I'm looking for advice from all you seasoned travellers.
I'll be renting a car in Florence & driving around Tuscany for 4 days with Siena as a home base, then returning the car in Rome. The economy/mini is only $207 & that comes with a free upgrade to compact. They only have hatchbacks. The next size is well over $100 more. Our luggage will be in the hotel after the 1st day, but I'm concerned about parking the car with our luggage visible for the whole 1st day of touring in the Chianti area. Is it worth it to upgrade to a car with a trunk or is theft not a problem outside the bigger cities?
Thanks

most european hatchbacks come with an accordian divider separating the trunk from the rear deck view. in other words, when you raise the hatch the divider comes up as well. then when you close it, the divider conceals the contents of the trunk.

but don't take this as any great measure of security. thieves know the tag codes for rental vehicles and are always willing to give one a shot.

subcon is right about the divider. We've generally had a hatchback and it totally hides the luggage. My belief is that if a crook wants to break into the car, the trunk is as easy as a hatchback.

First rule, which I see broken time and again. Don't arrive somewhere, park the car, then stand at the back for five minutes adjusting all your luggage, putting a purse into the trunk, getting out hats or cameras and rearranging the stuff. It's like a grand show to the nearby crooks "look at us, see all this neat stuff we have in here".

Thanks for the imput. Do you think that the rural areas are as susceptible to theft as the cities?

Rented a hatchback having way too much luggagelast January. We ended up foldng down the back seat and then all was well hidden. We were worried as we were coming from a cruise so we all of our clothing plus souvenirs from 6 countries. From advice from this site we learned to park in areas that had attendants, didn't leave maps laying around and laid an Italian newspaper in the front seat. Had no trouble and we were driving for 11 days in different areas. Also got a free upgrade when we arrived to pick up the rental car. We arranged for all rental through AutoEurope in the US.

Last May we drove the Chianti area and never once did we feel any concern over leaving luggage in our hatchback. Not that it couldn't happen but the area sure appeared as safe as any place we have traveled.

re: "Do you think that the rural areas are as susceptible to theft as the cities?"...the answer from me would be "yes", having had our car broken into (nothing of value inside but the lock was damaged which we had to pay for) at a deserted trailhead in England's Lake District. With no one around, it was probably a chance opportunity for passersby.

I have noticed a lot of semi-deserted places like overlooks or trailheads as mentioned above where when I get out of my car I see a lot of broken glass everywhere. It tends to look like auto window glass which tells me that a lot of cars get broken into in those areas. After all, if no one is around to see you breaking into a car, isn't it a "safer" steal?

One thing I do whenever I rent a car in Italy is to rip off the rental tag code and stick it in the glove box. It's just one less thing to attract theives.