Car rental for Rome-Tuscany
 

I'm working on my honeymoon itinerary right now and I just realized that I have ran into a little problem. Here's the problem:

We are departing Rome on a Sunday and the plan was to head towards Montalcino (I wanted to stay at the Giglio, that's why I chose that town). My problem is, after reading all these threads on car transportation and rentals, I realized that some car rental places aren't open on Sunday.

What should I do? I'm trying to avoid driving out of Rome since I heard that it can get hectic. I was hoping to pick up a car in Tuscany and from there we could start on our Tuscan adventure.

SHould I just change my plans and maybe make Siena my home base instead? I was really looking forward to staying somewhere where I could look out the window and see the rolling hills of Tuscany.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated!

Hi J,

Do you have a firm from which you are renting a car?

((I))

Ira, no not yet. I was going to use autoeurope b/c it's cheaper.

We reserved our car in Chiuso taking the train from Rome. Before leaving home, we learned Auto Europe closed their office there but would deliver the car at the train station (we then met AE there to return the car 10 days later). You might just call them on their 800 number (don't know it offhand) and see what they have to offer.

I do recall, had we booked earlier than we did, Nova Car rentals had a great rate out of the Rome airport. But, we didn't get it (too late to book). The drive from Chiuso to Orvieto was about 1/2 hour where we stayed for 3 days and then to Pienza for a week. From there we toured all over Tuscany.

Anyhow, having driven out of many airports it's not bad once you get out (it's the "within the aiport" that's usually tricky). You just wouldn't want to drive into Rome. Hopefully, you'll get some other thoughts on this.

Different car rental companies will have different hours. Impossible to generalize.

We drove a Hertz rental (v. Gregorio) out of Rome to Tuscany in March -- a breeze on a Saturday morning, despite the roadwork on the ring road.

Once we were out of town, it was a lovely drive.

No need to take the big A-road, if you are heading to Montalcino -- the via Flavia is perfect. Not too big, not too heavily traveled.

I'd say your only problem is the question of whether car pick-up is possible on a Sunday........