One night in Florence
 

Staying one night in Florence and then off Chianti Region. What is the best location for one night and renting a car the next day.

How about taking a bus to Chianti-en-Greve and picking up your rental car there - otherwise inside Florence many places are off-limits to private vehicles and folks constantly get zapped with steep fines for violating the no-go zones without realizing it.

Either familiarize yourself with those zones or say take the tram to Florence's Rifredi station, a few miles north of town and a main station with several car rentals around it - easy driving from there to anyplace in Tuscany - or as easy as it gets.

The best place to rent a car is at the airport because you don't have to drive in Florence!

Since you have such a short time in Florence, I would rent a hotel close to the Ponte de Vecchio which is close to many things. You can easily take a bus to the airport to rent your car.

For just 1 night, assuming with that information that Florence isn't high on your list, pick up your car out of town (airport or otherwise), as the previous posters have suggested, and use it to stay in the countryside or in a village, what having a car is all about, as I see it.

Pitti Palace looks nice for one night in Ponte De Vecchio.

I understand many tourists get burned with ZTL fines, but renting from the airport looks to me a really radical solution. First, it is easy to get a fine entering the ZTL (limited access zone) but exiting the ZTL with your rental car should be easier. Second, there are rentals like the one in via del Sansovino that is easily accessed by tram from the station area.

Thanks, we are going to rent the car at the airport and drive to Radda, staying at the il bergo di Vescine for 4 nights and then driving to Lake Como that should be an ok drive.

It looks wonderful! Good move.

Agree with your your choice to rent at the airport. I've driven from Chianti to Como before before. It's a bit of a long (a little boring)drive,but uneventful until you get close to Milan. If going to Bellagio, the drive can be a little nerve racking, but doable.

Thanks

Janes...what do you mean by nerve racking?

Jabez is what I wrote....automatic correction. Sorry.

The road from Como to Bellagio is tight and can make many nervous. In Italy ,it's not unusual to go around curves barely wide enough for 2 cars. This creates interesting dilemmas when two cars (or especially a bus or truck)is heading towards you.

Several car rentals agencies are on Borgo Ognissanti; for us, it was an easy drive out of Florence to the autostrada.

Well, I remember the time when my father was driving between Como and Bellagio and my late aunt saw a sign "CAUTION FALLING ROCKS"

She began to scream "You are bringing me in a dangerous place! What should I do?" - to which my father replied "Open your umbrella".