damfarm

My friend and I are taking a trip in 2 weeks to Italy. Fly into Venice - 2 nights in Venice. Train to Florence for one night and want to rent a car in Florence drive to Tuscany. We are only staying one night near Castelina in Chianti.
2. We are trying to decide whether to drive south and then all the way to Rome (3.5 hours) or bring the car back to Florence and take the Eurostar (only 1.5 hours) to Rome. We could also drop somewhere in Southern Tuscany and take the train, but am finding the train takes much longer than the Eurostar as they are local rail services.
Questions -
1. If we rent and return to/from Florence and take the train - what is the name of the area where the car rental agencies are? ie. Hertz has 4 locations in Florence and I can't tell which is the one near the Santa Maria Novella station.
2. What is the best car rental co. to rent from and get an automatic?
3. Other Advice?

Thanks!

ira

Hi dam,

I suggest that you continue South to Orvieto and drop thecar there.

You can then train into Rome.

How many days are you planning for your motor trip?

ira

PS

Also check http://www.novarentacar.com/

You can get good maps of Florence at

www.multimap.com
www.mappy.com
www.viamichelin.com

damfarm

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately don't have much time to spend. Drive around Tuscany day of 31st then overnight in Chianti and drive around on the 1st until around 5 PM - then catch a train (we don't want to drive into Rome at night). So basically 2 days.

ira

Hi dam,

www.mappy.com says it's about 2 1/2 hr from Castellina to Orvieto on the back roads.

nanb

we rented a car in Florence from autoeurope , used it for the week and dropped it off in Orvieto (as Ira suggested )
I was able to walk to the train station there from the drop-off place.
The train takes one hour to rome .

StephenG

You should forget the car all together and just take the SITA bus to Chianti and take the Eurostar to Rome from Florence. You don't really have 2 days you Have 24 hours. By the time you rent the car, pick it up and get out of Florence it is midday and you then have to return the car the next day??
Actually it would make more sense to skip it all together and stay in Florence.

rex

Keep in mind the common stories (10% of the time?) that reservations were promised as automatic, but when the renter got there, they HAD NO automatics on the lot.

I can give no better advice than this: spend the time, learn to drive a manual transmission, a life skill forever, and you really can do it in two or three days , with a sympathetic friend and a bit of effort.

Best wishes,

Rex

Mamamia

I also think you should think twice about car ental in Italy.

It's very expensive there (more expensive than in Switzerland, for instance, and a lot more than in Germany... At least that's my experinece from few years ago. We rented in Lucerne and drove into Italy).

The Italians are WILD drivers, and will frighten you if you don't elect to drive as CRAZILLY FAST as they do.

Yes, getting out of Florence can take you a very long time.

Mary_Fran

damfarm,

Your best chance of getting an automatic in Italy is from Nova rental cars. They also have good rates. Your best chance of getting an automatic, especially when you're not picking up and returning to the same location, will be in major destinations such as Florence and the Rome airport.

I wouldn't let anyone scare me off driving in Italy. We didn't find it difficult on our trip in the fall of 2002. It wasn't horrible getting out of Florence, although the signage was inadequate. Once we got on the freeway, driving was a piece of cake, so long as we stayed out of the fast lane, instead of "parking" there as so many Americans do.

If I were you, I'd pick up the rental car in Florence (can't remember the location of the office where we picked up our car - sorry), and drop it off at the Rome airport.

I love taking trains in Italy, but driving is neat too.

Also, though my travel partner can drive a manual transmission, she doesn't drive one often enough to be as competent as she is with an automatic. I am much happier when we pay the extra bucks for an automatic, so she doesn't have to fight with downshifting in unfamiliar, sometimes stressful situations.

Mary_Fran

After sending my post, I found this helpful page on SlowTrav.com, which gives a lot of detail about car rental office locations in Florence:

http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/drivin...l_florence.htm

ira

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