Rent a car at the airport or take a train closer to destination then rent?
 

In July, DH and I are going to Tuscany for our 20th anniversary. We'll be spending a week just outside of Montalcino, then friends will be joining us for a second week near Cortona.

We haven't booked our flights yet, so there's lots of flexibility. We'll likely fly from Toronto non-stop to Rome, although we'll see how prices fluctuate in the next month or so. I don't have any concerns in principle with the idea of renting a car in Rome, then driving to Montalcino, but I'm wondering if it would be more pleasant and/or less expensive to take a train from Rome to somewhere closer to our destination (perhaps Grosseto or Montepulciano?), and pick up our rental there?

As always, many thanks in advance to the ever helpful Fodorites!

It will take you about 2+ hours to drive from FCO to Montalcino and it is not a difficult drive.
The nice thing about renting at a major airport like FCO is that you have lots of choices with car rental companies and types of cars. But renting at an airport ads a surcharge to your rental.

You could also take the Leonado Express from FCO to the Rome termini and then a direct train to Florence, I would think, and transfer to a regional train. We are then talking about a lot longer time investment.

I have done both and I am always anxious to get going when I start a vacation.

On our last trip we were near Pienza and I drove both ways to and from the airport in Rome and found that less complicated.
But you may feel differently.

Enjoy the area, it is beautiful and will probably be hot in July.

Oops. The text disappeared: When we took a vacation driving through Tuscany and Umbria, we picked up the car at the airport and stopped for the night in Tarquinia, just up the coast. It's worth it, if only for the Etruscan museum, although the subsequent pictures might indicate others things to see on your way to Montalcino.

McBurja,
If you don't know how jet lag affects you don't try a long drive after landing. A train to Chiusi will put you about an hour from Montalcino and it is a nice drive.
If jet lag doesn't bother you renting at the airport will be less hassle with luggage.

If you are experienced travelers and not worried about the jet lag, you could just get the car at the airport and hit the freeway headed north. That is the most expeditious way, but it also means you have to be alert after your flight, etc. If you take the train, that probably leaves from Rome center, so you'll have to get from the airport to the train station and the earliest available train to Montalcino may result in more delay (falling asleep in the train station...been there).

We usually spend a couple of nights in Rome or Paris or wherever, so we are well rested and over the worst jet lag when we go back to the airport to get the rental car. We have done what you mentioned though, taken a train and picked up a rental car in a smaller city, but the smaller cities can pose a few problems for car rental, like few cars available, lack of signage for the rental locations and inconvenient opening and closing hours or days.

My best advice is research your options so you know what to expect. For example, where exactly are you going to have to go to get what kind of car in Tuscany? When we were in Provence, we had to go to a more commercial town 45 minutes away from our village to pick up a car...

We spent a week in Cortona 3 years ago...enjoyed it very much. Have fun!

I'd say that we usually find the jet lag worse on the homebound side, although that may have more to do with sadness at the end of each trip. The only time we've had any difficulty was going directly from CDG to the rental car, but that was because neither of us had used paddle shifters before (we had a Citroen Plurial - great fun, although my husband was on the ground laughing at my attempts to get the car to pull out of it's parking spot).

Sher - we're also eager to get going right away, so it's good to hear that the drive isn't problematic.

Henry, I'm now thinking that having to go from the airport to the train station may end up taking longer than just driving away from the airport, as Voyageur points out.

Does any of this feedback change based on flying into CIA versus FCO?

I agree that since you are getting a car anyway, it would be quicker and much less hassle to just get it at the airport and drive the couple of hours to Montalcino. We have picked up cars at FCO twice and made what I think is a quite easy drive on A90 around Rome to A1 towards Tuscany (first trip to Panzano near Greve -second trip to Cortona). We stopped both times at an AutoGrill on A1 to take a short break and have an espresso.

Congrats on your 20th anniversary and enjoy your time in Italy!

FYI - The train station called Montepulciano is not in the town of Montepulciano. There are no services at Montepulciano stazione.

If you decide to train to Orvieto, Chiusi, Grosseto, make sure you will arrive at a time when the car rentals are open. In small towns, they close for several hours between noon and four, are often closed on Saturday after one and all day Sunday.

Many thanks to all who responded. Excellent advice, and much appreciated.