cmcbride

We will be in Florence one day coming from CT by train. We want to rent car the following day in Florence to drive toward Siena. We want to drive to Tuscan hill towns and along the Chianti wine trail.
Where in Florence is best location to get into and out of easily and head south? I understand the airport location is more costly. Agencies also offer "downtown" location. What is most convenient? We will either return car back to Florence or leave at another location, so we might have to fight traffic, etc, back into Florence. We don't know what to do. Can anyone help? Please.

Sher

Since you will be arriving by train, I consider the downtown locations to be very easy to get to from the train station in Florence.
Several are located a short distance from the termini.
We picked up two cars from the downtown offices. One was from Hertz and I just cannot remember the other company at the moment.
Airport locations are more expensive and I really do not think you will have difficulty with picking a car up in town.
Also, usually the agencies give very good directions for exiting Florence, and it is quite doable.
I did not drop off the car into Florence, so that may be another matter.

Lily

We picked up our car within walking distance from the Florence train station (Avis through Auto Europe) and immediatly left for Montepulciano with the map from the car rental. After driving in circles for the first few minutes, we managed to get out of the city! Really it wasn't difficult but somehow we made it so.

grandmere

One of the "downtown" agency locations (either Avis or Europcar?) is on a street that runs parallel to the Arno; it is relatively easy to get on the autoroute that leads to the west (perhaps southwest?) from that point.

lenore29

Trifty is the cheapest we managed to find when we were there. About half the price of Europcar or hertz or avis. We rented ours for two days from thrifty in the area of Ognissanti (the one parallel to the Arno).
Here is the address-

FLORENCE METROPOLITAN, ITALY (FL1)
VIA BORGO OGNISSANTI, 134/R
FLORENCE (FLORENCE), I-50123
ITALY
39 055 287161

From there, it's a short turn and you will hit the A1. Not hard to navigate. Get a map from Thrifty. If you want to grab some really good pizzas before you head out, right next to thrifty is a take out deli that has good pastries and pizzas. Cheap too.

cmcbride

A big Thank You!

Has anyone been able to rent a car with room for 4 plus luggage?

mykidssherpa

I rented from Hertz in the downtown location, a short distance from the train station. While driving out of Florence was not difficult, returning the car was VERY difficult as there are lots of one way streets and lots of impatient local Florentine drivers.

Having said that, I rented a HUGE black Mercedes. It fit luggage for 5 (4 adults and a 2 year old) and a stoller. Tight fit but made it easily. Driving around some of the hill towns of Siena was challenging, but I am a San Francisco driver so used to tight spaces and heavy traffic.

ekscrunchy

I will be renting a car in January upon arrival in Florence. I am curious as to how much more the cost is at the airport as opposed to in the city. We will be arriving from the USA by air and I was planning to rent the car at the airport and drive to Montepulciano.