Car things to do in Italy?

We're going on vacation. Taking our 7 month old (which might be insane) and heading to Italy for about 2 weeks, roughly 1 of which will be for a wedding.

We will be in Rome for a few days, then Siena for about a week, then Florence for a day or 2. Unfortunately, we don't have the time to head north to Modena, or that would be top of the list. Is there anything cool and car related that we should do?

Suggestions for things that are cool and not car related are welcome too, but that's a little easier given that most of my vacationing friends are not car nuts.

I'm not Italian and I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night so...

I know you said it won't fit in your schedule, but it looks like Modena is only about 75 miles north of Florence which is only 30 miles north of Siena? Bologna (Ducati factory & musuem) looks to be about 50 miles north of Florence. Don't know your actual schedule, but a day trip from Florence or Siena to either seems doable if you have a whole day available, but I understand that you may not have a whole day available. Those are the top 2 places I'd want to go in Italy...

We may or may not have a full day while we're in Florence, but probably not. Google says it's about 2.5 hours to Modena from Siena, so that's probably too long for a day trip, as much as I'd like to do it.

Those are the top 2 on my list too! Logistically though, they're probably out.

Drive on that rooftop race track.

Just drive. It's really great. Even sections of the Autostrada are fun.

If you have the time, take the back roads. We've done that in Tuscany and Piedmont and loved it. We also did the Alfa museum up in Arese, too.

There used to be a place to rent a classic, but we didn't find it.

An aside: is there no way to farm the kidlet off with relatives for the two weeks? I love mine and all but packing around a wee little one like that is masochistic. They aren't building memories yet and you'll have so much more freedom with just two adults. (Heck, might even work up the energy to start another one )

In reply to KyAllroad:

Nope! Not something I'm debating here. He travels well.

We're definitely renting a car and driving around. We're actually looking forward to the drive from Rome to Siena, hopefully we'll be able to take the scenic route.

Anybody watch Master of None? That wedding in season 2 episode 2 is at the same villa we're going to. Seriously.

Any last minute suggestions? We leave Sunday. Missed the mille miglia by a week!

In reply to cmcgregor:

Rent an Alfa. I used to have some links to companies that had classic ones.

There's that enormous multi level indoor kart track on Lake Como that sounds to me like an excuse to go there all by itsownself...

Oh man - that place looks AWESOME

That is a ridiculous track layout. Too far north for now, but when I plan my car-centric vacation, it's on the list...

^ Wow, that looks cool!

I've traveled to Australia when my first daughter was 6 months old, and we recently did Prague & Ireland with the three kids. I'd have no reservations about the kid part, this sounds awesome! Unfortunately, I can't help with Italy, but my wife and I have recently ran across this: Car seat stroller frame

We're going to pick it up for when she takes the 1 year old to Chicago in two weeks. This way you don't have to worry about trying to get a car seat from the rental car, or, like we found in Australia & Ireland, trying to figure out how the heck to hook up their rental seats! We plan on gate-checking it.

Thanks Wonko!

We actually have one of those. It's awesome for grocery shopping, it actually has pretty decent storage underneath and it folds up super small.

We're thinking of bringing the most compact stroller we can get - the major downside of the caddy is it doesn't have a very good sunshade, and we're planning on doing lots of walking. Our son is just big enough for an umbrella stroller, so we're going with something like that. We're gate-checking his carseat, hopefully it won't be too hard to get into the rental car!