Where is best place to pick up rental car in Venice/drop in Milan?
 

In May we will be renting a car to drive from Venice to Milan in a week. We will be staying downtown in Venice and leaving in the morning to drive to Bolzano. Where would be the best place to pick up the car. Here are the options I am given by AutoEurope:
- Venice Marco Polo Airport
- Venice Downtown Office
496-h Piazzale Roma
- Venice Downtown
Piazzale Roma, 496-e
- Venice Downtown Office
Piazzale Roma, 522-

When we return the rental car to Milan we'll be driving down from Como. We will drop off the car, spend the day in the city and take a night train out that same night. Once again which would be the best location to return the car? Here are the options I am given by AutoEurope:
- Milan Linate Airport
- Milan Malpensa Airport
- Milan Central Railstation
Piazza Duca D'aosta
- Milan City Office - Galvani
12 Via Luigi Galvani
- Milan City Office - Diaz
6 Piazza Armando Diaz
- Milan City Office - Assago
Palazzo Congressi Milano Fiori
- Milan City Office - Espinasse
137 Viale Espinasse
- Milan City Office-gluck
46 Via Cristoforo Gluck
- Milan Downtown Lorentegg
Piazzale Siena 2,
- Milan Downtown
Via Di Novegro, 49
- Milan Downtown
Via Alcuino, 16
- Milan Downtown
Via Lorenteggio 35
- Milan Downtown Office
Via Vittor Pisani, 7

It would seem the obvious choice for returning the car would be the Milan Central Railstation at Piazza Duca D'aosta since that is probably where we would be getting on the night train.

Thanks for any advice you can give.

Wekiva

The obvious place to pick up a rental car in Venice is Piazzale Roma, as most of your addresses indicate. Why go all the way to the airport and pay the airport surcharge?

I'm afraid I have no idea about Milano drop-off points.

Have you checked to see if you can drop off the car in Como? I mean the town of Como on the lake.

Where are you going after Milan? Out of Italy? If not, would it make more sense to drive your car to the next Italian destination?

Dropping it off at the Milan train station is indeed most convenient to taking the train, but you just have to be prepared for a lot of aggressive drivers and the confusion of city.

If you don't want the hassle, drop off your car at Malpensa and take either the Xpress train back to Milan or the airport bus back to Milan. If you do that option, I would suggest you take the train, since it lets you off in a much nicer part of Milan. The cost of a train ticket is about 14 euros (the bus is slightly less, I think) and both take betweeen 45 mins to an hour.

I've never driven in Milan, but having spend a lot of time there and taken many taxis there, I might opt for the slowpoke easy way and the extra cost of dropping it off at Malpensa. Even though it sounds less convenient, I might decide that driving into Milan isn't really all that convenient in the context of what is supposed to be a relaxed vacation.

BUT, here's a bonus:

Whichever one you pick now, you can probably change your mind in Italy! If you discover you hate driving in Italy or that it's much easier than you expected, if you think you picked the wrong drop-off point, just call the rental company and ask if you can return the car to a different place.

buon viaggio




For Milan, my inclination would be Malpensa airport, and then hopping the Malpensa Xpress train back to Milan (40 mins/14 euro). I would then stay in the area of the Malpensa Xpress train, which is a very nice area with lots of good restaurants and convenient to the sites.

I would drop the car at Centrale and store my luggage there as well; do the city and then return, collect the luggage, board the train, and leave.

Good thinking about the luggage! But it still would be possible to drop off the car at Malpensa if you didn't want to battle Milanese traffico.