italyinapril

hi- we are thinking about renting a car while we are in florence. we are going to be in florence for 2 nites, 3 days and we wanted to rent a car for just 1 day to explore some vinyards. is this doable (1 day) and is it advisable? what is a good itinerary for our stay in florence if we are only interested in 1-2 art museums, pisa, and vineyards?

sandycarlsbad

You should definitly not drive in Florence if you can avoid it. With the scooters everywhere and the traffic and narrow roads, it's a nightmare for drivers. We did rent a car on our last day there leaving the City and drove to Lucca, then on to Sienna and Tuscany area for a week. We rented through Bob Bestor, a US car broker, and everything turned out perfectly. If you only want a car for a day, you'd be better off to hire a driver for the day who knows where he is going. There are many websites for drivers and hotels can also provide names. It's usually about 150 E per day. Renato Cuomo is an excellent driver, but I'm not sure if he has contacts in Florence. He mostly works out of Rome and the Amalfi coast area. You could contact him for info about drivers in Florence. His website is www.cuomonet.it. Skip Pisa - it's a touristy crowded place.

madfijian

My wife and I just spent 3 nights in Florence and was faced with the same decision. We decided to hire a driver for one day and tour the surrounding areas. We came across his name on this site. He came highly recommended. Being born in Florence, he knew the area very well and took us on a tour that included visiting a 13 century castle, wine and olive-oil tasting, several quaint medieval towns and also Sienna and San Gimignano. We saw more things than we would have on our own. And the cost of renting a car for just one day seemed silly. You can email him at the address here...He responds quickly and speaks English well. We were very happy with him. He may be able to find someone to share the cost with you if you so desire. His name is Alessandro Cammilli and you can reach him at: "[email protected]". Good luck.

ira

Hi it,

You can rent a 5-dr subcompact for about 50E for the day.

See www.novarentacar.com

What vineyards do you wish to see?

I suggest taking the bus to Siena instad of the train to Pisa.

mulifat

Renting a car in Florence for a day is relatively easy, and we have done it several times. Hertz is well located in the center of time. It's a bit challenging getting out of the city, but that was part of the fun.

nitajan

Hi! We just got back from Italy. We got to Florence late Monday afternoon and left Thursday afternoon. We were really glad we rented a car for one day (last minute - from Avis, around $150). We drove to Fattoria dei Barbi, an old family owned winery/farmhouse near Montalcino. We also stopped by S'Antimo, a beautiful small abbey and the town of San Gimignano. Next time I would maybe rent a car for more than one day and spend more time exploring Tuscany. It would have been fun to see more of the wine country. The location of our rental place made it easy to get out of Florence and it had the latest closing hours.
Avis - Firenze Est - FI5
Via Borgo Ognissanti 128 R, Florence, 50123 , Italy
(351) 39 55 213629
Sun 08:00AM-01:00PM; Mon-Sat 08:00AM-07:00PM

Two tips:
- cross the city on the southside of the river...much easier
- refilling the tank was tricky...the station we stopped at was self-service and since we didn't have a bankcard we ended up losing 14E (no one was there) since we didn't have smaller notes

Our schedule, which suited us well:
- Arrive Monday, rest, dinner: Trattoria Mossace
- Tuesday: Accademia, Duomo, walking around, shopping, dinner: Pane e Vino
- Wednesday: car rental, dinner: Accadie (?)
Thursday am: Uffizi

For Pisa you certainly would need another day at least.

Also, just fyi, we stayed at Residenza il Villino, which is popular on tripadvisor.com and was full of American women!