, although I think it is easier to drive out of Pisa, so I would recommend renting the car there instead of Florence.
However, a couple of things to know if you pick that option:
You need to either leave Venice by train early enough in the morning to reach a car rental office before it closes for lunch. Or leave Venice later in the day so you arrive when the rental offices re-open after 4pm. (Something you might enjoy is to take a mid-morning train to Pisa, stow your luggage at the train station, see the monuments of Pisa and have lunch, and then go to the car rental office next to the train station when it reopens. You could do something similar in Florence.)
It is also more expensive travel if you rent a car in Florence or Pisa rather in Venice, because you will have the cost of 3 train tickets plus the day's car rental charge. It's true that you'll pay gas and tolls driving from Venice, but it is still cheaper than the train tickets you buy.
If you think that driving from Volterra to Pompei is too much for one day, you can drive south from Volterra to a town like Chiusi or Orvieto (or even Orbetello on the coast) to drop off your car, and take a train to Rome. (Then see Pompeii as a day trip from Rome as you originally planned.) But again, you need to time your trip to coincide with the hours when car rental offices are open.
