Fast Train from Venice to Florence
 

There is only one direct train line but two companies servicing this route: trenitalia and italotreno. Just choose which ever gives you the best times and prices. Tickets purchased in advance are often cheaper but with restrictions in regard to changes and refunds. Online purchase is easy and if you decide to purchase on the day of travel you can purchase at the ticket office or using the multi-lingual online kiosks at the station. Note that tickets for regionale services (I suspect not relevant for this journey) do not need to be booked in advance as they're always the same price but with slower trains. If you buy regionale tickets, you must make sure to validate them using the little stamping machines near the station platform.

Don't know about hire car as I've never hired in Italy. If you wish to use public transport to San Gimignano, you can take a train to Poggibonsi and then bus. It's quite easy but may take longer than a car.

With trenitalia website you must use Italian place name spelling (e.g. Venezia Santa Lucia or Venezia Mestre, Firenze - most likely you'll want Firenze SMN). Once you get the hang of trains in Italy, they're great!

Italo versus Trenitalias Frecciarossa


https://www.seat61.com/italo.htm#Ita...s_Frecciarossa

Rental car. Yes, there are offices from all of the major agencies in Florence. I believe Sixt is right at the train station and the others (Hertz, Budget, Europcar, National) are nearby (0.5km walk or so)

The website www.trainline.com sells tickets for both rail companies, at the official price. You can easily find the best train for your purposes without shuttling back and forth between two websites.

They also sell tickets for other European rail lines, including French and German.

Some tickets include service fees, but I don't know any exact details. I've never used this service, as I'm familiar with all of the major European rail companies and use the official national rail sites. However, I think Trainline is much easier for a rail travel novice from outside the EU.

Are you aware of the ZTL in Florence? If you are making a car rental decision oblivious to the ZTL, study what it is at a site such as https://www.visitflorence.com/touris...-ztl-zone.html.

Because of the ZTL, some people prefer to pick up their car at the airport in Florence. However, we got royally ripped off by a rental agency at that airport. The agents seemed to be shared among all the agencies, so I would just be very careful there. Take photos of every nick before leaving, and make sure someone signs off on the condition of the car when you return.

Let me just say that a ticket for ZTL violation would have cost less.

We had no issues renting at the airport this past spring. We booked a Hertz car through AutoEurope and had a $0 deductible. Drop off was easy. Hertz and the other co's all have their own desks at the rental car center, so I'm not sure what the above poster means by "agents seem shared among all the agencies". That may have been the case in the past.

To get to the airport you can take bus or the new tram line. From the airport to the rental car center you need to take a shuttle bus which can be a wait. Or you could take a taxi from the train station directly to the retnal car center. Getting to the highway towards San Gimi from the airport is easy, but be aware that there are speed cameras along the route. I got flagged for a speeding ticket within 10min of leaving the airport. It arrived by email from the local authorities about 6 weeks later, then a few weeks later another bill from Hertz for the courtesy of giving Florence city my info.

I have no idea what is "best" but this is what we did with success and no glitches.
We flew into Florence and took a taxi to our lodging in town. When it was time to get the rental car, we took a taxi to the train station - Firenze Santa Maria Novella . I rented directly from Hertz. I was very pleased with the rental - an Alfa Romeo SUV. I drove it away to Chianti and we explored Tuscany for a week. We returned the car to Hertz (no problems of any kind) and took the Trentalia train to Venice.

A bonus for renting from Hertz: They offer free wifi units (basically a cell phone/hot spot) to AAA members (and maybe others). We carried the unit with us while walking around towns and in our apartment so we basically had 24x7 free wifi whereever we were. This worked great for maps, spotify, Netflix (required vpn), internet, WhatsApp or FB messaging etc. We downloaded a coupon from the AAA website.

Edit.
Free Mobile Wi-Fi in EuropeGold Plus Rewards members can now enjoy complimentary mobile Wi-Fi during their rentals in Europe.
https://www.hertz.com/rentacar/renta...ee-wifi-europe

That is a GREAT tip!
We did not do that two years ago, but I wish I had known about it!

My experience at Florence airport was spring 2018. They were doing some construction at the time. The shared agents were at the lot, not the office.

I don't use AutoEurope, as I live in Italy.

If you have data services, you can use your phone as a mobile wifi unit. Many provider have packages for tourist. TIM, Italy’s biggest service provider, has a plan called "TIM Tourist", which costa €20, plus €10 for a SIM card, for 30 days. It also includes 200 minutes of calls to Italian fixed and mobile lines, and to many foreign countries.

To create a wifi hotspot for another device, turn on tethering on your phone, which will activate a named wifi connection, which your other device can find and connect to.