Car rental Florence - which location?
 

I have read the posts here and on Slow Travel regarding picking up a rental car in Florence. Which is the best location to pick up the car: Borgo Oggisanti; Via del Gelsomino; or the airport? Although we will be staying the night before the pick up in a hotel near the train station, the directions to exit town from the Borgo Oggisanti location sound extremely complicated. On the other hand, we will have a GPS and there will be two of us - one to navigate and one to steer!
Thank you!

The Oggnisanti location isn't all that difficult to navigate from especially if you have a GPS and it's so convenient to your hotel. Yes, it's much easier to get out of town from the airport location but there is the added cost of getting from your hotel to the airport (taxi was about 20 euros last year). Again, especially if you have your GPS and you're not trying to do this during peak traffic times - you should do just fine.

Thank you very much for your answer, Carol. I have booked a car to be picked up at the Borgo Oggnisanti location.

Marsha

Hi

We picked up our car in Florence and we used a GPS to navigate out of the city and it wasn't too much of a problem. Here is my Florence trip report with pictures and links http://gardkarlsen.com/florence_italy_travelogue.htm :d

Regards
Gard
http://gardkarlsen.com - trip reports and pictures

Thank you, Gard, for the link to your trip report. You have provided quite a bit of information and good links. I will use your report as I put together the plans for our upcoming trip.

be very careful driving around Florence. A broad expanse of the central district is a restricted traffic zone (ZTL). There are cameras set up all around town to take a snapshot of your license plate.

Make sure you are aware of what the signs look like, but that's no guarantee you see them all.

If you enter the ZTL, you WILL get a ticket. They WILL track you down. and it WILL be expensive (or so I've heard).

When you pick up your car ask the rental car co for direction out of town that avoid the ZTL. Do not simply trust your GPS.

Borgosannti is indeed easy especially if you are heading south to siena on
the ss road......
a bit trickier if you are heading to
the autostrada as at the end of
borgosannti there is a bit of a detour.. i use the micehlin maps and
they work well.........

We did exactly this a month ago. It was a very easy walk to the Borgo Oggisanti location from our hotel near the Duomo (the hotel gave us great directions). We had a GPS and the rental folks gave us decent directions for how to get out of Florence. You will be just fine!