How to Road Trip Italy
Our ultimate Road Trip through Italy. Our 2 week Italy Itinerary.
This guide to Road Tripping Italy covers our memorable journey through Rome, Tuscany, Florence, Cinque Terre, and Venice. You can choose to end your ultimate road trip through Italy in Venice or continue on to The Dolomites or even go onto to Austria and Switzerland as we did.
Why do we choose to road trip through a country when traveling? Because it's more affordable, you save money on Internal flights and you get to see so many more places along the way and experience the true culture and areas of a country! In fact, some of the prettiest towns we saw on our worldwide travels was when we were road tripping! What are the road conditions like in Italy? Great, we did not have any issues at all with this, from the autostrade (motorway) to the countryside roads of Tuscany. Is it safe to road trip Italy? Absolutely! We felt very safe to road trip through Italy as a family. The Italian Autostrade's do have tolls so you will need to check with your car rental company what their policy is.
CAR/MOTORHOME HIRE -
We recommend Auto Europe to compare car rental prices and select the best car hire deal first!
DAYS 1-4 ROME
Day 1 of our Road Trip Italy Guide, you'll be arriving into Rome! Pick up your hire car from a car rental near Rome Airport then head to your family accommodation in Rome. We recommend this spacious Rome Apartment. This is the ideal location for your base while exploring Rome. It is close to the Metro and it's also situated on a street full of retail stores, groceries and places to eat. Settle in and get ready for your traveling through Italy to begin.
Day 2, we recommend going straight to the metro and taking a train to the Colosseum. You will need to book your tickets through the official website prior to visiting to secure you spot. We recommend booking a time as soon as it opens to avoid crowds. We also recommend packing a bag with lunch/snacks and water bottles. There is a waterbottle refilling station out the front of the Colosseum. You will most likely spend 1-2 hours here. After viewing The Colosseum why not take a seat and eat your packed lunch, it'll be one of the best views at lunch you'll ever have! Once lunch is done spend the rest of the day wandering the facinating surrounding ruins and old buildings and churches! Make sure you wear comfortable shoes as you will need them! There are also numerous restaraunts and bars in this area so be sure to stop for a rest and to soak it all in!
Day 3, head to the Trevi Fountain, St. Peter's Basilica and The Vatican (smallest country in the entire world) via the metro again. We are not very religious, however we highly recommend visiting these places as they are incredibly impressive and interesting to see. You will need to pre purchase your tickets for this also. End your time in Rome just enjoying it for all that it is, history, culture and delicious food!
DAYS 4-8 TUSCANY & FLORENCE
After Rome, head to the stunning Italian countryside region of Tuscany. Approx 3hrs drive. Where to stay in Tuscany with kids? We recommend Borgo San Pecoraio Resort. This family friendly resort in Tuscany features, 2 swimming pools, loads of grass areas, a soccer pitch, basketball, tennis court, pool bar, restaraunt, games room and more! On your way to your accommodation from Rome, make sure you break up the drive and stop for some cheese and wine tasting in Tuscany. We reccommend Fattoria Pianporcino. Here we took a cheese factory tour then had the most incredible authentic experience with the owner, cheese tasting, cured meat and olive oil tasting with delicious Sourdough Bread and washing it all down with a perfectly paired local red wine! What an experience to be had in Tuscany!
Florence is a short tram ride away from this resort also, so make sure you spend a day exploring beautiful Florence. You will need to drive from the resort to the tram stop and leave your car parked there before catching the tram to Florence.
For the rest of your time in Tuscany, just enjoy the stunning countryside scenery, downtime in your chosen resort and the cheese and wine region! You can see more of this on our Sky Surfers YouTube Channel - The perfect Italy itinerary
DAYS 8-11 PISA & CINQUE TERRE
Once you can bring yourself to leave Tuscany, drive 1 hour north to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Spend some time here taking fun photos and admiring the lean haha! Then drive on to the stunning Italian Coastal region of Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre is a string of centuries-old seaside villages on the rugged Italian Riviera coastline. In each of the 5 towns, colorful houses and vineyards cling to steep terraces. Harbors are filled with fishing boats and Trattorias and it really is a unique site to see in Italy.
Where to stay in Cinque Terre? There are so many accommodation options here, so spend some time researching exactly what part of this area you want to stay in. We stayed in an Airbnb in Lerici. We found this to be one of the most afforable options in Cinque Terre for a family. What to do in Cinque Terre? You can catch the Lerici to Cinque Terre hop on/hop off ferry which takes you all around the villages and you can hop on and off as you please! This is the perfect way to see the whole Cinque Terre region. The views are breathtaking looking at the coastline from the ferry. For the rest of your time here, spend your days experiencing the European the beaches.
DAYS 11-14 CHIOGGIA & VENICE
Drive from Cinque Terre to Chioggia, approx 4hrs. Don't stay in Venice when you can stay in Chioggia, trust us!! We recommend staying here Apartment in Chioggia. Chioggia is like a 'Little Venice' It still has the charm and the canals everywhere, just not the crowds or the pricetag! We stayed on a walking street that was surrounded by canals, restaraunts, cafes and bars. Our Airbnb also came with bikes so we were able to explore this stunning fishing village via bikes! Spend majority of your time here as you'll only need one day to dedicate to seeing Venice. Venice is a 45 minute drive from Chioggia. Park your car where you can but be wary of how difficult and expensive it may be for a car park close to Venice. Or do as we did and park it at the nearest tram/bus stop to Venice then catch public transport the rest of the way. Things to do in Venice? Try authenic pizza and Pasta, wander the stunning streets and canals, take an iconic Gondola down the Grand Canal, get the famous Venice Suso Icecream, explore the bustling square of Piazza San Marco and see Basilica San Marco.
What do we do to stay connected while traveling? Have you ever received a huge roaming bill after a trip abroad? Have you ever lost phone service or connectivity while traveling - and found yourself desperately searching for free Wi-Fi? Have you wasted time anxiously looking for a SIM vendor at the airport? We experienced all of these things, this is why we use Airalo. Simply download and instal your digital data pack, depending on where you are in the world and you are good to go. This saved us so much time, effort and money when we arrived into a new country. We got off the plane and immediately had Internet! See more info here - Airalo ESIM
& that concludes this epic 2 week ItaIy Itinerary full of Bucket List adventures and destinations! To dive deeper, you can see more of our Italy Travel Guide in our YouTube episodes below or follow us on Instagram for more traveling adventures.
Read our How To Road Trip Switzerland with kids article here