Car Rental - Best Florence (pick-up) and Rome (Drop-off) location
 

I have reserved for (Europcar) pick-up at (28Feb, Monday, 9am): 53-55R VIA BORGOGNISSANTI, 5 mins from the Florence Train Station, where my hotel is located. I return the car at Rome Termini (6Mar, Sun, 11am). At Rome, I am staying at the Piazza Novona area for the next 3 days before flying back home.

Is there a more convenient pick-up/ drop-off location that I should rather choose (irrespective of the car company) to be able to get out of Florence or get into Rome? I have heard traffic horror stories and I want to make sure that I don't get stuck in it.

I also want to know if it it makes any sense to keep the car for one additional day in Rome, since I don't pay anything extra for keeping the car for the additional day? I was particularly thinking about the Vatican area, where we could go straight upon entering Rome, park somewhere closeby (?), see the sights until evening and then return the car to Termini is the evening? Or is it simpler to just return the car first thing and rely on local transport for intra-city travel.
Thanks

Your pickup in Florence is fine. I'd rid myself of the car before going to Rome. You could drop off in Orvieto, spend some time there, and then take the train into Rome, which is about an hour away. Just one opinion.

I agree that you should get rid of your car outside of Rome. We had that exact pickup/dropoff and the Florence location was fine but driving into Rome and finding Termini was a nightmare. Florence traffic was no big deal as it was easy to get out of town from there but try Orvieto or even the airport in Rome if possible and take the train in.

Thanks for the input thus far.
I had originally thought of not getting the car into Rome, but then the car rental costs the same for 5,6 or 7 days. So instead of paying for 4 train tickets (for the family), we might as well get into Rome in the car (If I drop it elsewhere and train in, I pay for the car day anyway, but have to pay for train as well).

BTW - We return to Rome after day tripping Pompei.

Is there another Rome location (Vatican, Tivoli) that is better than Termini? Maybe we can drop the car off there and taxi to Piazza Novona (with luggage).
Thanks again.

We walked from Termini to Navona so in the city drop off that is probably the closest but we drove in from the same direction from the Amalfi Coast and it was just such a nightmare I wouldn't do it again-we're not easily frightened drivers either having driven all over Italy, Germany and France but that was the worst driving experience we had.

Topping for pq. I am in the same position and would like to avoid having to pay train fare for the whole family to come in to Rome. Can someone give insight as to the driving conditions around the FCO airport? Weekend or weekday make a difference?

night,
After making the best price reservation from Auto Europe for my car, and realizing that they gave me EuropCar, I went to europcar.com and made sure that the drop-off lcoation:
- had a easy access from A24
- was close to my hotel.
Evenutally I ended up changing my drop-off location based on this criteria. Train-ing from FCO is an hour ride at 10E a ticket, and you still would need a cab to get to your hotel. I thought going to the Termini location was going to be cumbersome, so I chose a drop-off location that is a mile (can't be so bad even in worst traffic) from A24. From there I can taxi to my hotel.

PG - So what is the name of your drop off location one mile from A24? I'm interested too. Was planning to return car to FCO and train into Rome.

The access to the Termini car rental area from the highway is pretty staright forward (basically one main, multi lane road, but I can't remember what the exit was).

Dayle,
For EuropCar, the following location is within a mile from A24:
905 VIA TIBURTINA 159 ROME
Tel: 3964072375

We are doing the reverse (picking up a car in Rome and dropping it in Florence), and I'm wondering the same thing. There are so many places in each city. Has anyone had a good experience? Is it fairly easy to drive from the Termini Station. Is the best Florence drop-off at the airport? If we leave the car in Siena, we could save money by dropping it off earlier (makes it one less day in the rental), but would there be anyplace we could store the bags while we looked around before going into Florence? In Siena, there are many locations, also. Does anyone know the easiest? Thanks

Last fall a friend and I picked up a car at the same location as pg. Not difficult leaving Florence.

We toured for a week, and then dropped the car off at the Florence Airport (Pistoia). There was construction on the main autostrade coming from Florence to the airport, and there was little or no airport signage. Not the easiest driving experience, but certainly not the worst. Just remember, that the airport is NOT at Florence and keep driving north. You'll eventually see it.

I drove right into central Rome without much difficulty. I then found a taxi stand and my passenger got in a taxi with the address of the car rental agency and I followed and we returned the car. We then got back in the taxi and he took us to our hotel. Quick easy and efficient!

We did not bring our car into Rome and trained in. From there you can use public transportation or walk. I would not drive into Rome. It is insanity IMO.

Very clever, eurotraveler!

I posted a bit ago about renting a car in Florence and dropping off in Rome and Rex replied

Message: The "Sottoterraneo Borghese" (underground car park) is an easy place, but I don't know if that will be easiest from your hotel (not mentioned)or not. You might e-mail your hotel and ask them. Others scoff at this, but I say one advantage of arriving into Rome is to take your bags directly to the front door of your hotel in your car. Then you could choose to hire a cab to lead you to the car rental return place, to bring you back from there.

We are easily led but as our hotel was convenient to the Borghese underground car park we took Rex at his word and that is the plan that we have made.

Does anyone else think this is a bad idea? We had friends in Rome last year and they said as long as you are driving in and parking that it is no big deal.

Interested in any comment you have. Thanks so much.