Tag Archives: travel planning

The Best Way to Travel Between Rome, Florence, and the Towns of Tuscany

Question:

Hi Wendy,

We’re taking a mother-daughter trip to Italy for my daughter’s college graduation. We’ll be in Rome for four days, then Florence for six days, in early June. We want to make day trips from Florence to Lucca, Pisa, a few Tuscan villages, and possibly Cinque Terre. What’s the best way to get around efficiently in our limited time? What are the best day trips from Florence?

Thanks,

—Donna

Answer:

Donna, if I were you, I’d use a combination of trains and private drivers. I’ve driven from Rome to Florence, and all over Tuscany, in a rental car, and I have to tell you that it’s not very efficient. You can easily get lost because of poor signage and confusing roads, get fined for breaking rules you didn’t know exist, and waste untold hours searching for parking spots, especially in June—a peak month for tourist crowds. You can’t drive into the historic centers of cities like Florence and Siena anyway—although you can drive in circles around them for hours, following the signs for “centro” yet never reaching it.

Trains are a good solution for certain day trips from Florence—say, to Pisa and Lucca, which you can combine in one day by train (especially in June, when you have many hours of daylight to play with). For certain day trips, though, you need a car—especially if you want a proper experience of the hill towns of Tuscany. As for Cinque Terre, it makes no sense to do that as a day trip from Florence; it takes too long to get there, whether by train or car.

Your best option, if your budget allows, is to hire a knowledgeable private driver for the day trip to Tuscan villages, especially if you want to see Chianti, the legendary wine region between Florence and Siena, and if you plan to do any wine tasting there. You might also hire a driver for the trip from Rome to Florence. True, you could easily take the train, but then you’d miss must-see stops in between, such as the grand Umbrian hill town of Orvieto.

Maria Gabriella Landers, an Italy travel specialist I recommend on my WOW List of Trusted Travel Experts, arranges magically efficient itineraries with private drivers. I asked her to share her advice for you:

“Travelers to Italy can be smart about when to utilize a driver. Do it on a day when you’re changing hotel locations, so you have the convenience of a driver when you have luggage, and so you can make sightseeing stops between those locations—such as stops between Rome, Florence, and Venice. Stopping in Orvieto or Siena, or in the hill towns of Chianti, en route from Rome to Florence adds color and contrast to an itinerary focused on the bigger cities.

Once you’re in Florence, you could do a day trip, with a driver, to visit San Gimignano, Monteriggioni, Radda, and Gaiole, and stop by a couple of vineyards—all in one day. There are also lots of tiny, charming villages just outside Florence—Vinci, for instance, which is Leonardo da Vinci’s home town and has spectacular views, as well as a da Vinci museum and the house where he was born. You could also do a day trip to Montepulciano and Pienza (90 minutes by car).”

As for day trips from Florence that you can execute comfortably by public transportation, here are Maria’s suggestions:

Lucca and Pisa. You can work the trains so as to visit both in one day. Check Trenitalia for schedules; be sure to enter the city names in Italian—e.g., Firenze for Florence, Roma for Rome. Keep in mind that the Leaning Tower of Pisa is a 20-minute walk from the train station.
Bologna. It’s just half an hour by train.
Fiesole and Settignano. You can take city buses from Florence to visit these two charming and historically rich towns in the hills outside of Florence.
For a bit of fresh air without really leaving town, you can walk up to the Piazzale Michelangelo and stroll along the hills to Via San Leonardo and Villa Strozzi.

Note to readers who’ve already been there and done that: If you’re looking for more unusual day-trip ideas, here are two that are on my own wish list: The Piero della Francesca trail, and this unusual ancient Tuscan cooking class.

Also read Maria’s Insider’s Guide to Florence, her Insider’s Guide to Tuscany, and her Insider’s Guide to Umbria. Then contact her via Wendy’s trip request form. You’ll be marked as a VIP and get a trip like this. Buon viaggio!

Pros and Cons of Early Morning and Late Night Flights

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The high airfares that families face during school breaks—when every other family is trying to flee town at the same time—can feel positively punitive. Often the only solution is to opt for the least convenient flights—typically in the late evening and early morning—which means sacrificing the kids’ sleep schedule and your sanity. Are the costs really worth the savings?

That’s the question I’m asking myself today. My family of four just flew back from Georgia, where we visited relatives over the Easter school break. I paid $1,200 for our four tickets from Newark to Atlanta. While I’m glad to have saved about $300 by booking the last flight of the day to Atlanta and the first flight of the day back to Newark, the decision took its toll on us. I thought I’d detail the pros and cons of our experience, in case you ever need to make a similar decision.

The pros:

We saved $300.
There were few lines. Upon landing at our destination late at night, we did not hit any lines picking up our rental car, nor did we hit any traffic driving to our hotel. When flying back at dawn, there was no line at check-in or security.
Our early morning flight left on time—which, of course, is a big advantage to early morning flights. They are the least likely to be delayed.
Upon landing, we had a full and productive day ahead at our destination (since it was only 8:18 a.m.).

The cons:

We lost way too much sleep.
Our nighttime flight was delayed—as is often the case, thanks to the cascading effect of delays throughout the day. Our 7:14 p.m. flight to Atlanta translated to a midnight arrival at our hotel.
Airport transit services were limited in the wee hours. We had to set our alarm clocks for 3:00 a.m. to catch our 6:01 a.m. flight home because we had to ensure we could return the rental car, catch the Skytrain from the airport rental car center to the terminal, get through security, catch the Plane Train to our concourse, and find the kids some breakfast before the 5:36 a.m. boarding time. It’s a good thing we left time for the unexpected because, upon breezing past security at 4:45 a.m., we found that the Plane Train that operates between concourses was out of service. We had to walk from check-in all the way to Concourse D (five concourses away)—which, as anyone who has spent too much time at ATL can tell you, is a major hike.
Airport concessions were closed. ATL is the world’s busiest airport by passenger traffic, yet there were no snacks to be found at 4:45 a.m. Fortunately, a coffee shop in Concourse D opened at 5:00 a.m. (The United Club there doesn’t open till 6:00 a.m.)

I’d love to hear: What have you put yourself through to avoid a high airfare? And how do you decide whether the inconvenience and sleep deprivation are worth the savings?

Fly Your Own Plane to Fogo Island, Newfoundland

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If piloting your own small plane to the edge of the earth sounds like your kind of fun, or like a great gift for a significant other, I’ve got an idea for you—and you don’t even need to be certified to fly. It’s the birthday present I gave my husband last year. You can even combine it with a trip to the Fogo Island Inn, the buzzy new hotel off the remote northeast coast of Newfoundland (next stop: Greenland) that is on many people’s travel to-do lists right now.

Getting to Fogo Island can feel like a journey to the edge of the world. In fact, according to the Flat Earth Society, Fogo is one of the four corners of the world. From Gander, Newfoundland, the journey requires a two-hour drive, a 45-minute ferry ride, another 20-minute drive, and a mess of logistics.

Last summer I needed an easier way. I was bound for Fogo and crunched for time. I also needed a birthday present for Tim. So I killed two birds with one stone: Tim got to pilot a four-seat Cessna 172 Skyhawk from Gander to Fogo and back—even though he’s not certified to fly—and I got a transit time of just 30 minutes each way.

Gander is, of course, an internationally renowned center for aviation training. At 8:00 a.m. we reported to Gander Flight Training HQ and met our trainer, a young pilot named Derek Sparkes. He weighed us and our luggage, had us help him with the aircraft safety check, and taught us about all the controls, gauges, and dials in the cockpit. He sat next to Tim throughout the flight, leading him through each step, his hands almost on the controls so he could take over in a nanosecond if necessary; in fact, sometimes Tim could feel the yoke and pedals move to where Derek wanted them to be. But Tim taxied down the runway, communicated with air traffic control, and took off all by himself. As we sailed over vast expanses of blue and green, Tim even managed to shoot some photos too. But when it came time to land on Fogo, the landing strip looked awfully narrow. Tim decided he’d better leave the touchdown to an expert and gladly handed over control.

Such private flights out of Gander are both weather- and weight-dependent. Thankfully, the wind cooperated and our luggage was light. Such flights aren’t cheap either. I paid $1,200 to the travel planner who recommended and arranged it for me, Marc Telio of Entrée Canada. It was a splurge, for sure, but the roundtrip flight saved us at least six hours of travel time and left us with a priceless memory. And because I also booked my Fogo Island Inn stay through Marc—who gets a greatly reduced rate, thanks to his friendship with the Inn’s founder—I saved almost as much as I spent.

Pilot Derek Sparkes performs a safety check on the plane.

Tim takes the pilot’s seat.

Inside the Cessna

The runway

The view as we took off

View from the plane

I’d love to hear: What’s the best travel gift you’ve given anyone?

Transparency disclosure: Yes, the Fogo Island Inn is an advertiser. But I visited and fell in love with the Inn and its people, community, and concept long before this website was conceived.

My Favorite Spot in the World for Sunrise

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A lot of travelers aim to be in a particular spot for the sunset. If you ask me, sunrise is better. You get equally great photographs (thanks to that “Golden Hour” lighting that occurs twice daily—shortly after sunrise and shortly before sunset) but your pictures aren’t spoiled by hordes of tourists.

Locals live in the caves inside Petra

Sunrise is also the best time to watch the locals doing their thing—waking up in the rickshaws they slept in; heeding the mosque’s morning call to prayer; practicing their tai chi on the waterfront; setting up their stalls at the fish market; dropping their children off at school. At sunrise I’ve managed to be alone with the fishermen and feluccas on the banks of the Nile, as well as with saffron-robed monks amid the ruins of Angkor Wat.

This is typically Petra’s most crowded spot

My favorite sunrise ever, though, was in Jordan, at the ancient rock-hewn city of Petra, one of the new seven wonders of the world. The site officially opens at 6:00 a.m., but Tim and I found the gate wide open at 5:30 a.m. and walked right in. For one priceless hour—till the first tourists caught up with us—we were the only people there and felt like archaeologists who had discovered a lost world. The light at sunrise so intensified the colors in the sandstone that it quickly became clear how Petra got its nickname “The Rose City.”

By 11 a.m. the site was swarming with day trippers from cruise ships. But I’ll always have the memory—and photos—of my own private Petra.

Sunrise brings out the colors in the sandstone

As it turns out, I’m not the only person who thinks Petra is home to one of the world’s best sunrises. I’d love to know: Where in the world is your favorite? And, so you can savor a sunrise on your next trip, here’s a handy-dandy tool for sussing out the exact time of sunrise wherever you are in the world.

Make Your Next Trip Extraordinary