a possibility is to stay in Florence and not rent a car at all...
Ciao again! I'm glad you're finding the info on the website useful, there is so much we need to add but there just never seems to be enough time to do and add all the info and pictures we have. I guess we just have to go slowly and little by little the site will get richer in content.
Were you still thinking of driving?
Because if you are, then I'd concentrate the non-driving parts first so that you only get the car once you need it.
For example, Rome to Florence by train. Stay in Florence first (you don't really want or need a car in Florence).
Then here is where you have two options:
- you could
rent a car and spend a few days in the countryside - the one you found looks nice and is near Vinci but you definitely need a car for this especially if you want to go into Chianti on your own (as opposed to doing a tour). This allows you to explore on your own and drive around the hills, the landscapes which you see everywhere of Tuscany. Another very charming accommodation in the countryside, easy to get to and within a small medieval hamlet is
Palazzo Malaspina - a B&B actually but the atmosphere is very charming and definitely Tuscan! You can then return the car at this point before heading to Cinque Terre and Venice.
OR
- the other option is to
not rent a car, stay in Florence or in the surroundings where you still won't need a car (see for example:
Poggio al Sole just behind Fiesole or
Poderino, or
Paggeria. All are in the hills the surround Florence but with public transportation really close by that then takes you into Florence and to the train station from where you can go Cinque Terre.
You can visit Chianti with a
tour such as this one.
From Florence you can reach
Cinque Terre by train and then from there continue by train to
Venice so that you need to backtrack. For the Cinque Terre, train is by far the best way to get there especially since parking is really limited (you'll understand once you see pictures of the five towns - they are on the coast right on steep cliffs, it isn't flat, roads are narrow and parking lots small, we saw cars just parked on the road sort of on the shoulder but that reduced the space for the road so that only 1 car could pass at a time! Will have to post some pictures of the Cinque Terre shortly so you can get a better idea of what I mean - I'll post the link here as soon as I do that!
But you can get an
idea from here).
My favorite towns of the five are
Manarola and
Vernazza..... Vernazza and Monterosso are the most popular and most crowded, also surely with the most restaurants as well, Riomaggiore and Manarola less crowded and smaller in general. Corniglia is definitely the smallest and gets a bit ignored because it is not directly on the water AND you have to climb like 300 stairs to get to it
.
If you love to walk and hike, I highly recommend Cinque Terre - beautiful and fun to walk (a very good workout - we've done the whole trail in one day from Monterosso down to Riomaggiore).
You'll have a great trip, just change your days around to use the car when you really need it... although you might be able to do it all without it at all!
