Rental car for Tuscany
 

Please can we have some advice of where to get a rental car from. We wish to hire a car for 6 days in Tuscany. We will be staying in the Val d'orcia area in Tuscany. We will becoming from Positano. I thought we would be travelling to Rome from Positano by train. I prefer not to drive out of a large city. Advice would be appreciated.

"I thought we would be travelling to Rome from Positano by train."

This isn't possible. There is no train service to Positano. You'd have to get to the Naples Centrale train station. You can bus to Sorrento and take the commuter train to Naples -or- hire a taxi or private driver.

Then, you can train from Naples to Chiusi, and there is a Hertz office near the train station. But FYI, this office is closed from 12:30-3:30p and after 6:00p. On Saturday it closes at 1:00p and doesn't reopen until Monday. You'd have to leave Positano very early to arrive before the mid-day closing.

http://www.positano.com/en/bus-sched...itano_sorrento

http://www.sorrentoinsider.com/en/na...orrento_napoli

http://www.trenitalia.com/tcom-en
[Use Italian spellings, i.e., Napoli.]

We rent cars in Europe every year and always book through AutoEurope, located in Portland,Maine. Go to their website and play around with names of towns on their booking engine to see where cars are available. If you don't want to drive out of Rome, pick up the car at the airport. It is easy to drive from FCO to Tuscany on the Autostrada. Or take a train north to a variety of towns.
Last year we drove from Umbria( farther than Tuscany) to Naples airport and dropped off our car. It was very easy and the Autostradas were excellent. It was a relatively easy drive. So rent the car at Naples airport, Rome airport or any number of spam lee towns along the train line heading north from Rome.

thanks for the comments. I know the train is really from Sorrrento to Naples.

Should I then rent from Naples or Rome airport or train to Chiusi?

This will be a Saturday pick up.

Cost is slightly cheaper from Chiusi.

I will be returning to Rome for 1 night before flying out of Rome.

We rented from Sorrento and drove to Tuscany. It was an easy, if not long, drive on highway the whole way. We had a car service pick us up in positano and drive us to the car rental place.

Uh, I don't know why it didn't occur to me to include Sorrento in your options. Obviously, it would be the simplest in terms of logistics. But it would make for a longer drive.

thanks for that, how simple is it to drive from Sorrento to Tuscany, time for this?
and after Tuscany where would I drop it off if I am going to Rome?

Don't just use the AutoEurope website - CALL them and talk to a human being. Ask them all your questions. You can get distances and times and much more information on www.viamichelin.com. Or look at a map for distances.

The drive is really easy - but depending where you are going, takes a while. I would expect it to take about 6ish hours.

A lot of people drop their cars off in Chuisi or Orvieto and then take the train to Rome. Make sure the car rental offices are open when you want to do your drop-off.

thanks for all that information. www.viamichelin.com is an amazing app.

how easy is it to drive to a rental company in Rome? Am I better off to get the train?

Rome driving is "interesting" my kiwi sister has done it with me screaming in the back, at some point in a holiday you will have to start getting used to them so, unless you are jet lagged, I'd start sooner than later.

"how easy is it to drive to a rental company in Rome? Am I better off to get the train?"

If this would be your first experience driving in Italy, I'd recommend not dropping the car IN Rome. You could return the car in Chiusi or at the airport and train into Rome from either.

Make sure you understand the limited traffic zones (zona traffico limitato) established in most Italian towns. If you drive into the zone without authorization (to reach your hotel, for instance), you will very likely receive a traffic ticket in the mail after you get home. You also need an International Driver's Permit.

https://www.italybeyondtheobvious.co...with-ztl-zones

thank you, yes this is our first time, so perhaps to Chiusi is the answer.
Out of interest, is the Rome airport easy or should I stick with a drop off at Chiusi.

Rome airport doesn't bother me much, but I speak and read Italian, so am never really confused, but even I prefer to drop the car in Chiusi. Up to you.

If you drive directly to the airport it's easy on the highway. No need to go into Rome. We found the rental places difficult to find however. I think they had just been moved when we were there and signage was non existent.

thanks for feed back

A question I have, is it better to use www.autoeurope.com or go to hertz or euroopcar, prices all similar.

I am not use to continental cars, what size is recommended for 2 to drive from Sorrento to Tuscany and around Tuscany hill villages?

I will lost the last question in a new post since it is off the topic.

We rented a car in Rome from a location near the villa borghese and it was not difficult to drive from there to Tuscany. There is a surcharge when you rent from the airport, and personally picking up a rental car from Fiumicino was one of our worst experiences that I would never like to repeat.

"A question I have, is it better to use www.autoeurope.com or go to hertz or euroopcar, prices all similar."

use autoeurope, the prices are the same and they will step in to deal with problems, do do the usual things, photo the car all over at pick up including gauges, then do the same on return before hand back, noting tank is full with shot of gauges. Get your insurance sorted out before you walk up to the desk at the start, as they are great in upselling, you can discuss this with autoeurope first.

It depends on the size of the couple, I used a fiat 500 with Mrs B, if you have a lot of gear then you may need more.