We have planned to pick up our rental the day we leave Rome and drive to Florence, then on to France.

Someone told me yesterday that it was a terrible drive, in & out of tunnels, hairpin curves, yada. She said we should take the train instead & pick up the rental in Florence. Any thoughts?

Oh, and how long a drive is it? The Michelin site says it's about 3 hours, someone else said an hour & a half.

I wasn't driving, my friend was, but even in a small Punto I did not feel that it was a horrid drive and I certainly do not remember any hairpin curves on the A-1. Unfortunately, I don't remember how long it took.

If you are spending any time in Florence itself, I would suggest the train. Parking in Florence is either difficult to find or expensive.

The train takes 1.5 hours from Rome to Florence.

It's a toll freeway with lots of curves, bridges and tunnels (but obviously not hairpin curves). Especially with traffic and/or at night it can be quite a stressful drive. Also, getting out of Rome from the pick up location can ba painful.

I would rent in Florence. There are many rental agencies in one street near the train station (forget which it is). Plus
you can stay a bit in Florence avoiding the parking problem, as Eloise said.

If you are going to spend some time along the way exploring Tuscany, then it is well worth having a car. I did the drive a few years ago and I cannot recall anything but autostrada -- certainly no hairpin turns and if there were tunnels, they have not stayed in my memory.

If you're just going to drive directly from Rome to Florence, you might as well take the train and not have the hassle of a car in Florence.

There are at least three subquestions here.

Good idea to rent in Italy and return the car in France (or maybe you mean that you would come back to Italy to return the car) - - bad idea; the drop fee could be in the hundrds of dollars.

Drive from Rome to Florence? I don't think the drive is THAT bad, but you can NOT duplicate the 95 minute train time - - plus, if you intend to overnight in Florence, you have high parking costs, and little if any use of the car.

3. Drive from Florence on to (or towards) Nice? Here is where the tunnels are; 154 of them to be exact. It's bridge, tunnel, bridge, tunnel. repeat 154 times. The geography is like you took a bunch of (rock) plates, as if in a dish drainer, and just drilled a hole in one after another, connecting them with bridges in between. Not boring nor treacherous, but not what many people would expect for a "coastline" drive.

You CAN benefit from a car rental, departing Florence to see Tuscany, and then return it in San Remo, if you wish. That leaves you with only a one hour train ride to Nice. Then you can start a new rental in France if you wish.

Best wishes,

Rex

Rome to Florence is a very easy drive - we have done it several times. Don;t recall anything like a hairpin curve - this is a major multi-lane highway. There may be a couple of small tunnels - don;t recall any though.

The highway time is about 2.5 hours. How long it takes to get out of Rome and into Florence depends on where you pick up the car and where your hotel is.

If you want to stop and see things on the way I would definitely rent - also if you want to see any of the Tuscan towns from Florence.

It's true you do need to garage your car in Florence - just like any other major city. But to us - the convenience of car vs train - and the opportuity to get off the beaten track - and stop to see anything that looks interesting is way more than worth any extra money.

Cannot comment on the road on to Nice - since we have only gone north - to Switzerland - and there are some long tunnels (8/10 miles) depending on how you go (is this a problem?) and curves (but this is a major highway - not like someone's drivelway - it's all perfectly safe).

I never like the idea of drop in one counry - train to another - then rent again - but it depends on what kind of deal you can get in each place, how much the train costs/how inconvenient it is - and how much your time/energy is worth to you.

(Our vacation time is very limited - so we value that far above a few extra $. If you have less more time and want to keep to a stricter budget a different decision may make sense for you.)

We've driven this A1 route numerous times, the last was three weeks ago. No hairpin turns, maybe two short tunnels, takes about 2 to 21/2 hours. Expect to pay about 15 Euro in tolls. For the most part, it's a four lane (2 in each direction) highway, with three lanes at major exits. The worst part is the highway around Rome, the GRA, which is undergoing major reconstruction. That's a nightmare.

You've all made some good points. What to do what to do. Hmm.

The hassle of multiple rentals does not appeal to either of us. We already have the Rome pick-up, Pais drop-off fee factored in and in fact it's prepaid.

But now you've got me thinking the Florence to Monaco is going to be the sticker. We've driven from Positano to Nice and I do have a deja vu of "tunnel vision".

Will have to do some more thinking on that.

Well with so many decisions you're already comfortable with, the tunnels shouldn't make or break your decision, especially since you dealt with it once before (but then why did you ask about Rome to Florence? you had to do that on your previous tavel from Positano to Nice!)

Anyhow, they whiz by one after another quickly. Some stretches have 20 tunnels in a 10 minute period.

Rex,
Sorry! To borrow a word from a former president, I misspoke. I meant to write Portofino, not Positano.

I do remember there being a fatal accident in a tunnel and they stopped all traffic for about an hour, hour and a half. My most vivid memory of that aside from the horror of knowing someone had been killed was wishing I had taken a bathroom break before we got to that point. Ouch.