Driving itinerary...Italy and France

Depends on where you'll be traveling in Italy and where you'll be visiting in France. It's a long way from Rome to Paris.
Remember that drop off charges can be really expensive going from country to country.
Sometimes it's best to catch a cheap European budget airline from region and re-renting another car in the other country.
You might want to start by studying the terrain and where you want to visit. I often use Google Maps to figure out how far and how long it takes to get from Point A to Point B.

Renting a car in Italy and returning it in France you will incur a large drop off fee. You would be better off doing 2 rentals and take a train (or plane) from Italy to France. This would also give you the opportunity to tour an Italian city (your last stop in Italy) and a city in France (your first stop in France) without a car. A car in European cities is an anchor. It costs a fortune to park, you a paying a daily fee for the car and many cities have restricted zones where you can not drive. Even if you could, you will not want to drive in most of them.

It is extremely expensive to rent a car in one country and drop it off in another.

I'm unclear on how you are spending your time since you mention 2 weeks in Rome and 2 weeks in France, but the duration of your trip is at least 41 days. Assuming you do not plan to use the car while you're in Rome, you still have about 4 weeks of potential car-rental time. You might look into leasing rather than renting. I have read that it can save quite a bit of money on insurance, and 21 days is often cited as the minimum time for a lease. I believe the leasing companies are in France. I don't know whether it would be possible to pay something extra and pick up a leased car in Italy.

I just want to reiterate what Bob said. Driving in Europe, if the majority of your time will be in cities or large towns, can be a Royal PITA. ESPECIALLY if this is your first time in Europe. If, as I suspect, you are coming from North America, you aren't accustomed to train travel, so your first instinct may be to rent a car. Frequently this can be a really bad idea. Other times, if you plan on a period of rural travelling, it may be worthwhile, but will still require you to do a LOT of research into the pitfalls and quirks of driving in Europe; particularly in Italy.

We could be a lot more helpful if you could tell us exactly what places you intend to spend time in, and how many people are with you. It's possible that you might be better off with mostly train travel.

Maggie, the best way to do this is to chain places together, each of which are only a few hours apart by train. Get a map, put X's where you would like to go, join up the X's and exclude any that are outliers.

Since you 1½ months for this trip (luxury) You could do something like:
Rome - Florence - Venice - Berner Oberland (Switzerland) - Strasbourg - Paris.
Or possibly further East: Rome - Florence - Venice - Vienna - Salzburg - Munich - Strasbourg - Paris.
Or a southern loop: Rome - Florence - Venice - Cinque Terre - French Riviera (e.g. Nice) - Lyon - Paris.
Rome and Paris the longest stays, rest 2 nights, may be more for the Berner Oberland.

You could add a car for a few days only. E.g. tour smaller towns in Bavaria, pick up car and return it in Munich. Or Lyon (pick up car) - Châteaux of the Loire - drop off car on edge of Paris.

I hope I have given you something to whet your appetite.

Re trains. If these are new to you read this webpage (and the rest of this excellent website: https://www.seat61.com/Europe-train-travel.htm

Think of it this way. A rental company can not rent a car in France that has Italian license plates and it is registered there. So they have to hire someone to drive it back to Italy. Then they have transport that driver back to France. So there will be more miles put on the car, fuel, tolls, and the loss of time that the car could have been rented. You are the one who will have to pay those costs and then some.

Some parts of Europe are great by car. Many are not. All the cautions stated above are spot-on. You really do not want a car in many places.

To come up with a rational plan, you really need to get a lot more specific about where you want to go. Also, how many are you - going solo, a couple, or a family of 8?

If you plan on visiting rural areas and small towns, then a car will give you more flexibility than trains, but if you just want to see cities, then use trains. You can always mix and match.

Booking a budget airline months in advance will probably be cheaper than a one way drop fee for car hire.

If money is no object then your plan is fine but most people with unlimited budgets don't frequent this forum. I never recommend Rome as a starting place since it is more intense and easier after you've been in Italy a bit and two weeks would wear me out. I've rented at Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport and I've also dropped off in Orvieto and taken a train into Rome. Having a car between Orvieto and Florence (or better yet Sienna) let's you see Tuscany and Chianti easily. The rest of Italy I've been happy with trains or buses.
Getting between France and Italy is not easy and the reason they speak different languages. Driving between them will have lots of tolls and fuel will be expensive so unless you want to stop a lot along the way it doesn't make much sense. None of the routes are fast although you could make a great trip out of any of them.
In France you could have a three week trip driving around but it would be a burden in Paris so I'd figure some more train rides in and out of Paris. Look at the TGV routes, and consider picking up and dropping off where you can take a fast train to or from Paris.
Look for an airline with direct flights to and from the cities you want to start and end or adjust your trip to accomodate what is available. That way you can maximize your logistics for minimal transfers and connections.

How does a $800-$1000 one way drop fee, on top of the rental rate itself, sound to you?

If that does not stop you, then do the research on all the locales with restricted driving zones, photo tickets and parking problems and expense. Fuel will be the equivalent of $6+ per gallon. And then there are the toll roads.

Looking for any and all suggestions.

Look at using trains for in country movement and planes for inter-country trips

To be more helpful to you, we need much more specific information about your plans than "Rome + France".

We’ve done Italy/France trips both by renting cars separately in each country and taking a train between; and by flying into Nice, renting a car there, and going to Italy. We then looped back to France for the remainder of our trip. Both worked well. Neither included the big cities of Rome and Paris. We spent our time in places that are difficult to get to by public transport.
On leasing: it only becomes economical if you keep the car for more than 3 weeks; and there is a hefty fee ($400 or so the time I looked into it) for pick up or drop off outside of France. You do NOT want to drive in Rome.
One further heads-up: Easter comes quite late in 2019. You may want to keep that in mind when planning your time for Rome.

maggie,

Note that for driving in Italy, each driver listed on the rental form will require the compulsory International Driver's Permit, which is used in conjunction with your home D.L. These are easily obtained at any AAA / CAA office for a small fee and are valid for one year. That's also required in France unless you have a notarized copy of the terms of your D.L. in French.

You'll also have to be vigilant to avoid the ZTL (limited traffic) areas that exist in many Italian towns. EACH pass through one will result in hefty fines, which you likely won't know about until several months after you return home.

Given that this is your first trip to Europe and the distance you'll be covering, travel by car would not be my first choice. As the others have mentioned, there are often steep charges for renting a car in one country and dropping off in another.

As this is your first trip to Europe, you may want to read Europe Through The Back Door prior to your trip.

Welcome, Maggie.

You've come to the right place.

We can help. It is easiest if you can share a little bit of your hoped planned itinerary.

Are your plane tickets bought? How about the hotels? Or are you flexible at this time?

Where's home?

Another expense to consider are tolls. We rented a car in Northern Italy for two weeks and drove to Normandy, Loire, and back. Since we we were traveling,with our dog, we opted for car vs. train.
Our Italy toll was 33€ from Lago Maggiore to French border. Then 44€ toll for a tunnel between Italy and France. And another €70 for more France tolls. (These were 1 way). Plus cost of gas!

Both France and Italy have speed cameras and 100% of arguments between my hysband and I had to do with what the speed limit was (or what we thought it was) vs. his speed. I guess we’ll find out in the next year if speed cameras “got him”. Another reason to only rent a car where train travel is not efficient.

I have read on this forum of an American driving a rental car in Italy getting an expensive ticket for driving less than 2 MPH over the speed limit.

We rented a car in England and I tried to stay close to the speed limit, but in one small town where the limit was 30 MPH, a camera took my photo for going 35 MPH. Cost was 40 GBP.

Also, I have driven my personal car in Italy on the Autostradas when we lived in Germany several years ago. The tolls were very high. We took another trip down to Rome by train with four persons and spent less on transport, since gas is very high in Italy and the tolls are huge.

Still, renting a car for driving through Tuscany is cool. Doesn't mean you need to drive it all the way to Paris.

If you plan on visiting rural areas and small towns, then a car will give you more flexibility than trains, but if you just want to see cities, then use trains. You can always mix and match.

That's been my rule.

If you're visiting and traveling through rural, mountain areas, than a car is beneficial but, if you're looking to visit cities and popular areas, than a car will very likely be a burden. In many parts of cities, cars are banned and you'll get a big fine, which will be passed to you via the car rental agency; not cheap look up such topic on this forum. Italy has it's ZTL zones that have a phalanx of cameras to record your movement in the restricted areas. Some of the freeways/motorways are toll roads, which can also be problematic if you're having issues reading/translating at a quicker pace or, don't have exact change.

Then there's the issue of parking. Are you good at negotiating tight parking spaces? Is your spacial awareness pretty sharp? Enjoy driving around a maze looking for a parking space or, the parking lot?

I usually rent/lease a car when we travel in Europe....many on this forum don't feel it's a good option, but it is what I prefer, so I'll give you my insights.

We did five weeks in Germany, Italy and France - starting and ending in Germany. Picked the car up in Frankfurt (in town to avoid airport surcharges - you can take the train into Frankfurt from the airport), then dropped off at Munich airport (no airport fees for dropping off at an airport)....why Germany? The full, no deductible insurance is cheapest in Germany and the car I wanted was a rental. We did that vacation as a loop and had plenty of time to see and do everything we wanted.

If you start and end within France, you can also look at leasing if you're there at least 17-21 days (depending on the manufacturer) - I've also leased - the insurance is included, it's also no deductible, and there are no airport fees, but picking up and dropping off in Paris is expensive - your best bets for a lease within France at Zurich (the French side only) and Lyon. You can start and end in other countries too (with leasing), but picking up in one country and dropping in another is a very pricey proposition - but it is doable and sometimes there are one-way deals on Auto-Europe's website, you just have to catch the deals as they come. Peugeot also has deals, so sign up for their emails so you can get the code if they offer a one-way deal.

As others have noted - most countries use cameras for speed control - they do take your picture and you will get a ticket to pay if you speed....depending on the jurisdiction, you'll have a speed allowance of 2-5 miles over the posted limit. Many of the cars have speed limits integrated - the car I had told me the speed limit in almost every place accurately - it was inaccurate in construction zones though!

Also, know where you'll need a vignette - a toll sticker on your windshield and where tolls are on the highways - you can often get off and avoid the toll in many places, in some you can't.