Hi.
We are in the process of planning our first trip to Italy for next month.

Our current plan is to fly into Rome, arriving at 9:30 am, and continue straight to Florence via Train. Spend 3 nights in Florence.

Next we plan to spend 4 nights exploring the hill towns with Montalcino as a base. Where should we get a car? Florence? Or should we train (or bus) to Siena and pick one up there? After we leave Tuscany we will be heading to Rome for 3 nights before flying home.

I thought we could take the train from Siena to Rome, so returning the car there would be convenient and not include a one way (which I assume is more expensive) car rental with out too much back tracking. But I guess we could also take the train from Orievto?

What city would you suggest getting the car from? and can you recommend an agency? Please feel free to make other suggestions as well.
thanks!

Get it in Florence. There is no penalty for a drop elsewhere--that will depend on your logistics. From Montalcino I would return in Grosetto or Viterbo, or drive to FCO to drop. Look at autoeurope.com

topping

Just thought I'd try once more for supporting or dissenting opinions.
thanks

Rent the car in Florence the day you depart the city for Montalcino. The drive thru Chianti is nice.

Drive all the way to Rome to turn the car in. There are multiple places in Rome to turn it in. Why take the train with all your "stuff" to Rome.

I agree, autoeurope.com has great rates.

I frequently see recommendations for Autoeurope for car rentals, but I used Europebycar in March and their rates were much lower.

http://www.europebycar.com/

I thought maybe it was a fluke, but I just checked and again, at least for the car sizes and rental periods I checked, they were lower.

gblakey, unless I am mistaken, AutoEurope will match a lower rate if they can verify it, and it generally gets very high marks for service if there is any problem. So I'm not sure why it isn't a good idea to use AutoEurope in any event.

Hi jd_dallas - You may be right. I simply chose europebycar because their web posted rate was the lowest of those I could find. We had no problem whatsoever, but didn't really have any "issues." We actually got the car from Budget at FCO in rome, so I guess europebycar is a consolidator, like autoeurope.