Car rental in Italy
 

We are a family of five, ages 10 - 75, and are traveling together to Italy this summer. We arrive and depart from Rome, landing in the morning on 6/25 and will be in the Cortona area until 7/10. We're just looking into the car rental and need some advice on rental companies and types of cars. A standard shift is fine but do need to hold five people and assorted luggage (as little as possible, hopefully). Any advice on leasing or renting would be appreciated!

I've been researching car rentals in Italy for next summer and as usual I'm finding the best deals from AutoEurope. There have been posts about other companies being less expensive, but I can't seem to find that. Do be sure you're looking at the prices in the same currency. For example at first glance I was thinking one rental from Nova was slightly better until I realized it was in Euro as opposed to dollars. After the conversion, it was a good $ 100 more than AutoEurope, and does not have as full insurance coverage as AutoEurope.

You can go to the AutoEurope website and experiment. There are even pictures of the cars you can click on and enlarge for more details on them.

The lease plans are for a minimum of 17 days and most have extra charges for Italy pick-up or return. I don't think they'll work out for you.

I'm just starting to research this too. I don't really know anything about this topic as I've always taken the train in Italy. But, I can advise that I have checked Hertz and Auto Europe and Hertz was cheaper. I am only going to be renting for a few days though. Good luck.

Buon Giorno,

Last september I was in Italy, and we rented a car from www.thrifty.com who has the best price.

Definitely rent before you go.We found the best deal through Hertz for a week. They have pics of the cars online and you can talk to them to make sure it's large enough. IF you can afford it, I recommend an automatic, those hills and small roads are a pain in a shift (for someone like me who never drives one!)

Use Autoeurope and get either the van or a full size station wagon. The Passat wagon may work and is priced well. Stick will be much less.

For a family of five with typical luggage for a couple of weeks, you really need to rent a minivan. There are several types you can rent, but the most likely in Italy will probably be a Fiat with a 4 cylinder engine of about 2.2 litres, with stick shift. Never, ever rent a car with automatic transmission unless you simply cannot drive a stick shift car. That's plenty good enough for mountains and for high-speed cruising on the autostrada.

Do set up your rental prior to leaving the U.S. Shop all the typical U.S. rental companies, plus AutoEurope, which is a broker for other companies. Someone recommended Sixt auto rental on this site, but my experience with Sixt would lead me to recommend against it.

I don't really believe the VW Passat wagon will be big enough for all of you UNLESS each of you has only a single small bag. There should be enough room in the Passat for a single small bag for each person plus one or two typical carryon bags. Good luck.

Thanks to all who replied to our message - we DID go with AutoEurope, and so far they've been the best price - in addition, we've had the price reduced twice - they matched another rental we found and also matched a 10% spring special they offered after we had already made the arrangements.