We are heading out of Rome and traveling to Siena for 3 nights before going to Florence. Many people have suggested taking the train from Rome to Orvieto and renting a car there. I've noticed that many rental agencies do not have a location in Orvieto. I found that Avis does (who we can rent through them or AutoEurope). I'm trying to find a better deal, so I didn't know if I should look at renting from a different city to find a cheaper rental.
FYI - right now we are paying $328 (USD) for a 4 day rental.
Thanks in advance for your help!

Chiusi has a good selection of rental agencies near the train station. This is where you would most likely change trains for Siena from Rome anyway, so see what you can find there. Happy planning!

I don't understand why you wouldn't just rent the car in Rome and drive out....its not difficult.

Hi eric,

> We are heading out of Rome and traveling to Siena for 3 nights before going to Florence.<

What is the purpose of the car?

We rented a car in Chiusi (train from Rome) finding it to be a better deal for 2 weeks. I think it's from Auto Europe (sorry, my travel companion made the reservation). I'm assuming you're renting a car to day trip out of Siena. Early on Nova had a great rate out of Rome but we didn't catch it in time. You might check Nova (don't have their website but I'm sure you could Google it). Also, if you want to drop the car in Florence that could make a price difference - might have to go back to Chiusi.

Erica - One possibility would be to rent in Siena, where you can find: Hertz, Maggiore, Europcar, Avis, Sixt ...

Hope this helps ...

Steve

P.S. $328 sounds very high.
We paid € 240 for a week last year with Maggiore for a Corsa.

We are also heading out of Rome, but taking train to Chiusi to pick up rental because it was so confusing to me with so many choices for pick-up rentals in Rome, and not knowing areas, I opted for easier way. Now after reading post from traveler 863 saying how easy it is to rent from Rome, could you give me some advice as to location in Rome-also after hearing horror stories about driving in Rome, thought it might be difficult to even get out of the city! thanks

Have rented a car many times in Rome. Easiest place for me has been the Termini station. All of major players are there and I agree that driving out of the city is not difficult.

Casale
http://www.angelfire.com/film/casale

I just reserved a car in Rome from AutoEurope and not knowing the first thing about Rome, I just picked a location out of the blue...inside the Sheraton. Our last time picking up a rental at the train station in Paris turned into a disaster so I wanted to avoid that.

We're staying at the Eden in Rome, so does anyone have any thoughts as to what pick up point I should opt for? I can easily change it if the Sheraton is inconvenient. I just thought at least they would speak English there.

One more thing, we're driving to Florence if that makes a difference.

Based on a recent car rental experience in Rome:
- We paid $290 for a compact with Europcar for a rental in the first week of March.
- Near Piazza Poppolo, there is a horse track and underneath is where all the major car rental companies are. Once you exit from the lot, there is a fast lane that can take you to the autostrada without too much hassle.
- If you are really uncomfortable driving in traffic comprising of vehicles that range from 2 to 50 feet inside the city, consider picking up your car keys the night before and leaving early in the morning. For 5, 6 or 7 days rental the rental fee is the same.

Thanks for all the replies.

We are renting the car to make day trips out of Siena since we'll be there for 3 nights.

The thought of renting a car in Rome and driving out of Rome seems a little daunting to my husband and I who are making our first trip to Italy.

I just checked out Auto Europe for pickign up in Chiusi and returning to Florence - $271. It is the same rate as picking up in Rome.

How much is the train going to cost us from Rome to Chiusi? If it's minimal, I would think we might be better off picking up the car in Chiusi and avoiding the hassles of driving out of Rome.

Any opinions?

Thanks,
Erica

Erica - Rome-Chiusi will cost you

€ 12.50 by IC train
€ 7.90 by Reg train

Hope this helps ...

Steve

P.S. If you hire and return a car in Siena this may cost you considerably less, as you will avoid drop-off fees.

Steve,

Do you think the drop off rates be less than the cost of two adult train tickets from Siena to Florence?

Thanks!

As far as I know, there is never any drop-off fees - one of the pleasures of renting in Europe - where you can drop off in a different city than the one that you picked the car up from.

Based on the fare that Steve found out, you will spend $24-39 on 2 train tickets. It seems that your daily rental rate is $68 (without fuel and toll - yeah that bites sometimes). From viaMicheling.com, you can gauge the fuel and toll costs.

Erica - I have info on Avis, which adds:

- € 38.00 + IVA on one-way rentals
- 14% for rentals beginning at airports
- 6% for rentals beginning at railway stations)

I'm not sure about other companies but I believe this is fairly standard practice. Maybe others can correct me if I'm wrong ...

Hope this helps ...

Steve

Your question reminded me of my first trip to Italy, when I had arranged to pick up a rental car in Orvieto, at Hertz. We arrived by train about 2 pm. When I got off the train, I realized that not only did I forget to write down the location of the Hertz agency, I didn't even know the italian word for "car renta1" ("autonoleggio&quot. I went into the train station cafe and went from person to person saying "Hertz! Hertz!" That did not work. So I bought a phone card and tried to call Hertz...and managed to use up all the time on the phone card without ever reaching the Hertz agency. Eventually a taxi arrived with a driver who knew where we wanted to go....it wasn't far by car but not walking distance at all.
We didn't have any trouble after that -- in fact, later that week we drove into Florence during rush hour without much problem (the nice thing about rush hour is that everyone is moving slowly so you do have some time to read the map). We dropped the car off the next morning at the airport...and that was pretty easy, too.

Grammy,
Find the car rental place nearest to where you are staying and/or best price, pick up the car and depart the city. Do get a good Rome city map before you go and review the route you need to take beforehand. Trust me, its not difficult but you do need to do some preplanning vs. just getting in the car and pointing north and hoping for the best.

Happy travels.