ITALY Readers's Tips - I have not driven this route, but from my map it appears it can be done as autostrada pretty much all the way.Driving the autostrada is like driving the interstate at home, except people tend to drive faster.And it is ESSENTIAL to stay OUT of the left hand lanes unless you are passing.Other than that, if you find a 21/2 hour highway trip at home to be no big deal, you'll find it the same in Italy.If you'd find such a trip daunting at home, then by all means take the train and save your nerves. You should also consider that if you are taking an overnight flight, particularly in coach class, you may have trouble sleeping, and in any event you may have jet lag.Thus, you might not be up for a 21/2 hour drive after collecting your bags, getting through customs, and picking up your car.You're better off on the train unless you're confident you'll be alert enough to drive.

We recently returned from Italy , and while therr we drove from Florence to Siena and then to Rome. The roads are in better shape than most roads in the states and traffic is fine.e only problem I had ,were street/road designations and directions.any streets and highways change names frequqntly ,sometimes it is difficult to tell. If you decide to drive make sure you get specific directions, including the map insert, from a source like Mapquest.good idea would be to take the address of the car rental agency as a departure point, and the address of the hotel in the city you will drive to as the arrival point.rint out a complete map from Mapquest and determine if it looks too confusing or not. Our map from Florence to Siena had 25 road changes, which was accurate. If you do decide to drive, it will pay to a time it to avoid peak traffic b Pick up a map in advance (it's easy to buy italian road maps off the web and plan a nice simple route avoiding any difficult junctions for the first half hour. If the sole reason for getting the car is to get from Rome to Ascoli, then take the train instead.f course it's also feasible to hire a car at Ascoli, which would probably be my preferred option big Italian cities are not too pleasant to drive round It is feasible though and 2.hours is not silly, especially as you can break for a coffee at anytime.here the car wins is probably more on the way back, as you'll have less problems with luggage when your bags are full of lovely Italian wine, ceramics etc Ian

Hi Anne, It is about 6 hr by train to Ascoli with 2 changes.ee www.enitalia.m. It will be about 3:30 hr by car from FCO. You will want a cup of espresso before you start. You will want to drive in the right lane only and not exceed the speed limit. www.amichelin.m recommends taking the A1 from FCO to the S4, which goes all the way to Ascoli. This is good, because it gets you off the autostrada and there will be towns to stop at along the way. In addition to a road map, I zoom in on the www.amichelin maps and look for places that might cause confusion along

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