After hours of searching rental car rates, I've give up. It's crazy expensive to rent a car for a few days. (It doesn't help that there isn't a single rental car agency with a properly designed web site. There is no reason in the world, for example, that when you say the the pick up date is April X, that it doesn't automatically make the year 2004 for the pickup and April X+1 2004 for the return date. And when they say that the pick up location is closed, they ought to tell you when it is open open so that it doesn't into 20 questions.)

Anyway...

If I'm going to visit any hill towns, it will have to be by bus. Is this feasible?

WHERE? Italy, France?

I know the frustration about the year. It's the same on airline & hotel sites.

Autoeurope.com is a favorite site for car rentals in Europe. They're a broker that gets deep discounts at mainstream rental places (you book through them but get directed for pick up at regular car rental agencies). If you're trying to pickup or drop off on Sundays it can be a problem but autoeurope should be able to help.

Those sorts of web site errors are so basic that they are inexcusable. They show utter disregard for the clients. So does the tone of most error messages, e .g. "You must fill in the return date." I don't have to do anything. Web sites, like people, should be polite. They should be saying "Please fill in the return date" Autroeurope is one of the few polite sites. This is what happens when you let techies run your web site.

I've tried AutoEurope. They were fine in my previous trips. But...

Two problems. First, I don't want a car for 3 days. Second, they won't let me pick up a car where I need it and drop in any of the places that I could possibly do the return.

Sixt seems best by far, since they have no minimum number of days and the daily rate is better than Autoeurope, but they charge a drop fee of $50, so I'm up to almost $100/day + gas. That's just too much.

Forget the web site and call them at 800-223-5555. Yes, you will pay about $100 per day but it is the only good way to see Tuscany.

One the one hand, I could see the Tuscany landscape at the cost of $100 day + gas + cost of international driver's license + aggro of driving in Europe.

On the other, I could hop on a train and go to Lucca-Pisa for a one day and take a bus to San Gim for another.

Tough choice.

We found it easy to visit quite a few hilltowns by train and bus - no stress (apart from using my very basic Italian to buy tickets) and no parking problems. Orvieto is in Umbria, an hour from Rome by train then a short funicular ride up to the town. San Gimignano is in Tuscany, we caught the train to Poggibosni then a 20 min bus ride.
Kay

Most of the hill towns in Umbria and Tuscany can be visited by bus or train. If you indicate which towns are of interest to you, I can help you to locate the schedules on the web.

It is a matter of style. Of course, as GAC points out, you can find public transportation to many of the more popular hill towns. And, a train to Pisa or Lucca or even Siena makes very good sense. But those are cities--not the Tuscany hill towns that I prefer. Recently driving from our hotel in Montefollinico to Montalcino we must have stopped 5 times for photo ops and diverted to small wineries another 3 times. And, the highlight of the day was driving to the Abbey at St. Antimo in the AM and stopping at Santa Anna in Camprena[English Patient site]on the return. That was just one typical day. Sure, you can see most of the major tourist stops using public transportation, you just will not experience the magic of rural Tuscany that is the appeal for me.