bpdnole

Will be flying overnight Friday into Milan via Frankfurt, arriving early afternoon. We are meeting the rest of our party outside of Arezzo, south of Florence. Our debate is whether to rent a car from MXP and drive directly to our villa rental, or take the train. While the train would certainly be less stressful, we're concerned about timing the trains (shuttle bus to Milan Centrale station from airport, change trains in Florence, etc.) and the delay in getting to our final destination. From best I can tell, renting a car and leaving immediately would have us arriving in 3.5 hours, the train would take about 6.5 hours (with connections and transfers). The train is about 120Euro less than rental. I regularly drive in large cities across the US, but have never driven in Europe. Any feedback on experience driving on Autostrade from Milan south, other rentals in Italy or general advice would be appreicated. We can drop car the following day in Arezzo as our party will have transportation taken care of for the remainder of trip.

tuscanlifeedit

I much prefer driving out of MXP, but it is sort of a shame if you won't need the car once you arrive at your lodgings. You say that the others in your party have transportation arranged; may I ask what it is? If it is one vehicle for a large party, you may want the car.

How far outside of Arezzo? If you take the train, as you already stated, you will have to get to the train station in Milan, get the train to Florence, transfer to Arezzo, and then get from Arezzo train station to your meeting place. How will you do that? Taxi? Is it far? Will some one pick you up? That may be another factor in the cost.

bpdnole

It's about a 20 minute taxi ride from Arezzo train station. We're just meeting another couple there, so their mid-size rental should be fine. I was set to take the train until I learned the shuttle from MXP to Milan Centrale could take an hour.

tuscanlifeedit

I still like the car... where have you looked for rates? Did you try Nova?

I was just thinking that sometimes my biggest splurge on a trip is transportation. For instance, in March we will fly from Venice to Rome on our last day to connect to a flight out of Rome around noon. This will be expensive, but we will have the entire last day of our trip to enjoy Venice.

The options would be to spend the last night near the airport in Venice and save the early morning taxi fare to the airport (ugh), or to train to Rome the night before and lose our last evening (ugh, ugh).

So, the expensive water taxi early in the morning to the airport and the flight to Rome are the best way to maximize our all to brief trip to Italy. I am thinking that the case is similar for your trip from MXP to Arezzo.

tuscanlifeedit

oops.. that should be "all too brief"