again i am astounded at the price for car rentals in italy....i need a car for about 11 days picking up at pisa airport and drop off at rome, probably the airport..

any suggestions

Are you looking at Kemwell and AutoEurope? What's your itinerary? You might not need a car as many days as you think especially if you are staying in Rome a few days (no cars in ZTL's of many cities).

I also recommend AutoEurope. Last month we hired a nice little Alfa at a reasonable rate from them through travelsupermarket.com.

It is difficult to tell if another quote would be less expensive than what you are getting since you do not give an amount nor the kind of car you want.

I checked with Economy Car Rentals, a company that I have used before. I like them because all insurance in included with no excess.

The prices I got for 11 days in August were
Sm automatic: E544
Sm manual:E350

Now you have a comparison. You can search on the Forum as they are gaining in popularity and the reviews seem positive.

Hope this helps.

You don't need or want a car in Rome or Florence or Naples. We have found that Auto Europe has the best prices for the rental and also insurance. You need to have insurance and you can either buy it with the rental or check if it is included with your credit card. When you compare prices look at the base rate and then the insurance separately, it gives you a truer picture of the rate. You will also pay more for additional drivers. So there are ways to bring the quoted rate down. If you are traveling between major cities you can usually get cheap flights on Ryan Air and or another low cost airline. The trains in Italy between the major cities are very good so that is something to consider as well.

Italy is very expensive for car rentals since you have to pay for mandatory theft insurance. Keep checking AutoEurope and Kemwell to see if the rates have dropped. You really need to start checking rates about 4 months before the trip so there is enough time for rate fluctuation. Have you tried stating that you are from a country other than US? Sometimes this gives a lower rate.

I just checked AutoEurope for the same type of car, same pickup and drop off dates and locations for both country of residence = USA and country of residence = UK. The price if you are from the US was $597; the price if you are from the UK (converted to USD) was $442. $150 difference.

We found Economy Rentals to be cheaper than Autoeurope or Kemwel for our Italy rental, but that was with a return to the same agency. It might not be the case for one way rental.

Try these, also:

http://www.hertz.it/rentacar/special...tegoryView.jsp

http://www.italybycar.it/

http://www.rent.it/

Auto Europe might be your best choices. I also had a very good experience with Sixt,in the Pisa airport. They gave me a series 5 BMW for the price of a compact. Great!
I'd recommend also that you bring your own GPS loaded with the Italian maps. It was a great help.