Train travel

Bob&Kim

New member
So far, our plans are to fly into Venice and spend 2 days, then either 2 days in the Cinque Terre followed by 2 more in Florence, or 2 in Florence followed by 2 in CT. After that we are going to Siena for a week at an agrotourismo. We want to rent a car and do day trips from near Siena before going to Rome for 3 days.

My question is how do we move around between theses cities in the most efficient order/manner?

From Venice, should we go by train straight to CT (via Milan) or to Florence and spend our 2 days there first? I don't like the idea of a 6 hour train ride from Venice to Monterosso (via Milan), but if we go Venice-Florence-CT-Florence-Siena, we travel the same route twice.

As for the least part of our vacation, are we better to rent a car in Florence just before we leave the city and drive to Siena, rather than taking a train to Siena and renting a car there? After our week in Siena, are we better to drive to Rome? Drive back to Florence to drop the car and then take a high speed train to Rome? Take the train to Rome from Siena?

Without access to train timetables and routes its difficult to know how to move around efficiently. Wasting money isn't my biggest worry - wasting time is.

Can someone (Lourdes) help us?

Thanks, in advance

B
 
Since some of the answers can only be gotten from checking the train time tables you need to start from there: www.trenitalia.com
If the ride to CT from Venice is really 7 hours, you can break it up by doing Florence first.
About car rental location: if the schedules seem inconvenient or you want to rent on a Sunday and the place is closed, renting from another location one day earlier might make better sense.
Given your plans, another valid alternative is to rent directly from Venice and return in Rome.
You can check routes on Google Maps.
You should also check car rental costs and locations here : http://www.visitflorence.com/florence-car-rental/
 
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