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After a few days of business in Lausanne Switzerland my husband and I will head into the Piemonte region of Italy - Alba, Biella and surroundings - in late October. I know we will need to rent a car, but I would appreciate any input on whether we should train into Italy (Turin via Milan) and then rent a car. Or rent in Switz. or even France and then drive through. I know insurance is a huge question. Another hesitation is that we speak French and German, but virtually no Italian. I've heard the views via train are amazing and we have time to linger on a train. I'm just struggling with the car rental. I imagine there are buses, too.
Sincere thanks to anyone who might weigh in on this subject. Your advice is most appreciated.
car rental advice on Piemonte region via Lausanne late October
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PCINSB,
I would suggest train to Italy and rent there. I am planning a trip to the Piemonte region for next fall and will arrive in Torino from the US. Spend time in Torino. Take a very short train to Asti and rent the car there. For my itinerary renting in Asti is both more economical and a good "base of opperations" to see other area in Piemonte. All this is IMO only. Not speaking Italian should not be a major issue.
rolohof_duvall - thank you!
I'm sorry that the following won't work for you, it is only available until Sep. 26, but I'm posting it for anyone else who might have been attracted by your post header and is planning a similar trip from the French-speaking part of Switzerland into Nortwestern Italy:
There is an awesome way to get from the Lake Geneva area to Italy - look up a map, find Martigny south of Montreux, then find Aosta across the mountains, north of Torino.
Not many people now that:
Go to www.sbb.ch and input Martigny and Aosta and you see a bus, twice daily, that gets you there in two hours!
To get the 08:25 departure in Martigny, you take the 07:20 train that gets to Martigny at 8:07. The bus waits outside the station - time for a coffee and brioche.
From Aosta (which is the hub of a very desirable valley location for hiking etc.) you take a regional train (no reservations required) down to Turin's Porta Nova station. Takes about 2 hours.
And while on the subject of lesser-known trips in that region: You can get by mountain-train from Martigny to Chamonix - a great ride!
Where will you return the car? Rent it in that country.
Italy will be more expensive than CH or FR
I rented a car (Fiat Croma Station Wagon, automatic) for 16 days for about 450 Euro through AutoEurope.it for late Sept/early Oct from Milan Malepensa. Going thru the Italian site was fine even though I accessed it from the US. One thing to note is I wanted an automatic station wagon (to pack bikes in the back of the car), which if I went through the "all" option would not appear (or appear expensively) but came up with cheap rates if I selected it up front.
Doesn't tell you what to do necessarily, just a tip =)