Pisa and Rome

[islandmummy]

Having very excitedly booked 2 weeks at a Canvas park in Tuscany, I'm now looking to book our hotels in Pisa and Rome for little pit stops on our way into/out of Italy! The mumsnet view seems to be to stay in Trastevere in Rome rather than the centre (thank you wisdom of mumsnet!) - but what about Pisa? Any recommendations please? Any other advice for travel to Italy and driving there? Thank you!

There is nothing to do in Pisa. We went for 2 nights a few years ago and couldn't find enough things to do

Volterra and Lucca both stunning though.

Pisa is hideous apart from the Duomo and Tower area. Lucca is less than 30 minutes away and more pleasant. Stay there and take train or drive in.

Pisa is very small, we stayed fairly close to the train station which was perfect for us, but i think anywhere in pisa won't be too far from the centre.

Just checking that you know Rome is further south than Tuscany, so not between it and the UK? (sorry, you probably do, just want to have a look a Rome I guess).

Liguria's very pretty and on the way in/ out of Italy from your direction....

Italian driving? Spend ten minutes psyching yourself up and snarling at yourself in the mirror before you get behind the wheel. YOU WILL END THESE FUCKERS WARRIOR WOMAN!!!! .

Whereabouts is the holiday park? Don't try to drive into Rome!

I'm a bit confused by your pitstops. Are you arriving from the UK? Rome isn't on the way and Pisa is already in Tuscany.

Yes, just echoing LIZS - you'd have to be quite the adrenaline junkie to want to drive a car into Trastevere! And not care about your car bodywork at all.

I did Pisa in a day. How long are you expecting to be there? you could get the train to Florence quite easily not too long a journey.

Agree that Lucca is nicer than Pisa. Are you staying at Parc Albatross?

Thank you everyone, I really appreciate your replies! We're flying into Pisa and have 2 nights there (1 day) then onto a Canvas park on the coast near Cecina. We're there for 2 weeks so hoping to do a trip to Florence from there. We decided to fly out of Rome as it was do-able to drive there from Cecina in a day and I've never been - so we'll be driving in but quickly returning the hire car. Eek is it that scary driving in Italy??

I'll definitely look into those other places as trips out from the campsite!

Just checked location, Volterra is a straightforward trip and probably Pisa from the site. If you want to do Florence perhaps start nearer there as it will be a trek otherwise, Rome seems a long drive out of the way tbh. Bear in mind it will be hot in the summer too so I'd plan shorter days out with time for a dip on return.

Oh I get you!

I would definitely recommend Lucca as a day trip (speaking as someone who's led a tour out of Cecina Mare! ).

Agree that Florence will be insanely, searingly hot (it's in some kind of shallow bowl in the hills, which seems to make it even hotter than anywhere else), so if you go there try to take it easy and not rush around too much. The Uffizi's air conditioned IIRC.

You should be able to fill one day in Pisa fairly happily by doing the Campo dei Miracoli (where the Tower, Cathedral, Baptistery etc are, all together). I think they have shuttle buses from the centre if it's too hot to walk. It's amazing, but not a great deal of shade there.

If you can cope with another Big Day Trip, Siena is also amazing. (it's on top of a hill, so should be a bit cooler).

If it was me, I'd get a booking.com special of a non central, air conditioned hotel in Rome, near an outlying metro stop and with parking, leave the car there and get the metro into the centre.

Pisa is max one day DH thought half a day once you've seen the tower and the baptistery you need to be a history of art obsessive to make it more interesting.

It is very scary driving in Italy and absolutely no way would I drive into Rome, let alone Trastevere! Also if you go off the toll roads, road quality can be v poor. Watch out for the hire company trying to rip you off about dents in your car, we got hit for 2 'medium dents' for several hundred euros, both of which had been on the car to start with On questioning, they didn't have a category of small dent, or TBH invisible dent which these practically were. Thankfully DH had read about this and taken out insurance to cover hire care probs.

I would drop off car outside Rome, go in on the metro or a taxi and stay somewhere near a metro stop to get back out to the airport.

We have been to this area three times now - flying in and out of Pisa. Stayed in Lucca overnight twice and Volterra once. Would recommend both but particularly Volterra where we had a family room in a hotel with a great view and pool walkable to the centre. Volterra's medieval festival is also highly recommended. A brilliant day out. This year we are staying 5 nights in Pistoia, will do Florence and possibly Bologna from there, 7 nights Etruria coast and then a couple of nights nest Barga. We've never bothered with Pisa itself but you can see the tower as the plane lands. My top tip is not to bother with the bus from airport to car hire at Pisa. The bus is not air-conditioned and crowded. If you follow the red line it's only a five minute walk.

I agree with everyone else that driving in Rome would be utter madness. Add to that there is nowhere to park.

How long do you intend being in Rome for? We went for a 4 night stay 18 months ago and didn't get to see as much as we wanted to.