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Driving from Rome Fiumicino airport
It is pretty straight forward getting from Rome to here and once on the motorway, it should take you around 3 hours.
From the Fiumicino airport, you need to take the Fiumicino/Rome motorway towards the GRA ring road. Once you reach this, you basically have to get to the other side of Rome, so follow the ringroad round. It is slightly shorter to take the
northern route round, but if you happen to take the other - no problem. When you see an exit towards Florence, the A1 motorway (believe it is exit number 10), then follow the A1 motorway until just before Florence.
Just around Florence you will see signs for the A11 motorway towards Pisa (Pisa et mare), this is the one to take.
When you finally reach the Montecatini Terme exit - you leave the motorway.
Driving from Milan airports - two routes
Route 1:
Follow the Milan ring-road south (tangenziale) until you see a sign for the A1 south, towards Bologne and then Florence. Just outside Florence, you will see signs for Pisa et Mare - the A11. You need to take this for about 20 min before you see the exit for Montecatini Terme and here you leave the motorway.
Route 2:
Again Follow the Milan ring-road south (tangenziale) until you see a sign for the A1 south. After around 100km, just before Parma you should find an exit for A15, towards La Spezia. This is a slightly mountanous route with only 2 lanes, but the trucks try to avoid it hence it is usually faster - and prettier to look at. Stay on the A15 right for around 100km until you see signs for Livorno / Pisa / Lucca - the A12 going south.
Follow this south (NOT towards Genova) until you see signs for Lucca / Florence - the A11. Take this road and stay until the exit for Montecatini Terme.
Driving from Pisa airport
When you exit Pisa airport drive towards Genova - NOT FLORENCE initially. They made a route straight to Florence a couple of years ago, but it goes too far south for being a useful route to us. It has blue signs though. So towards Genova on the A12 motorway
(autostrada - green sign). Once you are on the A12, follow the sign for Genova, but as soon as you see a
turnoff for Florence /Lucca/A11 - take this.
Once you are on the A11 - stay there for quite a while, pass by Lucca and don't exit before you see the Montecatini Terme exit.
Driving from Torino
If coming from Torino, the route to avoid is via Savona - it is the oldest motorway in Italy.
The best route would probably be via Alessandria, Genova, La Spezia, Carrara, Viareggio and Lucca. The autostrada to follow would be the A21 to Alessandria, then the A26 and A10 to Genova, then A12 until a sign for Florence / Lucca/ A11. This is the A11 which takes you straight to Montecatini Terme exit.
So - What if the GPS shows to exit from the A11 at Chiesina Uzzanese instead of
Montecatini Terme.
Indeed the exit at Chiesina Uzzanese is closer to us (if coming from Lucca/Pisa/Torino/A12 - not from Florence). However it is not quite as straight forward as from Montecatini Terme.... anyway
If you exit at Chiesina Uzzanese turn left into the main road just after having paid the toll and around 50m down the
road you will meet the first round-about - take the last exit towards
Uzzano. Follow the signs for Borgo a Buggiano. The road winds quite a bit, but stay on the road until you get to a T-junction. You should have just passed
first a castle on your left and then a church on your right, now facing a
small bar.
At the T-junction, turn left and take the 2. exit at the up-coming
round-about going towards Pistoia. At the next (and slightly confusing)
round-about, take the 2. exit towards Montacatini Terme. You have now
entered the commune of Massa e Cozzile.
Again the road winds quite a bit, but stay on it. It will take you under a bridge with train-tracks.
Stay on the road until you reach the traffic light. Although there has been signs before for Massa and Cozzile,
don't turn left before you get to the traffic lights (or you will take the looong tour round).
As mentioned - at the traffic lights, you turn left and you are now leaving Margina Coperta and are on the provinciale SP 29 in the north
direction - again the road winds a bit, but stay on it. After a km
or so (less than a mile) after the lights, you should see a gate on your right with the sign of Agriturismo Villa Stabbia.
All you need to do now is ring the bell!
... and finally - if you are using GPS - remember to set it to via Casorino 1, not 3. It places number 3 way up the mountain road...
way too far.
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