Travel Italy: Vacation Packages, Tips, Tours of Italy

The exclusive winter resort of Madonna di Campiglio, Dolomites, hosts its annual Winter Marathon. It is a major vintage cars event, featuring antique cars racing on slippery roads through the Dolomites.

Cars built until 1968 both front and rear wheel drive are eligible to participate to the race.

The route stretches for 392,190 km across the Dolomites area, involving roads open to regular traffic with an average speed not exceeding 42,000 km/h.

The race, that starts and finishes in Madonna di Campiglio, includes 36 precision time trials, 6 time controls and 1 passage control. (Details and programme are available at Winter Marathon website.

when: Jan 21 – 24, 2010 (annual)
where: Madonna di Campiglio – Dolomites (see on the map).

If you are planning day trips from Siena to the hill towns in the surroundings, renting a car is the way to go.

The other option you have, transfer by bus, will limit the number of towns or places a day you can visit.

If you are not afraid of driving there — driving there is easy if you use common sense driving habits — in a couple of days you could visit the major places in the surroundings.

Strongly suggested the following hill towns: San Gimignano, Colle Val d’Elsa, Volterra, Certaldo, and towns located along major wine roads such as Montalcino, Pienza and Montepulciano or in the Chianti area: Castellina in Chianti, Gaiole in Chianti, Greve in Chianti and Radda in Chianti. (See map of Chianti area and countryside of Tuscany).

Renting a car is an option you definitely have to consider if you are planning trips to the countryside while staying in Tuscany.

That gives you the freedom you need to visit hill-top towns as well as to plan other activities Tuscan countryside offers, such as visiting wineries, dining at agritourism etc…

Is it dangerous driving in Tuscany?

Even if the roads are sometimes steep and with lots of curves, driving is not so dangerous there. You are not going to face a lot of traffic.

Also even if  steep and curvaceous, the roads are good and usually offer room on the side to stop and enjoy the scenery.
A major reason why you should consider renting a car, is the freedom to take pictures and enjoy the view of the scenery you’re driving through.

– A couple of suggestions
Italians tend to drive fast, don’t be scared from that. Relax and take it at your own speed.
Also watch out the speed limits. When driving across the hill towns, especially in the Chianti area, you’ll find the speed limit set at 30km/h.

A couple of suggestions for those who are planning a driving trip to Amalfi Coast.

Do not drive there, unless you are an experienced driver — I mean an experienced one on Italian roads.

Driving along the Amalfi Coast is really not easy, especially for foreign tourists. You’ll have to face with snake two lane roads and with parking hard to find.

So if you want to avoid any headaches, choose an option other than driving when visiting Amalfi Coast. (see alternative options to driving to Amalfi Coast)

Here is some basic transportation advice for those who are planning tours to Amalfi Coast and Pompeii. Basically, they are alternative options to driving.

– Pompeii
If you fly into Naples, from Naples airport, get the bus to Naples station. From there, take the suburban train towards Sorrento, getting off at Pompei Scavi.

– Amalfi Coast
For trips along Amalfi Coast: from Sorrento you can take local buses to Positano, Amalfi, Ravello, the most visited — and that worth to see — places on the Costiera Amalfitana.

For those who fly into Rome, a quick trip to Amalfi Coast requires a couple of days at least. However there is a fast train from Rome to Salerno. From Salerno you follow the suggestions above.