Livorno - Strada del Vino

[~Fianna]

Talking about DIYing in some of these threads has gotten me all excited about planning my upcoming cruise. It's in November (11/10/10 Insignia out of Venice), if time of year makes a difference.

 

Hank, this question's probably right up your alley :)

 

We're in Livorno 0800-2000 and are planning to just do either the Chianti (east from Livorno towards Siena) region or the Etruscan (south of Livorno) region.

 

Since these are small towns, public transit is out, which leaves us hiring a driver, booking a tour or renting a car.

 

Booking a tour:

Pros - set things up in advance, know the price ahead of time, get met at the port and go.

Cons - 500 euros!!! for someone to just drive us around.

 

Renting a car:

Pros - totally in control of the day, cheapest option

Cons - short amount of time, unfamiliar roads, having to bear in mind long drive in short time on unfamiliar roads while tasting wine means tasting less wine.

 

This leaves us with hiring a driver. Would it be possible to negotiate something like this with a taxi at the port? Would it be any less expensive than just hiring RIL or one of the other companies for the day? Is there anything in between hiring a cab driver at the port or booking something like RIL?

 

I don't really need anything as elaborate as RIL or the other tour companies. We already have an idea of where we want to go, and it's highly doubtful that RIL will be able to get us in to wineries that the connections that we have at home can't get us in to. I don't really need anyone to do any of the planning or ticket buying, and it seems like the value of a service like RIL is that they do this stuff for you.

 

I'm leaning towards trying to just hire someone purely to drive so that I can be free to enjoy the wine tasting and not worry about the car piloting. Has anyone else here done something like that?

 

Also, would this be a good plan for Marseilles? Those are the two big wine region ports on the cruise that we want to hit. (Yes, I know that France is a different board, but I don't want to post the exact same question in 2 different places and Tuscany is the more important stop for us.)

 

Thanks for any hints!