sewitall

I will be taking a bus from Florence to Siena this June and renting a car for 4-5 days. Which location is the easiest from the bus station if I use Autoeurope - there are two listed, but I can only get one to come up on Google maps? Is there a location that I can walk to? I intend to drop off the car at the Rome airport, and if I am reading correctly, the airport location is open until midnight.

RJD

I ran out of patience in researching the Siena locations, but either may involve some hassles. You may want to consider renting your car in Florence where the downtown rental locations are a easy walk from the main train station. Then you can drive to Siena and save the bus fare, as well as increase your flexibility to tour on you way to Siena. San Giminiano for instance, is kind of on the way.

willit

The car rental places are all outside of the city walls at the bottom of the hill, so some distance from Piazza Gramsci where the bus arrives.

Cindywho

We are doing the same thing in June. We have already reserved the car in Siena. The voucher we have is for a Hertz Siena downtown location and it states that it is 300 meters from the train station on Viale Sardegna. I am wondering if we should plan to take the train from Florence rather than the bus.

I have heard many say on this board that the bus is the best way to travel from Florence from Siena. I have also heard many say not to drive in Florence.

I think you should stick with your plan.

Henry

sewitall,
Siena has a Hertz, Avis, and Europcar. I use the Autoeurope Canadian site for a better deal (zero liability). I think all of them are too far to walk from the bus station and all but Hertz from the train station. The Hertz is about 300 meters uphill from the train station.

Since it will be less than 10 euro taxi ride to any of them from either drop point go with the best deal. Don't forget the second driver charge when figuring the best deal.

Henry

Dayle

sewitall,

We picked up our Hertz car in Siena. Took a taxi from the train station as we had no idea where the office was. It was short ride, but the hill was steep.

sewitall

Henry:
I didn't know you could use another autoeurope. There is usually a screen that asks for your country location, and I never thought about differences. I will check it out. Also, can you still get a AAA and a Slow trav discount like I read about on the Slow Trav boards?

Does anyone have an opinion about the different economy cars? I have seen choices for Lancia Ypsilon, Fiat Punto, or Chevy Matiz.

sewitall

Henry -
I won't have a second driver since my daughter doesn't know how to drive a stick. Her job will be to navigate. Any suggestions for a good map? I thought about a GPS but I don't think it would really be worth it.

willit

I bought a cheap Satnav in the UK, with European maps.

It is not perfect, but I have never regretted buying it - the biggest plus for me was being able to anticipate the next 500m or so when driving on twisty roads in rural Tuscany.

Henry

sewitall,
You can use the Slow Travel click through or call and give the Slow Travel number listed on the click through. I called Autoeurope to verify that I could use the Canadian site.

Some negatives: you are quoted in Canadian dollars (close to par with US) and credit cards will charge for currency conversion.

Each rental agency uses a different car manufacturer so you have different options in each catagory. I have never cared too much which one I get.

When I first started going to Italy I used the maps from the local tourist offices. Siena tourist office has a nice brochure type.

If you want ideas for places to go in the area, I have a file but it is too big to post, e-mail me.


Henry

sewitall

Henry-
I took your advice and contacted autoeurope hoping to use the Canadian site, but they suggested using Kemwel instead - a part of autoeurope - that had zero liability in US dollars so there would be no conversion charge. The price was phenomenal, and they were very helpful with the car size.
I am considering a GPS but don't know how much it would cost. Is it possible to purchase a GPS here that is loaded with maps of Italy?

Henry

sewitall,
Sorry, I don't know squat about GPS units. Suggest you put GPS in the search box. Here is one thread http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35126699

Henry

luvtotravel

We rented from Hertz in Siena a couple of years ago. We took a taxi from our hotel.

If you plan to rent the car over the weekend, know their open days and hours. We stood in line a long time (maybe 45 minutes) as we arrived around 11am on Saturday. They closed at noon on Saturday and closed altogether on Sunday.

The vehicles on the small lot were not in the best condition, so be sure to have one of the office workers go with you as you mark the paper with damage already existing on your vehicle. Better yet, have them mark the form and make sure you are in agreement--that's what we did.

Be sure you know what kind of gas is required. While in line we talked with a man who was picking up his replacement car as he added the wrong gas in his first car and it went kapooy. Tough, expensive lesson to learn.

Be sure to ask how to switch gears to reverse.

You'll get better mileage with a diesel car.

BTW, we rented our Hertz car from AAA and paid in advance in U.S. dollars. I think we paid something like $385 for a week's rental. The deductible was 100E, and we had to argue the point with the Hertz people as they kept saying it was 900E. The documentation we had with us solved the problem.

I know you said you'll be the only driver, but for the benefit of anyone else reading this thread, we had to pay the second driver fee upon returning the car, not at the rental agency.

While driving from Siena to Pienza (third day) the oil light came on. Turns out we had very little oil. Fortunately, we were able to get to a gas station where we purchased oil. We saved the receipt and were reimbursed when we returned the car in Rome.

Hope this helps.

luvtotravel

Here are two paragraphs from my trip journal regarding returning our car in Rome.

The drive to Rome’s Leonardo di Vinci Airport took less than two hours (from Orvieto) and was uneventful. We had directions from mappy.com, but really didn’t need them. From the autostrada we just followed signs with an airplane icon once we got close to Rome. I’d read that it’s difficult to locate where to return the car once inside the airport, but we saw numerous signs saying “Hertz” or “car return,” so it seemed easy to us. Hertz was located in “C” on the fifth level of the parking structure. Returning the car was quick and easy. After all the checking for dents and scratches in Siena, no one bothered to look at the car when we returned it. They deducted the cost of the motor oil from what we owed for the second driver without question.

We allowed a lot of unnecessary time for returning the car, so we were very early to the airport and had to wait for someone to work the Swiss Air desk before we could check in. Once checked in we had lunch in the cafeteria on the upper level. We then met with Italian bureaucracy. It took 20 minutes to get through security—a line looping left and right. I found it interesting that once outside the U.S., we did not need to remove our shoes. The next line—and it was short—was for passport control. Actually, there were two lines and they weren't moving. They briefly opened a third line. I lingered in a line of about 20 people for 40 minutes. Once at the desk, it took about 15 seconds to process me through. On top of that, we had to take a shuttle to our gate. Some people surely missed their flights.

sewitall

Henry:
My cost for a five days which is the same as a week is $269.00 US dollars for a Lancia Y with zero liability. You are right - the AAA office said that the deductible would be 900 euros - yipes!