I can't decide where to stay the night before we leave Italy from Florence! After a week in Lucca we will be driving to Florence on a Saturday and leaving the next morning at 7:30. My plan is to return the car on Saturday, but now the decision is whether to head back in to town and stay for a last night in Florence or stay closer to the airport. I'm sure one can never have too much of Florence, but we have been there before and will probably visit again from our base in Lucca. Any suggestions for that last night?

Florence airport is less than 5mi from downtown Florence. How much closer than 5mi do you want to stay?

It is a 15-minute at most taxi ride from the center of Florence to the airport.

By the way, the airport is the preferred place to drop off a car. You do not want to drive into the city.

I guess that answers that! Thanks.

It may be worth the trouble to work out in advance your route to the rental car depot, including a map if possible. It's a short distance to the terminal by shuttle but getting to the car park to return the vehicle can be treacherously confusing. My friend, piloting our mighty Fiat 500 rental, swore off driving in Europe for the rest of his life.

I agree with Southam. We took turns on who had to sit in the front sit with the cab driver. It was scary.

Yes, Southam and flpab, we have had plenty of difficult experiences driving cars into cities and finding rental return locations. That's why I plan to return the car the day before and wondered about staying close to the airport.
I don't want that added stress to an early morning flight! This makes it 2 trips to the airport, but if it's easy and close maybe it's worth it.