Getting There

By Plane

Many visitors choose to fly into Rome's Fiumicino Airport (FCO) (tel. 06-65951; www.adr.it) or Milan's Linate Airport (LIN) (tel. 02-7485-2200; www.sea-aeroportimilano.it) or Malpensa Airport (MXP) (tel. 02-2680-0613; www.sea-aeroportimilano.it), and then transfer to Florence, Tuscany, or Umbria either via another flight or by train or car.

Flying directly to Tuscany is obviously the most convenient option, but often the most expensive. It's nearly impossible if you want to fly non-stop from another continent. One exception to this rule, however, is the non-stop New York to Pisa flight on Delta, which runs from JFK to Galileo Galilei, otherwise known as Pisa International Airport (PSA) (tel. 800-018-849; www.pisa-airport.com). Flying directly to Pisa is much more convenient than arriving in Rome or Milan and then taking a car or train.

You might consider flying to another Italian or European hub, and then transferring to a flight to Pisa. Iberia, British Airways, Air France, and Lufthansa service Pisa airport. Pisa airport is also serviced by budget airlines such as easyJet and Ryan Air.

The other major airport in Tuscany is Florence's airport, known as Amerigo Vespucci Airport, but best known locally as Peretola (FLR) (www.aeroporto.firenze.it), after the neighborhood where it resides. There are only a dozen airlines that fly into it, none of them international budget carriers, but it might make sense for you to arrive somewhere else in Europe and transfer to Florence on Air France, Alitalia, or Lufthansa. While it might be more expensive to fly directly to Florence, you will most likely save money on the trains or taxis you would have taken to get there.

Getting to Tuscany or Umbria from Rome's Airports -- Most international flights to Rome will arrive at Fiumicino Airport (FCO) (officially named Leonardo da Vinci International Airport, but few, including the airlines themselves, call it that). Some inter-European and transatlantic charter flights may land at Ciampino Airport (CIA), which is closer to the center, but not connected by an express train. You can connect to a plane at either to take you to Pisa's or Florence's airport, but it's often simpler, almost as fast in the long run, and cheaper to take the train.

Fiumicino (tel. 06-659-51; www.adr.it) is 30km (19 miles) from Rome's center. You can take the Leonardo Express train (11€) from Fiumicino to Rome's central train station, Termini. A taxi to the station costs about 50€. From Termini, you can grab one of many daily trains to Florence, Pisa, and most other destinations. If you happen to fly into Ciampino Airport (tel. 06-7934-0297), 15km (9 1/4 miles) south of the city, a none-too-frequent COTRAL bus will take you to the Anagnina Metro station, where you can take the Metro to Termini, the whole trip costing around 3€. A taxi to Rome's center from Ciampino is about 30€.

Information on getting to most major Tuscan and Umbrian cities and towns from Rome by train is included under each destination throughout this book.

Getting to Tuscany or Umbria from Milan's Airport -- Your flight may land at either Linate Airport (LIN) (tel. 02-7485-2200; www.sea-aeroportimilano.it), about 8km (5 miles) southeast of the city, or Malpensa Airport (MXP) (tel. 02-2680-0613), 45km (28 miles) from downtown -- closer to Como than to Milan itself.

From Malpensa, a 40-minute express train heads half-hourly to the Cadorna train station in western Milan rather than to the larger and more central Stazione Centrale from which most trains onward to Tuscany will leave (you'll have to take the Metro to get there). The Malpensa Express train costs 11€. To grab a bus instead, which will take you directly to the central downtown rail station, take the Malpensa Shuttle (tel. 02-5858-3185) for 7€, which leaves two or three times per hour for the 50-minute ride to the east side of Milan's Stazione Centrale. A taxi to the city center runs about 70€.

From Linate, STAM buses (tel. 02-717-100) make the 25-minute trip to Milan's Stazione Centrale every 20 to 30 minutes daily from 7am to 11pm for 2€. The slightly slower city bus no. 73 leaves hourly for the S. Babila Metro stop downtown (1€ for a regular bus ticket bought from any newsagent inside the airport, but not onboard).

From Milan's Stazione Centrale, you can get trains to Florence.

By Car

Tuscany and Umbria are most accessible by car. In fact, one of the most common and convenient ways to take a tour of this area is to fly or take a train into Florence, see the city, then pick up a rental car to wind your way through Tuscany and Umbria toward Rome, where you can drop off the car and fly home.

Getting to Tuscany and Umbria by car isn't hard from either Milan or Rome. The A1 Autostrada (also known as the autostrada del sole or highway of the sun) runs straight down the peninsula, connecting Milan, Bologna, Florence, Rome, and Naples in a straight shot. The trick is getting to it. Both city beltways (in Rome it is the Grande Raccordo Anulare; in Milan, the tangenziale) feed right onto it, but getting onto the GRA or the tangenziale can be nightmarish procedures for an out-of-towner. Insist on specific, detailed directions from the car-rental agencies and make use of a co-pilot; otherwise just do it the Italian way and feel your way onto it by intuition. If you're calm and patient, seemingly ridiculous road signs really do make sense.

That said, driving in Italy is also notoriously nerve-racking -- for both the winding roads and the Italian penchant for driving a Fiat like a Ferrari. (Or driving a Ferrari like one, for that matter.) And both rental-car and gas prices are as high as they get in all of Europe. Before leaving home, apply for an International Driver's Permit from the American Automobile Association (AAA; tel. 800/222-1134 or 407/444-4300; www.aaa.com). In Canada, the permit is available from the Canadian Automobile Association (CAA; tel. 613/247-0117; www.caa.ca). In the U.K., contact the British Automobile Association (AA; tel. 0800/26-20-50; www.theaa.com). Technically, you need this permit, your actual driver's license, and an Italian translation of the latter (also available from AAA and CAA) to drive in Italy, though in practice the license itself often suffices. (Take all three along to be safe.)

Italy's equivalent of AAA is the Automobile Club d'Italia (ACI), a branch of the Touring Club Italiano. They're the people who respond when you place an emergency call to tel. 803-116 for road breakdowns, though they do charge for this service if you're not a member. If you wish, you may join at the border as you're driving into Italy or at one of the club's regional offices (in Florence, Viale Amendola 36, tel. 055-24-861; in Rome, Via C. Colombo 261, tel. 06-514-971). You can also join online at www.aci.it.

By Train

Traveling around Tuscany by train may not be the most convenient option, but getting there on a train from Rome or Milan couldn't be easier. The high-speed Eurostar stops in Florence (some stop in Arezzo as well), and the slower trains make stops in the smaller cities. It is the best route to Florence from airports in Milan (3.5 hr./56€) and Rome (1.5 hr./40€).

There are three major train routes in Tuscany. One is the Milan-Florence-Arezzo-Orvieto-Rome line, mentioned above, that parallels the A1 highway and more or less follows the ancient Salaria. The other is the coastal Genoa-Lucca-Pisa-Livorno-Rome line that parallels the ancient Aurelia. The third is the Florence-Pisa route that connects the two lines, stopping in Prato, Pistoia, and Lucca. Again, the slower the train, the smaller the towns where it will stop.