Driving in Tuscany
 

There are 6 of us who are going to be renting a car in Rome and driving to Tuscany for 5 days in late April. We would prefer to rent one car and have found a place that will rent us a van for $516 including the drop off charge at Civitavecchia. My question is 1. what kind of insurance should we purchase from the rental co. Our insurance company has said they don't cover this 2. Has anyone dealt with tiger rental
3. The van we're looking at has 9 seats and is a Citroen Jumpy Atlante 2.0
or similar, has anyone had any experience with this vehicle and 4. Are we going to have alot of trouble with this vehicle on the roads in Tuscany. Also would love to know how astronomical the gas is going to be.
Thanks in advance for any help!

Insurance is mandatory, so you simply accept it and pay. Trust that you do not want to have to deal with any "issues" upon returning.

No, you will not have any trouble, I guess you mean because of size, many buses traverse the very same roads.

About triple the cost of US, taking the Euro / US difference; it is by the liter and be careful as you want to pump, either petrol / gas or diesel if needed.

Also, if you are planning to drive into Florence, there is a resident only driving area mid city, DO NOT drive there!!!

Last thing, as you are driving to Tuscany, I suggest a minor detour to Assisi; it is well worth the few hours additional.

If you rent from AutoEurope or Kemwell, there shouldn't be any "drop-off" charges unless you drop it off outside Italy.

Insuranace is mandatory.

You might want to stop in Orvieto on the way as well.

Will the van also hold all your luggage? Think carefully about this, or some folks will spend the drive holding their suitcases on their laps. :)

http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews112436.html#Reviews for Tiger car rentals

Those are really depressing reviews since Tiger is charging less than half of what every other major rental agency is for a 9 person van. Would it make a difference that none of the reviews were for Italy?

<<The van we're looking at has 9 seats and is a Citroen Jumpy Atlante 2.0 or similar >>
Please pay attention to the "or similar" term..
You may get another mini van instead of the Citroen Jumpy, depending on what this particular station has available.

When considering renting a car in Italy, consider a few things-

Make sure the quote you receive includes the mandatory insurance.

Compare prices while also comparing deductibles. Lower prices usually include higher deductibles and higher prices come with lower deductibles.

Take a look at charges for changes. If your pick up time or date changes unexpectedly (flight delay upon arrival), you may end up paying a large fee to change your reservation.

I suggest you call autoeurope.com or their sister company, kemwel.com and speak to a rep about your needs and options. They can recommend the best vehicle for your needs and answer your questions. They will also beat any comparable price quote you receive from other companies. Have your written price quote from Tiger with all details in front of you when you speak to the rep so that they can compare their offers accurately. Auto Europe and Kemwel will offer great customer service before and during your trip.

We had 8 adults for our trip in 2007 and our travel agent arranged the car rental but I believe it was autoeurope. We had two vans; one was similar to a Dodge Caravan and the other was much larger - it was a Ford and was very squarish, but we could all 8 fit in without luggage so we used the larger van for our day trips in Tuscany. We never had any problems with navigating this on the streets in Tuscan towns. As mentioned before, the insurance is mandatory and you may be very happy about that as we were. On our last day in Tuscany, the person driving the smaller van (not me!) backed out of our driveway and into a car that had just parked on the street directly across from our house. Very interesting experience with our very limited Italian and the elderly couple that was in the other car as well as the local police. They just took the insurance info from the car rental paperwork and all were happy! Not even a ticket issued. I was amazed at how kind the couple that we backed into was in this situation. Then, later that day, same car, same driver, leaving for Rome airport cut the turn too sharply backing out and almost took the front panel and bumper off on the driveway gate! We duct taped everything together and it actually held on the highway all the way back to Rome. When he arrived at the rental car return the agent seeing the duct-taped front end said "We had an accident?" "No, two accidents!" replied my friend. No problem - he may have paid a $50 charge but you better believe we were all glad for the mandatory insurance!

Everyone answered correctly although my question is why Civitecchia? Are you taking a cruise after your land portion? It is almost an hour from the port to the airport?

Yes, we are taking a cruise after Tuscany. We went ahead and booked with Tiger but now cannot reach them so are considering economy rentals and car-rental-italy. All are about 600E for the 4 day rental.