Orvieto Train Station
 

Does anyone know how far the Hertz rental office is from the train station?

DH and I rented a car for our stay in Siena and planned to drop the car off in Orvieto on the morning we will catch a train to Rome. However, the rental agency doesn't open until 8:30am, and AutoEurope says they do not have an off-hours drop off. We had originally planned to take catch a 7:30am train that arrived in Rome around 8:30, but obviously that isn't going to work now :(

There's another train at 8:57 that will get to Rome about 10:30, but I'm concerned that we won't be able to drop off the car and make it to the station in time (even if we're there waiting for Hertz to open).

Can anyone tell me how close the Hertz is to the station? Arriving in Rome 2 hours later than I planned wouldn't be so bad, but after that our options get tricky.

Our other options are to A) Wait for the next train at 11:30 or B) leave Siena early as we planned and return the car in Rome. I know everyone says NOT to drive into Rome, but the AutoEurope rep suggested that it wouldn't be so bad if we returned the car to the airport and then took the train from there.

I really don't want to lose a half day of our trip. Any comments or suggestions are greatly recommended.

abenedek,
The Hertz office s less than a 5 minute walk from the train station.

Why not drop the car in Siena the day before and take the Sena bus to Rome?
http://www.sena.it/

I wouldn't count on the Hertz office being open at 8:30. I returned a car there in September and they didn't really stick to their posted hours. I think it will take longer than five minutes to walk from Hertz to the train station with luggage and having to cross traffic. Once at the station you will have to go under the tracks to catch your train as it will be on the further platform.

Yes, Hertz and Avis are basically across the street and down half a block. I did not deal with Hertz there ( I used Avis) , but they are both very small, one man agencies. I could see where they could be very unreliable, but I wouldn't fret too much about it. If you get stuck in town for 2 hours, there's always the beautiful church to visit there.

>>>If you get stuck in town for 2 hours, there's always the beautiful church to visit there.<<<

You would need to store your luggage though and the train station doesn't have storage. There's a nearby hotel that will store it.

I thought about dropping the car off the night before (Wednesday evening), but we are taking a cooking class in San Gimignano Wednesday afternoon and Hertz in Siena closes at 6:30 or 7.

I'm not sure exactly what time the cooking class will end, but I don't want to have to rush back. Also, we may want to explore San Gimignano a bit more, depending on how much we see before the class.

@re899 - I know Orvieto is lovely and worth a couple hours; its blasphemous to my aunt that I'm not visiting there (its her absolute favorite town). But she's renting a house in Tuscany for a month next summer and graciously invited DH and I to come stay. So I know I will be back and will be spending time in Orvieto.

The whole point is that I don't want to lose a whole morning in Rome.

I think I'm going to call Hertz directly and ask them if there are any early drop options in Orvieto.

Otherwise, I think we may attempt to drive into Rome. Has anyone actually dropped a car off in Rome? Is one location better (i.e. easier) then another?

The AutoEurope representative didn't seem to think it would be too difficult if we dropped off at the airport. I've reviewed the route and it doesn't seem that bad, but I'd love to hear from someone who's actually picked up or dropped off in Rome.

I don't see how dropping at the airport will help you any timewise. It would take longer to reach than just dropping in Rome (Villa Borghese area?) and then you would have to train into Rome or hire a limo. The Hertz office in Orvieto is a franchise. I don't recall seeing a drop box for keys, but you could call them and ask. You take a bit of a risk for damage claims dropping a car like that.

The Hertz office is five minutes from the train station.

@kybourbon - If we left Siena at the time we intended to catch the 7:30 train (which was 5:15) than we should arrive at FCO around the time our train would have arrived at Termini. I agree that we would still need to train into Rome, and don't really want to do that, I was just mentioning the AutoEurope rep's opinion that the airport location shouldn't be difficult.

In my last post I was asking if anyone had experience driving into Rome and could comment on the ease of any the Hertz locations.

Regarding the risk for damage claims with early drop off, we were given the Zero Excess insurance when AutoEurope matched the quote I received directly from Hertz, so I'm not really concerned about that. But thank you for mentioning it, because it would be a consideration if we didn't have the zero excess.

I haven't used the Villa Borghese location, but that is what most people suggest for Rome. Have you driven in Italy before? I think early morning you are going to encounter some traffic jams.

Are you staying in a hotel? Will there be someone to check you out that early? It is Italy after all and you have to adjust to Italian schedules.

>>>I was just mentioning the AutoEurope rep's opinion that the airport location shouldn't be difficult.<<<

I think the rep could be quite wrong as there can be taffic jams on the ring road and long lines at the auto rentals at the airport. Mappy says it's 2:41 to Villa Borghese and 2:51 to the airport. Villa Borghese puts you right above the Spanish Steps. The airport leaves you quite a distance outside of town.

Thanks kybourbon,

No we haven't driven in Italy before, but we live just minutes outside Manhattan, so we can probably handle a traffic jam :)

I looked at the Villa Borghese location and that looked much better to me as well, so I'm happy to hear that's been suggested.

We're staying at a B&B near Campo de Fiore, and when I emailed they said we could leave our luggage starting at 9:30am, and check in later in the day.

It looks like we're driving!