Florence Car Rental
 

Wld appreciate some comments on best location to pickup/drop off rental. We intend spending 2 days in Florence, picking up rental & driving in Tuscany etc for 4 nights then returning car to Florence and catching train to Venice. We'll be driving on "wrong side" of the road so dont particularly want to (a)endanger the locals or (b)get stuck in city.. so maybe the airport is best location???
Auto Europe lists Peretoia Airport plus 6 city locations - haven't been to Florence before so not sure of distances..
Help/comments would be much appreciated
Thanx

We rented a car from Hertz in June and did pretty much what you're trying to do. They have 2 locations, one downtown Florence, nearish the train station, and the other at the airport as do other rental car companies. It will save you time and cab fare if you pick up and drop off at a downtown location. That being said, if you depart or arrive in Florence and use Hertz know that their city office has limited hours on Sundays. We had quite a bit of aggrevation because of that. We arrived in Florence by train around 11.30am and tried to find Hertz. When we realized it was a bit of a walk with 2wks worth of luggage, we took a 5min cab ride, only to find out the place was closed. It wasn't yet noon and their posted hours indicated they were open til 12...Long story short, we ended up taking a 2nd cab over to the airport and got our Hertz car there. Five days later we returned it to the downtown location. They wanted to impose a dropoff surcharge but my husband explained what had happened and with a bit of persuasion got the charge dropped. We've rented from Hertz in the US on numerous occasions and have had no problems but were extremely disappointed with the personnel we dealt with at the airport. It all worked out but only after a great deal of discussion.

About the roads: the major highways are reasonably easy to negotiate but you might find it a bit of a challenge driving on the opposite side of the road when you're on the secondary roads. They're very windy 2 lane roads and Italian drivers drive fast. Despite that, we were happy to have our own car to travel around Tuscany. It's wonderful!!

I agree that the airport is the best place in terms of longer opening hours, the ease of locating the office, and the fact that you won't have to negotiate roads getting into and out of the city. There are a lot of one way streets in the city, and they are generally narrow and chocked with traffic so it is not much fun to drive in the city. If you are arriving by train into Florence, the airport is literally 15-20 minutes by taxi from the train station and taxi fare there should be under 15 Euros. Distance and taxi fare is about the same from most areas of the city to the airport. I believe you could also take a bus to the airport, but with luggage that might be a pain.

Thanks for the info - great..
The airport it is!
Also if its not a silly question what size car did you feel was best for the 'hills' - ie some of the 'smaller/mid size cars'* on the rental lists look as if they wouldnt have the 'oomph' for hilly terrain... *(engine capacity I mean)
Thanks for your comments

We rented a car from near the train station in Florence last year. We are Australian and were driving on the "wrong side of the road" for the first time. I think it would have been a lot less stressful picking up the car from the airport as we got pretty lost getting on the right road for Tuscany. We drove down to Siena through the Chianti area and really enjoyed the drive once we were out of the city. I think a mid size car would be fine for your travels. Buon viaggio.

If you're arriving by train in Florence, the car rental places are a 5-10 minute walk away, near the edge of town. Get a good city map and study the locations and roads. I have rented cars in downtown Florence and driven to Tuscany/Umbria many times. It doesn't seem to make much sense to go all the way to the airport to pick up a car and pay the airport premium,when the rental places are so close.

You'll find that the major car rental firms have several locations and one will have much longer hours than the rest; usually this location will be near the train station, three or four blocks away. Look on their website to determine which is best for you.

If you have not been to Florence before be aware that streets are narrow and very congested (to be kind). Also DO NOT return car with less than a full tank of gas. European gas prices are high but you will be charged up to $8 a gallon by agency if they fill tank, while it only runs about $5 at local stations.

I used Thrifty and would not recommend them.

I believe we paid a little over 20E to get from the train station to the airport...Personally, I think getting a car in the city is a bit more convenient and it saves you nearly 50E.

We had a Ford Focus (a compact car, I believe) which was plenty roomy for the 2 of us and had a lot of pep! My husband felt it handled the roads well.